Games of Cthulhu - Shadow of the Comet

xperience the horror of H.P. Lovecraft like never before in the most chilling survival horror game ever. Not only do you have to keep Jack Walters alive, you have to keep him from going insane as he encounters ever more terrifying creatures and situations. Insanity effects will ensure you experience every ounce of terror as you seek to uncover the mysteries of the Great Old Ones, and why it is they want you.

- Fight enemies using the environment, powerful and evil artifacts. Alien technology, and authentic weapons.
- Dynamic sanity system results in hallucinations, panic attacks, vertigo, paranoia, and more!
- Advanced AI system enables enemies to roam freely - opening doors and tracking you down single handedly or in groups.
- Experience unparalleled survival horror, action and suspense involving puzzle solving as well as combat and exploration.

- blurb from the back of the UK release box.

The game went through many stages during its long development cycle of almost 6 years.

It started with the rights to create the game being signed with Chaosium Inc. back in December 1999, and was slated for Q3 2001 release date. It was originally intended to have both a single player and multiplayer mode where players could explore scenarios and solve puzzles together. Concept movies were released in 2000 (which showed dynamic lighting and physics - see the Videos page). It was also only announced for PC and Playstation 2.

The game was shown at E3 2001 in May by the then publisher, Fishtank Interactive - this was a demo of the games intro with the asylum and Jack hanging himself, but was done with placeholder models and animations rather than the finished models. The release platforms changed to PC and Xbox.

Headfirst severed the deal with Fishtank Interactive in June of 2002 citing a breach of contract, and Ravensburger Interactive (the owner of Fishtank) claimed it didn't break the contract and now threatened Headfirst with court action. Ravensburger thought it could keep the Call of Cthulhu license, but the license was thankfully tied to Headfirst. Fishtank Interactive went bankrupt in late 2002 and was taken over by JoWood.

Bethesda Softworks then signed the publishing deal in May 2003, and the release date became Q3 2003 - this was delayed and became 'early 2004'. Any suggestions of multiplayer were dropped.

In February of 2004, Bethesda created the official website of the game - Call of Cthulhu. At E3 2004 (May) the game was shown again...and marked for release in Autumn of that year.

That didn't happen, but Bethesda Softworks and 2K Games announced they'd signed the publishing deal for the Xbox release, and again the game was shown at E3 2005 (May) - and once again slated for an Autumn release. Luckily, this time it became a reality and was released on Xbox on the 24th of October 2005.

The PC version (released March 2006) was made after Headfirst Productions closed down. Members of the company remained and finished the PC game without being paid. Many members of the team had already started to leave as the Xbox version was released the previous October. The dedication of the development team to the project was admirable.