We've taken a bit of time with Cyanide's Call of Cthulhu -- a game we've been hoping would break through some invisible barrier to tentacle its way into our Triple-A loving hearts. Unfortunately, those tentacles are shy the number of rings (read: dollar signs) they needs to truly deliver on what is, and remains to be, a fantastic premise and promise.

Here's a slither from our review:

In the immortally terribly-delivered, fakely accented words of John Malkovich as Russian gambler and organised crime heavy, Teddy KGB, from the seminal not-classic, Rounders, “pay that man his money”, only here let’s change it up to “pay that studio more money”. Because their poker hand; their river, if you will, is deep and full of winning promise. They just have zero ante and no means to go “all in”.

And that’s the shame of Call of Cthulhu -- this is effectively a point-and-click adventure represented in [poor] 3D form, with wonderful audio, limited scripting, even more limited gameplay and gameplay presented in disparate form: often with no direction and hardfails that are at odds with what appears to be an attempt at a streamlined experience into descending madness. And yep, that’s a mouthful to take in, but I’ll do my best now to dissect the bad and the good for a comprehensive take on what should have been knocked over the fence for six, given the subject matter.

Click here for our in-depth Call of Cthulhu review.