So I've been playing the game Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth (XB) via backwards compatibility. Why haven't more people talked about this game? I'm really liking the atmosphere (you all know how much I love my story games) and especially the intensity. This video (after the jump) is pretty indicative of what most of the first part of the game has been like at about 4 hours in:

(minor spoilers, not really at all since this is pretty much near the beginning)

And there's a bunch of stealth, but unlike an MGS or Splinter Cell where if you're seen, you're screwed, this game often lets you get through an area anyways if you just run and dodge like crazy and hopefully stay lucky.

Oh yeah, and the blurriness/weirdness with the sound is the character's sanity taking a hit. They have this mechanic where if he's incredibly stressed out, viewing something disturbing such as a fucked up scene (there are many), or looking down from a great height, his heart rate increases, vision blurs, and sound gets distorted. You can keep working through it and it goes away on its own after a small bit, but if you keep looking down or view a bunch of fucked up things in a row, supposedly he freaks out and your controls will get messed up and he'll eventually take his own life.

There's no HUD. All this stuff is done with A/V cues. Health packs work like they do in real life (kinda) where you find different supplies in them (splints, sutures, bandages) for healing different body parts (putting legs in splints, etc). If your arms get hurt, you can't aim and if your legs are damaged, you can't run. Again, they're going for realism here.

Story-wise, it's been good so far. You're a detective in the 1920s investigating the disappearance of the owner of a recently opened grocery store in the nearby, creepy, rundown town of Innsmouth. Nearly everyone in the town that you come across is either afraid to talk to you or quite hostile, and things get pretty insane early on (see the video above). Cthulhu has only been mentioned a few times, and I'm not at all acquainted with the mythos enough to comment on the accuracy of its depiction here.

So far I'm digging it. I'll let you guys know if that changes.