[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-seo-515166-105":3,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":81,"doc-detail-515166-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"ok",{"site_id":7,"language":8,"slug":9,"title":10,"keywords":11,"description":12,"schema_data":13,"social_meta":74,"head_meta":76,"extra_data":78,"updated_unix":80},105,"en","game-narrative-review-call-of-cthulhu-the-wasted-land","Game Narrative Review - Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land","","Narrative review of Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land, set in World War I trenches and framed as more than a conventional war game through “otherworldly forces” shaping British and German soldiers as pawns in a struggle for human souls. The analysis describes turn-based role-playing mechanics where players manage up to six characters while fighting undead German units led by Dr. Kaul, emphasizing both tactical goals and the preservation of sanity. It also interprets the work as a metanarrative of Western Civilization and Modernism, using concepts like rhetorics of play and emergence, and situates the game’s language within Lovecraft and T.S. Eliot references.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/literature/","Literature",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/game-narrative-review-call-of-cthulhu-the-wasted-land/515166/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/game-narrative-review-call-of-cthulhu-the-wasted-land/515166.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"hdkawk","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-17","2026-10-06",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",10,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"What historical setting and narrative premise does the review describe?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"The review places the game in the trenches of World War I while presenting a premise that otherworldly forces are influencing events behind the conflict.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"How does the game’s turn-based role-playing structure affect player objectives?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"Players control up to six characters, combining characters, weapons, and magic to defeat undead German forces led by Dr. Kaul, while also ensuring characters complete objectives and retain sanity to win.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"Which literary references does the review say the game title invokes?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"It states the title invokes H.P. Lovecraft’s “Call of Cthulhu” and T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land,” and treats these references as integral to the game’s design and metaphorical depth.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},515166,1791488596,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,91,95,100,105,110,115,120,123,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":89,"slug":90},80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":92,"show_sort_weight":93,"slug":94},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":96,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":97,"show_sort_weight":98,"slug":99},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":101,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":112,"show_sort_weight":113,"slug":114},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":116,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":117,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":119},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":118,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":121,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":122},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":55,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":55,"slug":125},"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":96,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":131},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":26,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":55,"language":139,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":143,"read_time":144},3985747859855,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_276721f389ce27ea32af1340a28f341c","Game Narrative Review  \n==================== Name: Kimberly Himmer  \nSchool: American University Game Lab  \n[Email:](Email: KimHimmer@gmail.com)[ KimHimmer@gmail.com](Email: KimHimmer@gmail.com)  \nMonth/Year you submitted this review: December 2014  \n====================  \nGame Title: Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land  \nPlatform: PC, Mobile (iOS, Google Play)  \nGenre: Combination Turn-based and Role-Playing Game  \nRelease Date: January 2012  \nDeveloper: Red Wasp Design  \nPublisher: Red Wasp Design  \nGame Writer/Creative Director/Narrative Designer: Tomas Rawlings  \nOverview  \nTaking place in the trenches of World War I, Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land isnot your typical war game. While set squarely in the height of the Great War, the player is quickly indoctrinated into a narrative that there are otherworldly forces at play, and that British and German soldiers along the Western Front are merely pawns in a greater battle for the souls of mankind. The title of the game invokes two great literary works of the early twentieth century: H.P. Lovecraft’s “Call of Cthulhu,” and T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land.” These references are integral to the overall game design, and add tremendous metaphorical depth to this narrative of war.  \nCall of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land is a turn-based role-playing game, in which the player controls up to six different characters fighting for the British Forces. It is up to the player to best harness the combination of characters, weapons, and magic, to thwart the enemy forces of an army of undead German soldiers, reanimated by the evil Dr. Kaul. Ultimately, the player must ensure that his main characters not only obtain their tactical objectives at each level, but also retain their sanity to thwart the forces of evil and win the game.  \nWhile the game is a fictitious narrative superimposed on a historical front, the game also can be read as a metanarrative of Western Civilization, and ambivalences of Modernism that evolved as a result of the Great War. This is invoked by the game designer by artfully weaving together several Rhetorics of Play. According to Brian Sutton-Smith, the Rhetorics of Play are part of cultural symbolic systems, through which societies construct meaning of the culture in which they live (1997, 9) . This meaning is--in essence--the narrative we live by; and as a result, it is naturally expressed through the ways in which a society plays. When several of these Rhetorics are invoked in gameplay, what results is the equivalent of emergence. John Holland defines emergence as  \n“the product of coupled, context-dependent interactions.” (John Holland, qtd. in Salenand Zimmerman, 2004, 159) . While emergence is typically reserved to describe the unintended outcomes as a result of a set of rules imposed in a game, I believe that it can be a productive metaphor for understanding how much deeper the narrative of Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land becomes as a result of the interplay between the rhetorical systems within the game. By firmly locating the narrative of Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land in the language of Lovecraft and Eliot, and the setting of World War I, the rhetorical emergence is profound, and makes this game’s narrative—and therefore gameplay—deeper than the sunken city of R’lyeh1.  \nCharacters  \nGOOD GUYS (Playable characters)  \n• Captain Hill: A career British Army officer who finds himself thrust into a battle he never could have imagined. He is described in the game’s character index as “straight laced…a good leader of men and a capable officer.”Within the narrative, he is portrayed as the leader of the other British enlisted soldiers, Brown and Launay; however, his leadership isnot a playable characteristic within the game play. While the game play is a combination of turn-based and role-playing, Captain Hill never has to exercise this authority in actual game play. However, his character traits of Intelligence and Dexterity, and his capabilities with the pistol give him adva","cbCaicDyPsP8UM2N","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaicDyPsP8UM2N","pdf",168330,"English","# Overview\n## Characters","[{\"question\":\"What historical setting and narrative premise does the review describe?\",\"answer\":\"The review places the game in the trenches of World War I while presenting a premise that otherworldly forces are influencing events behind the conflict.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the game’s turn-based role-playing structure affect player objectives?\",\"answer\":\"Players control up to six characters, combining characters, weapons, and magic to defeat undead German forces led by Dr. Kaul, while also ensuring characters complete objectives and retain sanity to win.\"},{\"question\":\"Which literary references does the review say the game title invokes?\",\"answer\":\"It states the title invokes H.P. Lovecraft’s “Call of Cthulhu” and T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land,” and treats these references as integral to the game’s design and metaphorical depth.\"}]","Game Narrative Review - Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land | PDF",1791308652,15]