Prisoner of Ice

Prisoner of Ice
North American DOS cover art
Developer(s)	Infogrames
Publisher(s)	Infogrames
Platform(s)	DOS, Windows, Mac OS, Sega Saturn, PlayStation
Release date(s)	1995 1997 (consoles) 2015 (GOG.com)
Genre(s)	Adventure
Mode(s)	Single-player

Prisoner of Ice (also Call of Cthulhu: Prisoner of Ice) is an adventure game developed and released by Infogrames for the PC and Macintosh computers in 1995 in America and Europe. It is based on H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, particularly At the Mountains of Madness, and is a follow-up to Infogrames' earlier Shadow of the Comet. In 1997, the game was released on Sega Saturn and PlayStation exclusively in Japan.

Plot

Prisoner of Ice begins during the run-up to World War II, primarily around Antarctica. The main character is a young U.S. intelligence officer, Lt. Ryan, who has been assigned to a British submarine, the HMS Victoria, for a special mission. As the game begins, the submarine is fleeing the Antarctic after rescuing a Norwegian who has recently escaped from a secret German base in the Antarctic (it is later revealed that the base is built atop the Ancient Ruins mentioned in At the Mountains of Madness). Along with the Norwegian, the sub has picked up two mysterious cargo crates stolen from the Nazis.

Late in the game, in Argentina, Ryan meets John Parker, the central character from Shadow of the Comet, and reveals the links between the two games. Narackamous, the main antagonist of Shadow of the Comet, also returns. The game has a choice of endings, though there is little difference between them.

Gameplay

The game involves solving puzzles through a point and click user interface. The player can examine any item and, depending on the item, either pick it up, use another item on it, or operate it in some way.

Some puzzles, if not completed within a short span of time (always less than a minute), will result in a game over. To ensure that the player does not get stuck by saving their game at a point from which they cannot possibly complete a puzzle in time, the game autosaves onto a separate save file at the beginning of each timed puzzle.

Release

The game was released for PC DOS, PC Windows and Macintosh computer platforms in America (where it was published by I Motion) and Europe in 1995. It was released as Call of Cthulhu: Prisoner of Ice in PAL territories.

In Japan, the game was released in 1997 as Prisoner of Ice: Jashin Kourin, and ported to the Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation game consoles. These ports contain no enhancements from the PC versions. The English voice acting of the PC version is retained, but the text which appears when examining or picking up objects is translated to Japanese. The Saturn version is compatible with the Netlink Mouse.

On July 22, 2015, Prisoner of Ice and Shadow of The Comet were re-released as DRM-free on GOG.com for modern computers.^[1]

Reception

Reviews of this game have been generally positive.^[2]

References

↑ GOG.com. "RELEASE: CALL OF CTHULHU: SHADOW OF THE COMET + PRISONER OF ICE". GOG.com. Retrieved 22 July 2015.
↑ Prisoner of Ice for DOS MobyRank, MobyGames, retrieved June 27, 2013

External links

Media based on H. P. Lovecraft works

Films	The Haunted Palace (1963) Die, Monster, Die! (1965) The Shuttered Room (1967) The Dunwich Horror (1970) Re-Animator (1985) From Beyond (1986) The Curse (1987) The Unnamable (1988) Dark Heritage (1989) Bride of Re-Animator (1990) Cast a Deadly Spell (1991) The Resurrected (1992) The Unnamable II: The Statement of Randolph Carter (1993) In the Mouth of Madness (1994) Necronomicon (1994) The Lurking Fear (1994) Witch Hunt (1994) Castle Freak (1995) Bleeders (1997) Out of Mind: The Stories of H. P. Lovecraft (1998) Cool Air (1999) Cthulhu (2000) Dagon (2001) Beyond Re-Animator (2003) The Call of Cthulhu (2005) H. P. Lovecraft's Dreams in the Witch-House (2005) Cthulhu (2007) The Tomb (2007) Chill (2007) In Search of Lovecraft (2008) The Last Lovecraft: Relic of Cthulhu (2009) The Whisperer in Darkness (2011) Innsmouth (film) (2011) Call Girl of Cthulhu (2014)

Role-playing games	Call of Cthulhu (role-playing game) (1981) Cthulhu Live (1997) Delta Green (1997) Trail of Cthulhu (2008) CthulhuTech (2008)

Card games	Mythos (1996) Cthulhu 500 (2004) Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game (2004) Elder Sign (2011)

Board games	Arkham Horror (1987, 2005) Mansions of Madness (2011) Eldritch Horror (2013)

Video games	Alone in the Dark (1992) Shadow of the Comet (1993) Necronomicon (1994) Alone in the Dark 3 (1995) Prisoner of Ice (1995) Innsmouth no Yakata (1995) Digital Pinball: Necronomicon (1996) Necronomicon: The Dawning of Darkness (2001) Eternal Darkness (2002) Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth (2005) Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened (2006) Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land (2012) Bloodborne (2015) Darkest Dungeon (2016)

Other	Neil Gaiman's Only the End of the World Again (2000) Alan Moore's The Courtyard (2003) Unspeakable Vault (of Doom) (2003–present) Alan Moore's Yuggoth Cultures and Other Growths (2003) Dark Adventure Radio Theatre (2006–2015) Demonbane (2006) Haiyore! Nyaruko-san (2009–2014) Neonomicon (2010) Re-Animator: The Musical (2011) Providence (2016)

See also: Cthulhu Mythos in popular culture

H. P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness (1931)

Characters	Elder Thing Shoggoth

Adaptations	Dark Adventure Radio Theatre: At the Mountains of Madness (2006)

Sequels	A Colder War

Games	Prisoner of Ice

Related	At the Mountains of Madness and Other Novels Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales of H. P. Lovecraft: Commemorative Edition

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