When the average person hears or reads the word "horror", they usually experience one of two reactions. The first might be that it conjures up memories of sleepless nights as a child after watching your first horror film (and helps remind you of all the associated psychological abnormalities now suffered in adulthood as a direct result of watching those types of films, such as bed wetting and/or thumb sucking). The second may be that you're the type that even after many repeated attempts at being scared by your siblings or the few brave friends you may still have hanging around, nothing scares you. If you're of the latter disposition, hopefully you'd have realized that the mob waving pitchforks and shouting obscenities behind you are there for your benefit. Yes, start running, you freak.

Regardless of how normal or weird you may think you are, it's the kind of word that people always have an opinion on. It's also a subject that fortunately leaves little room for those lecherous fence sitters. I'm talking about bladder bursting, skin peeling, and throat tearing kind of stuff.

Fear my breath of doom!

So obviously when Call of Cthulhu landed on my desk, my natural reaction was to shrug the shoulders and assume those pitch-fork carrying types would still be crowding my front door for years to come.

Those who have closely followed the progress of this title would have assumed by now, after so many years in development, that it would not see the light of day. After such a delay, you'd naturally assume release day would have been broadcast to the ends of the earth. Sadly not though, most punters would only have realised the game was out when they saw it on the shelves. So, having such a protracted birth, will Call of Cthulhu be the sleeper hit of the year or one of those mediocre titles you'd buy for a mate's birthday, not really caring if they enjoyed it or not. Let's find out.

Call of Cthulhu is based on HP Lovecraft's collection of writings, an extremely bizarre twentieth-century writer who is often credited with changing the face of the modern horror genre. His collection of chaotic, mind-numbing fiction originally formed what's now known as the "Cthulhu Mythos" - an ever-changing universe filled to the brim with ancient races and civilizations, blood-curdling locales and terrifying creatures from the extreme end of the horror spectrum.

The game starts off with an interesting playable prologue. You step into the shoes of Jack Walters, a cocky-sounding private investigator with a string of successful cases behind you. Having had such a lucky streak and being the town hero, you get called out by the local uniform to a house known for its suspicious activities only to find yourself mired deep inside a rat's nest of corpses, weird contraptions and a host of paranormal events. Simply put, it goes horribly wrong for our Jack, leaving him a psychotic with a nice hip bachelor pad deep inside a mental institution.

After a good stretch inside, Jack's back in society and looking for work, and more importantly, looking for answers as to explain what really happened. After landing a missing person's case, Jack heads to the last known location of this missing chap, a fishing port called Innsmouth.

For the first third of the way in, roughly the two to three hour mark, the pace is slow and steady. You don the Sherlock Holmes hat and wander about trying to find clues from the very grotesque and extremely unfriendly locals. You quickly get the feeling something's not quite right about the place.

A bucks' night gone wrong

About this point in time you would naturally assume that a gun or ten would come in quite handy, as the local yokels noticeably increase in hostility to the "outsider" (as you're fondly referred to). Along with the clues scattered about the town in the form of notes, books and postcards etc, you'll end up with a small cache of ammo pinched from desks and assorted places - hence the natural assumption that you'd be packing some firepower.

What comes next is quite simply astonishing. It's like the devs counted on the fact that the player would have become complacent at this point in time, and decided to up the ante in the action department. I simply refuse to spoil it, as it's the one defining moment that really kicked me in the guts and showed me the total and absolute lack of a true horror game in the market that even remotely comes close to Call of Cthulhu. The strength of emotions I experienced in just that small amount of time was incredible.

At a certain point in the game, having been so miserably powerless in the face of such horrific ordeals for so long, you enter a room and spy out a double-barrelled shotty and a handgun. Oh, the utter bliss. I cannot remember the last time I felt such relief at having the means to defend myself. It's a classic example of how Call of Cthulhu really sets itself apart from anything I've played in a long time. Up to the point where you lovingly grasped those beautiful guns, you felt every corner would reveal a hostile resident wanting to turn you into human sashimi, yet powerless to do much but run. I'm fairly certain that if I was faced with this sort of drawn-out horror in real life, I'd slowly lose my grasp on sanity (some would say that was the case now:/), and that's exactly what happens in game.

