It was with fearful fingers that I gently unwrapped the eldritch green box, its fearful contents only hinted at from the brooding image of an unearthly denizen on its front. Trembling slightly, knowing there was great horror to come, I eased myself into my armchair and prepared to enter the mind of a man whose dark attachments to this Earth could turn even those of the most steely disposition to madness. After all, we live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should travel far.

Although I have never read any works by H P Lovecraft, as a spotty, bespectacled teenager I encountered his Cthulhu Mythos through the superb role-playing game Call of Cthulhu. Strewn with quotes from Lovecraft's gothic works, the tales we explored through this medium were dark and brooding insanity-laden trips through parts of the world where things older than time reside. These creatures, denizens of the blackness of space, were infinitely superior to mankind in every way, and had in fact created mankind purely by accident and turned us into their playthings. So as soon the opening credits to the game rolled, I was flung back into the 1920s as a private investigator, and once again the clammy fingers of fear contorted my spine and made the hackles rise.

This particular tale tells of an investigator sent to Innsmouth, to investigate the disappearance of an up and coming store manager. Right from the outset it is clear that he is not welcome; the citizens refuse to talk to him, brutal looking policemen block his way into areas he needs to investigate and even the local hostel keeper and bus driver are in deep cahoots about something sinister. It isn't long before these foreboding proceedings start a series of flashbacks to a similar time six years ago, previously submerged in the investigator's subconscious, and powers of insight and intuition make him realise that he's a lot more involved in the murky goings-on than he had originally thought.

So how have the game developers deigned to immerse us in this sublimely creepy gothic horror? To start with, it is done in a first person perspective, and I initially thought I'd be bringing out the 1920s style armaments and gunning down bizarre creatures from dark depths. However, this definitely wasn't to be the case; guns aren't introduced until quite far into the game. Also, you are up against humans with a secret for the first third of the game, and while there are grisly encounters of the murderous kind, the eldritch creatures are only hinted at until you're well past some superb set pieces. Instead of the game being a run and gun, it's a cleverly crafted adventure game in which you explore Innsmouth, speaking to as many people as you can, gathering information through newspaper clippings, journals found, and even bribing the town drunk with rum.

What is immediately different about this game is that there is no on-screen interface. There's no health bar, no ammo counter, no inventory option - nothing; only what you can see right in front of you. Objects can be manipulated by getting close to them and pressing the A button; books can be picked up, bolts moved in doors, keys stolen and so on, but there is nothing onscreen to indicate where you should be looking; no crosshairs, no flashing directional indicators, no compass. However, that doesn't mean you're not affected by your surroundings; you are, and the indicators are far more dramatic and involving than your bog-standard health counter in the corner of your screen from other titles. Instead, if you are hit by an axe, or are shot, you get a blood splatter across the screen. Take too much damage and your movements will slow, your sight will grey out through lack of blood and unless you apply bandages, splints and even a shot of morphine, you will die. Also, you suffer various visual effects through such things as vertigo and sanity loss, after seeing something grisly or supernatural. It is incredibly disconcerting when this happens and the perspective warping visual effects made me feel a little queasy.

Thankfully, the game eases you into the basics and at first you accomplish more by sneaking around and looking at every object you come across. For example, the aforementioned rum can be picked up from the locked store where the manager went missing, but to do so you have to sneak past a rather ugly policeman. If found you are ejected onto the streets sans rum and have to try again. It took me ages to realise that I had to block a door with a bookshelf to buy time before the copper got into the store and then find a trapdoor into the cellar to hide. Once certain tasks have been achieved, the game will present the next course of action, usually through the voiceover. For example, there was nothing further to accomplish, so the investigator announced he was tired and should crash at the local hostel.

This led to a grisly discovery in the landlord's back rooms and then a horrendous dash through the rooms of the hotel chased by mad axemen! This section of the game, while cleverly crafted and absolutely terrifying, was incredibly hard and made for quite a few frustrating moments, which is one of the flaws of the game; the suspense and horror is broken up too much by periods where you're just getting cut down, gunned down or completely stuck as to what to do next. This frustration made me lose interest at one point, until I chanced upon an online forum discussing various stages of the game and how best to approach them. I defy anyone to complete Call of Cthulhu without doing the same!

You're not going to realise the true horror of the game until at least a third of the way in, when suddenly you have many elements coming together; bloody stealth and stabbing sequences; eerie ghostly children testing your sanity; sightings of monsters locked in cellars, pulling bodies through broken sewer grills by gruesome tentacles, and a remarkable set piece aboard a ship when one of the larger and much nastier Elder Gods rises from the depths. Graphically you're dragged deeper and deeper into insanity as you progress throughout the game. From the outset the sight of mutilated bodies in cramped and dirty houses, suicide victims in empty stores and piles of bodies being dropped down the sewer for goodness knows what to eat are enough to well and truly set the scene, but when this is coupled with the incredibly creepy looking possessed folk of Innsmouth and an air of darkness and decay pervading all, you're going to be well and truly creeped out. This is all before you're hit by the sheer scale of these Elder Gods, and it's a great visual build up to these points.

While many of the effects of insanity and bad health are presented visually, many of the cues are taken from the sound as well; the vertigo effect you see when looking down from a great height is coupled with a dull thudding echoey sound; the sign you're close to death, besides the ragged breathing and blood splatters on the screen, is depicted by ragged breathing and desperate mutters; the twisting, blurring effects of oncoming mental derangement are tied together nicely with your character muttering about being watched, chased, or otherwise stalked by goodness knows what. This last is particularly effective, and some sounds even had me looking over my own shoulder to make sure it was purely an in-game audio effect. The music is mostly incidental, playing nicely on twisted violins strings and tortured pianos, but during some of the darker or more exciting set-pieces it picks up the pace nicely and adds to the tension and terror. Yikes, I'm actually getting a shiver remembering all this!

Unfortunately, the game has one major drawback - replayability. It has four difficulty settings but the latter ones can only be unlocked by completing the two former ones. However, unless you're particularly bloody-minded and really want a deadly challenge, once you've played through the very linear storyline once it's unlikely you're going to want to do it again. Even though the story is very well told, the frustration involved means that there would probably be too much more hair pulling in later difficulty settings to really enjoy another romp through it. There's no online or multiplayer aspect to it either, which loses it a few points; co-operative play in some levels would have been simply be amazing.

I have to congratulate Headfirst Productions for not only taking on Silent Hill, Resident Evil and Eternal Darkness for the top dog survival horror title, but also presenting the atmosphere engendered by the works of Lovecraft in a remarkably faithful fashion. It's definitely something different and while it's not going to be the average gamer's best Christmas title, puzzle fanatics, horror fans and thrill seekers are really going to love this one. However, before you delve into the dark mind-bending world of the creators of this game I must leave you with words of warning from the master himself: "Men of broader intellect know that there is no sharp distinction betwixt the real and the unreal..." You have been warned.

Reviewed by Dave Wynn for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).