PC Gamer - November 2011

REVIEWS

R’LYEH FUNNY

H.P. Lovecraft spins in his grave as CTHULHU
SAVES THE WORLD By Richard Cobbett

Like many comedy games, Cthulhu Saves the World is a better parody of its genre than example of it. Good thing it’s a really good parody.

The main gag is in the title— squid-faced Cthulhu is forced to put evil aside and become a hero, even if he’s only saving the world as a means to recover the dark powers he needs to destroy it personally. His quest is played out in classic JRPG style, with a terrific script and endless attention to detail, though how funny the game is really depends on how many Final Fantasy-style games you’ve played. No trope goes unmocked.

But here’s the “but.” If you’ve played enough JRPGs to really get the game’s jokes, you’ve also played enough to know that behind the gags is a mediocre RPG. Far too much time is spent in dull

Cthulhu drives his enemies insane. So might the combat.

random combat or stooging around even duller mazes. Good tweaks—such as having a set number of random encounters per area—are often weighed down with odd decisions, like the slow pace of magic refills.

For $3 though, does it really matter? No. Join Cthulhu for his company and not for dreams of a new Chrono Trigger, and if you buy it on Steam, you even get a whole second RPG for free. Q

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X Price $3 X Release Out no w X Publisher Zeboyd Games X Developer Zeboyd Games X MULTIPLAYER Single-player only X LINK www.zeboyd.com X ESRB None

LIKEABLE ROGUE
Dare you enter the DUNGEONS OF
DREDMOR By Dan Griliopoulos

Despite the enduring popularity of the genre, roguelikes—randomly generated, turn-based dungeon-divers—have never quite gone mainstream. Dungeons of Dredmor sits half way bet ween bastions of the genre, such as Zangband and Torchlight. It has the purpose and humor of the latter—killing the wicked lord Dredmor—and the option-set, perma-death and turn-based combat of the former.

What Dredmor does well is simplify the options while keeping them flexible. Instead of an endless number of races, classes and skills, there are 50-plus per-fectly-understandable power-sets you choose seven of to create your character. For example, the Fedora power-set starts you with an initial buff to rogue behavior and a natty hat, with Indiana

Hostile moustaches!

I survived by a whisker.

Jones-themed upgrades as you level up.

Sadly, Dredmor doesn’t really move the roguelike along. Despite a lengthy tutorial, not everything is explained, the interface is rather primitive, and the rough art is occasionally ironic, but isn’t a great leap forward from ASCII.