I am a fan of Lovecraftian horror and the Cthulhu setting, which is a dark and futile version of the 1920’s to 1930’s, and has spawned many games including Mansions of Madness also by Fantasy Flight Games. This game comes in a big box where you get a ton of cards using the ‘living’ card game format where it is expandable with new releases of cards, but you do not need to keep buying new cards to remain competitive.

Essentially it is still a collectible card game, though you are unlikely to get bored with the base set and it plays very well by itself. Like any collectible card game there are different factions you can play, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. Like most other games you use the cards as a resource called a ‘domain’, by ‘draining’ the domain in order to play other cards that have an associated cost to put into play.

The game comes with a small board upon which you place three story cards and a pile of clue tokens. The objective is to complete three story cards, as each time one is completed you add another. You complete a story by sending some of your minions to investigate the story, and place one or two clue tokens upon the story, when you have five clue tokens on the story you have completed it and you resolve a bonus effect triggered by its completion.

The main thrust of it is therefore draining your domains to bring minions into play and build up a little army that investigates the stories. When you send minions to investigate the stories your opponent can send his minions to stop you, which triggers a conflict where you compare relevant skill ratings of each other’s minions to determine the winner. Conflict can be bloody and terrifying, and there is often a high body count.

The conflicts have a great flow to them as it is resolved in several phases. First you compare fear/madness ratings, and the losing team has one minion go insane, which involves turning the card over. You can flip one insane minion back to sanity during your turn, so you can recover from insanity but it slows you down.

Then you compare kill/fight ratings and the losing team has one minion killed. Next you compare academic/book learning ratings, and the winning team retrieves one minion untapped/rotated/exhausted, which is important, because all other minions remain tapped affecting your ability to interfere with your opponent’s turn. Then you compare your clue/investigative ratings, and the winning team gets to place a clue token on the story.

Lastly you compare skill ratings, and if the team that is investigating the story wins they place a clue token on the story. If a team that has opposed an investigation wins the skill rating contest they get nothing except the warm glow of blocking your opponent. This sequence of conflict resolution is tricky to navigate at first, but creates a cool process where some factions have a big advantage over others in specific situations.

The drawback is that there is a rock/paper/scissors element to Call of Cthulhu, where because of the matchup in factions you might have little chance of success. Going up against two insanity focused factions with academic factions can be harsh and difficult to recover from. You get two random factions in each game so your play experience does vary widely, and you can still tailor the deck if you wish to suit your play style.

You can play three or four player, and are encouraged to match up two boxed sets, but all you need is the three story cards and a way to register how many clue tokens you have on them with beads or dice. A three or four player game really changes the strategy because you have more potential opponents when you investigate a story, but it also drastically slows down the game because it is so important to work out your ratings before committing to a story.

The cards are excellent, the artwork is really cool and totally in keeping with the Cthulhu setting. Faction wise you can have gangsters, or government operatives, or students from the Miskatonic University, or cultists of various kinds, even minions of Cthulhu himself. They each really have their own feel and function, giving your deck a distinct character, and during the course of the game it does play out like an adventure.

Many of the most important minions and gods of the Cthulhumythos/canon are present in the base set, with respectively crazy and powerful special abilities. There is a mummy, which if it goes into the discard pile causes every minion in the game to lose one wound, with the ability to kill every minion at once, as they mostly can only take 1 wound before death. There is a minion that can take a wound to deal a wound to every minion in the same conflict.

There are plenty of moments when you think ‘what the heck/oh really’ when a card is played, but the more powerful cards have their weaknesses and can be catered for. The weak cards can prove to be quite durable and work well in packs, while many minion cards allow you to tap/rotate/exhaust an opponent’s minion when they come into play.

There are also cards that you play out of your hand during your opponent’s turn, but you usually need some power/influence left in your domains in order to play such cards. You can put up a good defensive screen by simply not investigating stories and interfering with your opponent’s game play instead.

Call of Cthulhu is full of theme and a ton of options in game play that is almost infinitely expandable if you so wish to buy the extra cards. It does require players who are into the game and familiar with the mechanisms, as lots of players wont really understand it, and the potential to get trashed five games in a row through no fault of your own doesn’t help.

There is a steep learning curve with Call of Cthulhu, and it helps to have two players with a more or less even skill level, but it is definitely worth persevering with. Its playing time is deceiving because sometimes you really need to work out the variables before committing to an action, otherwise your minions will get spanked.

So game play can be slow, but it is a challenge to the game brain with fluid card play that consistently reflects the theme. There is lots of cool factor and plenty of fun to be had setting up your minions for an investigation, especially if you get a deck match up of gangsters versus government operatives or students against cultists. Excellent stuff.