''Shadow of the Comet'' (later repackaged as ''Call of Cthulhu: Shadow of the Comet'') is an

adventure game An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story, driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based m ...

developed and released by Infogrames in 1993. The game is based on

H. P. Lovecraft Howard Phillips Lovecraft (, ; August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) was an American writer of Weird fiction, weird, Science fiction, science, fantasy, and horror fiction. He is best known for his creation of the Cthulhu Mythos. Born in Provi ...

Cthulhu Mythos The Cthulhu Mythos is a mythopoeia and a shared fictional universe, originating in the works of American Horror fiction, horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. The term was coined by August Derleth, a contemporary correspondent and protégé of Lovecraft, t ...

and uses many elements from Lovecraft's '' The Dunwich Horror'' and ''

The Shadow Over Innsmouth ''The Shadow over Innsmouth'' is a Horror fiction, horror novella by American author H. P. Lovecraft, written in November – December 1931 in literature, 1931. It forms part of the Cthulhu Mythos, using its motif of a malign undersea civilizatio ...

''. A follow-up game, '' Prisoner of Ice'', was released in 1995 and does not directly follow the events of this game. ''Shadow of the Comet: The Official Strategy Guide'' ( Prima Publishing, 1994; re-released by the author, 2019) was written by Steve Schwartz. In addition to a game walkthrough, all game dialog, and a disk of saved games, the book includes the Lovecraft story ''

The Call of Cthulhu "The Call of Cthulhu" is a cosmic horror short story by American writer H. P. Lovecraft. Written in the summer of 1926, it was first published in the pulp magazine ''Weird Tales'' in February 1928. The story is a founding document of the Cthul ...

''.

Gameplay

The player can control the protagonist Parker via the arrow keys. When Parker comes across something he can interact with, a button press will allow the player to do so. Items that Parker can take will project a white line from Parker's eye to the item, indicating that when the player interacts with the item, it will be added to Parker's inventory. Apart from this the game plays like a standard third-person adventure game.

Plot

The game takes place in 1910 and concerns the visit of a young British photographer, John Parker, to the isolated

New England New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...

town of Illsmouth (an alteration on Lovecraft's Innsmouth) to witness and photograph the passage of

Halley's Comet Halley's Comet is the only known List of periodic comets, short-period comet that is consistently visible to the naked eye from Earth, appearing every 72–80 years, though with the majority of recorded apparitions (25 of 30) occurring after ...

. In 1834, on the last passing, Lord Boleskine visited the town after learning that certain conditions near the town would allow astronomical objects to be seen clearer and closer than on any other spot on earth. He decided to test this theory by observing the comet from Illsmouth, but something unexpected happened and he went insane, spending the rest of his life in a lunatic asylum. Parker, learning of the 1834 incident and reading over Boleskine's papers, wishes to succeed where his predecessor failed. When he arrives, Parker stumbles upon a sinister conspiracy and must survive the three days between his arrival and the comet's passage while finding out what happened in 1834.

Reception

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American Video game journalism, computer game magazine that was published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 199 ...

'' praised ''Shadow of the Comet''s plot, puzzles, writing, and "rather naughty, dark Gallic sense of humor" but criticized the lack of mouse support, calling object manipulation and puzzle solving without one "painful". The magazine concluded that the game "is a high quality graphic adventure that offers nothing particularly new as far as technological advances and is, in some ways, a touch old-fashioned. This may, however, not be a bad thing" given the plot's quality. James V. Trunzo reviewed ''Call of Cthulhu: Shadow of the Comet'' in '' White Wolf'' #48 (Oct., 1994), rating it a 5 out of 5 and stated that "''Shadow of the Comet'' captures the essence of Lovecraft's horror stories. It builds suspense and tension without resorting to gore or shock. Rich dialogue, 'real' situations and a tantalizing puzzle should keep you glued to the monitor." In 2011,

Adventure Gamers ''Adventure Gamers'' is a computer game website created by Marek Bronstring in March 1999 dedicated to the genre of adventure games. It publishes reviews and previews of adventure games, as well as opinion articles and interviews with game de ...

named ''Shadow of the Comet'' the 74th-best adventure game ever released.

References

External links

* {{The Shadow Over Innsmouth 1993 video games Adventure games Cthulhu Mythos video games DOS games Fiction about Halley's Comet Fiction set in 1834 Fiction set in 1910 Games commercially released with DOSBox Horror video games Infogrames games Linux games NEC PC-9801 games Point-and-click adventure games Single-player video games Video games based on The Shadow over Innsmouth Video games developed in France Video games set in New England Video games set in the 1830s Video games set in the 1910s Video games set in the United States Windows games