The XCOM-style action of Achtung! Cthulhu connects with and fleshes out the story of the currently-running beer-and-pretzels Achtung! Cthulhu tabletop campaign – if you play one, it’ll provide additional details for the other.
“This campaign is actually connected with the current roleplaying game campaign that’s going on at the moment,” Auroch Digital producer Peter Willington explained at Gamescom this week. “So you’ll find out stuff in this game, and if you’re an Achtung! Cthulhu player, you’ll go ‘ooooh, that’s where that came from!’”
Willington provided an example of that crossover, although be warned – it’s a spoiler for some of the story content in Achtung! Cthulhu Tactics, and given the thematic material, you might understandably want to go in with as little foreknowledge as possible.
“Basically, in this game there is a prototype weapon, and in the RPG, the weapon is already available,” Willington said. “Nobody has any idea where that’s come from. In this game [Tactics], we’re going to explain where that weapon actually came from, how it came about, who was involved in doing it, who tried to sabotage the prototype, all of this kind of stuff.”
The characters involved with this prototype weapon are main characters featured in the pen and paper RPG campaign, Willington explained.
“We wanted you to have this feeling of connection,” he said. “We didn’t want to just be like, ‘it’s some fun side story.’ This genuinely will fill in more about the RPG.”
Achtung! Cthulhu Tactics is, as the name suggests, a turn-based tactics game set in an alternative World War II layered over with Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos. Willington says it’s ‘pulp fiction’ like Indiana Jones or Inglourious Basterds.
He showed us how the game’s enemies are aware of their Lovecraftian basis – during a combat encounter, they slink back into the shadows, trying to lure the team of heroes away from each other and into dark places where the monsters gain mechanical advantages.
“Alone, you’re weak,” Willington said. “But like Inglourious Basterds, like Fury, like all of these comic books and films, it’s about the team – no person left behind.”
Achtung! Cthulhu now has a Steam page, so you can add it to your wishlist if your interest has been piqued. It’s due out sometime this year.