Shadow of the Comet

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Shadow of the Comet is a 1993 adventure game from Infogrames. It was released for MS-DOS, PC-98, and Linux on March 25, 1993, and was later repackaged as Call of Cthulhu: Shadow of the Comet. A follow-up, Prisoner of Ice (1995), is not directly connected to this story.

The game draws on Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos, especially The Dunwich Horror and The Shadow Over Innsmouth. You control Parker, a young British photographer, using the arrow keys. Interactions are done with a button, and items you can take are shown by a white line from Parker’s eye. It’s a standard third-person adventure.

The story is set in 1910 in the isolated town of Illsmouth as Parker comes to photograph Halley’s Comet. He learns of a mysterious 1834 incident involving Lord Boleskine and must uncover what happened while surviving three days before the comet’s arrival.

Reception was mixed but positive: Computer Gaming World praised the plot, puzzles, writing, and dark humor, though criticized the lack of mouse support. They called it a high-quality graphic adventure that feels a bit old-fashioned but strong. White Wolf’s James V. Trunzo gave it 5/5, noting it captures Lovecraftian horror with suspense, good dialogue, and engaging puzzles. Pyramid also praised it as a solid computer RPG version of a Lovecraft story. In 2011, Adventure Gamers ranked Shadow of the Comet as the 74th-best adventure game of all time.