Screenshot: Call of the Sea

Im usually the first to say that puzzle games are completely dependent on the person playing them. Some people can get through a puzzle game in half the time it might take me, for instance, because certain puzzles just click for certain people. Call of the Sea is full of great eureka! moments. It features a set of puzzles that seemed like they were going to take some real brain power to solve, but as it turns out I was overthinking almost every single one.

Call of the Sea is a first person adventure puzzle game where you play as Norah, a woman searching for her husband on a strange island that has risen from the ocean. The plot starts off enigmatic and intriguing. Norah has an unnamed disease which causes her skin to break out into strange spots. Its also killing her, and the only hope she seems to have is on a tropical island full of ruins and mysteries. Norahs husband takes an expedition to the island only to disappear, which causes Norah to follow him to the island to find her own answers. As Norah, youll have to follow in your husbands footsteps to learn the mystery of the island, Norahs illness, and even her past.

Screenshot: Call of the Sea

While story heavy, Call of the Sea is all about puzzles. I always argue that puzzle game difficulty is subjective to the person playing the game, but even so, Call of the Sea seems to be on the easier side in terms of puzzles. Playing Call of the Sea hot off of reviewing Myst for VR, I think I spent a lot of time overthinking solutions that turned out to be simpler than I initially presumed them to be. Thats not a bad thing, but if youre going into Call of the Sea hoping for brain busters, you wont really find them here. Call of the Seas puzzles are well made, though, with solutions that make sense and can be sussed out with examination of the environment and mechanisms. And while there are a decent variety of puzzles to solve, a lot of them boil down to pressing buttons in the correct order.

One of my pet peeves in puzzle heavy games is slow movement. Some puzzles in Call of the Sea require you to move across large areas, and if a button is pressed out of order then you have to do the whole thing over again. Its annoying if youre forced to move at a snails pace while making puzzle solving attempts. There are a few sections with annoyingly slow movements, especially those sections that take place underwater. Norahs slow swim speed is particularly egregious for story reasons I dont want to spoil. Im not talking about moving at Quake speeds, but I wouldnt have felt less immersed if Norahs run speed was much faster.

One of the things that surprised me the most about Call of the Sea is its graphics and art style: theyre absolutely stunning. Almost every scene makes a good screenshot, and every vista would look at home hanging up in an art gallery. It makes traversing each beautiful section pleasurable instead of just tolerable. The production values are overall pretty high, with good voice acting for the most part. Sometimes it feels like Norahs responses arent quite in-line with whats on the screen, but this is a rare occurrence.

Call of the Sea is a narrative adventure, with a story that is the main driving force, as well as a major focus. Unfortunately, the story is a bit uneven. At times Call of the Sea goes between Cthulu-esque horror to poignancy through its journey of discovery. Norah must piece together the fate of her husbands expedition, in a story that strangely (and unintentionally, Im sure) parallels that of the recently released Amnesia: Rebirth. But even though it dips its toes in horror, Call of the Sea never becomes a full-on horror experience. Without spoiling the plot, I can understand what the narrative was trying to accomplish, but I was ultimately disappointed and not very surprised by the time the credits were rolling. Also, why the hell does her husband and his friends have so many tents and sleeping bags? You come across at least a half dozen of her husbands campsites, and each one is full of tents, sleeping bags, and equipment left behind.

Screenshot: Call of the Sea

I liked Call of the Sea. It doesnt have the most difficult puzzles, but its engaging and has a compelling mysteryeven if its a little predictable, and a tad disappointing at the end. But its not about the destination most of the time, and the journey Call of the Sea has in store for you is a very pretty one. If you enjoy mysterious puzzle games, Call of the Sea is a safe bet.

Call of the Sea is available now on Xbox Series S|X and for Windows via Steam, GOG, the Humble Store and the Microsoft Store.

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Review: Call of the Sea Has Phenomenal Graphics, Somewhat Easy Puzzles - thirdcoastreview.com