As the story plays itself out, you notice the first sign that Jack is losing his mind. Lines like "What the hell am I doing here?" sounds such as teeth chattering, frantic breaths, heart-beat going off the charts after seeing piles of dismembered corpses or from being chased, and vision blurring from vertigo or injury really help the player establish that Jack isn't the usual sort of dashing caped hero one would expect. It's a scaringly realistic approximation of what you or I (c'mon, admit it) would feel when placed in such an environment. From the player immersion aspect, it's frighteningly perfect.

Monsanto have a lot to answer for...

Another interesting side of Call of Cthulhu is how combat and health is managed. There is no crosshair, no HUD, not even a handy meter showing you the state of Jack's health. Health is managed via a unique localized method. Jack's injuries show up as localized health boxes indicating distinct areas of the body. So, any injury sustained in the course of the game can be quickly patched up in the appropriate area. To apply treatments, you'll need an assortment of medical supplies and these can be found scattered about the town in the form of medical kits. If you happen to be injured, and you'll know that by indications such as hard breathing, colour fading from the screen, Jack grunting in pain and impaired movement from having a broken leg, then be extra careful to choose a quiet spot to heal. If interrupted by those local jackals, the healing process stops and you'll find yourself pleasantly dead, dead, and dead. An excellent variation to this system occurs when you fail to undergo the healing process. If the injury isn't healed within a given time period, it's just another method for Jack to lose what marbles he has remaining.

Puzzles. Puzzles? Yes, my friends, Call of Cthulhu has Puzzles. Puzzles to twist your mind, tear the follicles out ... wait, I lie. At this point, those of you with butterflies in the tummy need not be scared off. It's a case of "If I can bloody well do it, then so can you." A few of them can be a tad tricky, but luckily they are not the sort to stop you playing the game. Simply using all the evidence collected at each point will usually steer you in the right direction.

When it comes to sound, Call of Cthulhu does not disappoint. A game with such a heavy dependence on the scare factor needs a solid bank of sounds to draw upon. Next time you watch a horror flick, turn the sound down and notice the total lack of emotional involvement. It's not the same experience. Jack's frantic breathing along with the snarls and grunts of pursuers, the impressive rattle of the shotty and the low thump of the quickening heart-beat all makes for one of the most impressive sound experiences I've had in a long while. Even if the sound wasn't as good as I just described, there's something so bloody unnerving about hearing a little girl's ghostly voice echoing down sewer tunnels, that it alone deserves points.

flee!! flee!! it's the penis tree!!

In terms of the vocals, Jack's voice was quite satisfying but a few times it tended to become annoying. For example, Jack's just gone through an experience that would melt anyone's brain. He's a man on edge, his mutterings resemble someone quite obviously heading down the insane slope, but if you happen to try and action an object during this event, the usual calm and collected drawl pops out, thus breaking the immersion.

Graphically, I initially had my reservations. At first glance, my impression was of a dated graphics engine and general disappointment. But one of the lesson's I've come to learn from this games reviewing gig of mine, is of context. Would the graphics looks as good set in a sunny and brightly lit area, with a gurgling stream alongside an apple orchard? I rather doubt it would. But since the game is sooo dark, with such an evil current throughout the game, then the reverse applies. Depending on the subject matter, anything can look as good or bad if that was the intention. When I want to be scared, I don't care how reflective the water is or how poor the night sky may look. Why should I? I'm playing this game to be freaked out, to be disgusted yet delighted at the amount of gore and mind-bending horror pouring off my screen. In Call of Cthulhu, since the intention was to make it look forbidding and inherently evil, in effect to look as 'bad' as it can possibly get, then the graphics do a superb job.

While I'm trying very hard not to give away too many spoilers, I do need to mention the cut-scenes. Look forward to them as they pop up at the most heart-stopping moments.

Whether you like the horror genre, or you have been thinking of dipping your toe into the murky and foul smelling pool of gore, then you need Call of Cthulhu. In fact, it's a game I intend to play again, but on a more difficult level. If you happen to notice that the reviews have stopped, either I've been sacked (never!!!) or I'm dead from a heart attack. Get this game.