Cthulhu: the game that made me forget Bioshock; the only shame is that too many people likely will never play it...
The biggest, and possibly only, shame about this game is that too many people likely passed it by without a play-through, for a few reasons:
Firstly, and maybe mainly, this game was released at the very end of the Xbox consoles "supposed" life-cycle: very soon after its release, the 360 came out, and thus I think that many didn't even take note of the game.
And secondly, I've read many reviews of people complaining about the graphics -- even directly to Bethesda employees [who understandably felt quite insulted] about it "only" sporting 480p graphics and "only" a 4:3 aspect ratio.
Oh, and lastly -- the game is considered quite difficult...a turn-off for many gamers. Actually, I intentionally played through the game on the lowest difficulty, since I really wanted to enjoy the game, take in the settings and its ATMOSPHERE... instead of be frustrated with being stuck forever; I think it was a good choice.
I'll admit that I had watched/followed this game's progress while in-development for several years before its release...but never bought it until recently. One of my all-time [and still remains 'scariest'] favorite games is "Alone in the Dark", an old [we're talking a pioneer of "3D" graphics -- but no 3D card!], which was also influenced by the writings of H.P. Lovecraft. This game, however, is by far the most faithful rendition of his work -- at least that I know of.
Regardless, I had passed this game by for many years -- and I wish I hadn't; finally I picked it up for dirt-cheap -- we're talking, like, $5, at a Gamestop's 'used game' rack.
Like I mentioned: everyone complains about the graphics. Honestly, I thought the looked stellar. The resolution wasn't 1080p, of course...but the ATMOSPHERE of the game is absolutely *amazing* -- Bethesda really deserves to be recognized for creating an absolutely enveloping game world with wonderful art direction.
Also very noteworthy: when I looked at the screenshots here on Gamespot, they looked awful...but when I played it on the 360, they looked wonderful; I have read somewhere that this game remarkably benefits from the 360's 4x antialiasing, as well as an accompanying HDTV. On such a setup, there are absolutely no jaggies, and the color is quite wonderful & fitting to each area -- again, MUCH better than the screenshots; I really did not ever think "these graphics are bad", in fact, many times I found myself saying, "Wow...that looks absolutely amazing!" You will find this especially in the later "Cthulhu"-esque levels. Color and lighting is very well utilized all the way throughout the game.
Most of the game's strengths/weaknesses have been touched on by other reviews, so I'll just mention a few things:
The games sound is amazing -- there is not much music, but that works strongly to its advantage, as gunshots, knife stabs, chanting voices, deaths, etc, all sound absolutely stunning. If you can, this game really deserves being played on a 5.1 setup, or with a very nice set of headphones with dolby headphone or something of that sort. Even without, however, you are in for a treat audibly.
Again, this game IS hard: I'm no slouch on difficulty, yet I played through this on "Boyscout", and it still took me a good while...and certain areas require trial-and-error -- so its possibly better just to 'enjoy' it on a lighter setting if you're not sure.
I really, really recommend this game. In fact, I think this is one of only two games I have written an online review for (the other being American McGees 'Alice'). This games atmosphere, story -- following the short story almost to a T -- and pure immersion, fills in the areas where many FPS games fail. And lastly, the game says strong ALL the way through; many games trail off in later levels due to time constraints/deadlines. The ending, for example, is one of the longer ones I have seen in a long while, and really ties together the beginning and the end in 'bookend' fashion.
Turn off the lights, turn up the sound, play this at night...and enjoy an experience that all-too-many have passed by. For its current bargain-bin price, you absolutely cannot go wrong.