A short but pretty decent adventure puzzle game!

Story was engaging. The puzzles were pretty good I did have to look up a couple little things but I think that’s more so a me thing then a flaw with the game.

If you’re a fan of Call of Cthulhu then you’ll get a kick out of this one!

I don’t know if it’s possible to make a more annoying and boring intro to a game, holy shit it’s bad. I don’t even know what to say abt this game. It looks nice, but you kinda don’t care because you are being distracted by the non-stopping commentaries made by the main character. She has to say something about every single interaction and the ratio of the annoying and unnecessary stuff is outstanding. The story, or at least the small part of it that I got to see is extremely banal: you have to go and find your missing husband. It’s fine, as long as the delivery is good, but it’s not. You just get to the island and the first thing you see is the note in french. Of course, the somber turn is that the heroine can only understand two words: “island” and “death”.
Nah, bruh, I ain’t playin allat

Cthu-lite. A cozy Lovecraftian mystery with only slightly unsettling vibes lurking in the backdrop (I know 'cozy' and 'Lovecraft' aren't exactly compatible words, but it really was quite relaxing). If you like solving puzzles and Lovecraft’s Innsmouth & Dagon (with other references peppered throughout) but none of the insanity & terror afflicting your character, then this is a nice chill game.

Finished this in a day, took another day to tie up loose trophies. With a chapter select, there are technically no missable achievements, but you will have to look up a few (mostly cute easter egg nods to the game company, and one literally named “you looked that up in a guide!”).

The puzzles are not difficult, but there were one or two challenging ones. But they’re not overly easy either - they’re involved, but clever tween level of difficulty. Seriously, this is just an all-around chill and cozy game with a decent story to piece together. After the month I’ve had, it was a welcome realization that this was not going to be a chase or survival or high-tension game, but still totally Lovecraft.

This was a bit of a disappointment for me

On the positive side, this game is absolutely gorgeous visually. The environments and colors are so vibrant and stylistic that they made me interested in playing this in the first place.

They nail the atmosphere and sound design, even during the earlier chapters of the game where things are more light there’s a small sense of uncomfortableness that hangs over everything.

The basic story premise here and plot advancements you find searching around the camps & island are all pretty standard for this genre, and I felt like the game never leaned into the lovecraftian or horror elements enough to really grip me even when things become weirder towards the end

The absolute #1 problem in this game that drags it down is just how mind numbingly slow everything is, specifically the walking speed. Why in a puzzle solving walking simulator, where the story involves the MC feeling healthier in this environment, would you make even her “run” speed about 1/2 of any other similar games default walk speed. I assume the idea was that it would make people pay more attention to the environments and areas, but it had the complete opposite effect on me. The total sluggish feeling of just getting from one end of a room to the other, just had me trying to rush towards the end to escape it. Brutal decision

As far as the actual puzzles, I thought they were mostly alright but found very few of them actually satisfying to try and solve

overall an okay walking sim style game and not a bad way to kill like four hours, but also not something I’d say anyone should go out of their way for either

Poteva essere qualcosa di più questo gioco perchè in fondo ha una trama intrigante che tiene alta la curiosità dall'inizio alla fine, ha delle belle ambientazioni dal sapore esotico, regala un bel senso della scoperta nonostante sia molto lineare... quello che funziona poco secondo me sono gli enigmi che non spiccano quasi mai per brillantezza e a volte sono anche abbastanza confusionari (quello dell'organo rischia facilmente di farsi odiare per dire).
La classica occasione mancata insomma, però se piacciono questo tipo di avventure più riflessive e basate sulla trama allora merita una chance secondo me.

Está bien, pero tampoco me ha alucinado. Es un juego de puzles y aventura más relajado en el que la mayoría del gameplay se centra en moverse por escenarios y pulsar distintos interruptores.

La trama intenta ser misteriosa y sorprendente pero no me resulta particularmente interesante. Si conoces un poco lo que es "Innsmouth", ya te ves el giro desde el minuto uno. Hay ciertas partes del guión que me gustan, tratando las interacciones entre la protagonista Nora y su esposo.

Igualmente, es un juego con algún puzle interesante y bien pensado, pero algo de paja en medio que me resulta molesta. Ante todo, se tarda mucho en llegar a todas partes. Utilizar escaleras es un suplicio. Hay momentos en los que te obligan a mirar sin poder moverte, lo cual me toca las narices en muchos juegos.

Es corto asi que es inofensivo más que nada pero no es una aventura que vaya a recordar en el futuro salvo por el diseño de algún puzle contado.

This was pretty much perfect in the puzzle aspect. There were clues for the puzzles around the environment and it was all solvable. I did get stuck a few times for a while, but I ended up figuring everything out without needing to look anything up.

In terms of the story, it started out fine and was pretty engaging for most of the game, but I kind of felt like it started to fall off the rails as it neared the end.

The gameplay was ok with nothing crazy. Basically just a lot of walking around and clicking things. I kind of wish there were some changes to make it less tedious sometimes, like maybe a faster sprint or something.

The artstyle reminded me heavily of Sea of Thieves.

A tight little puzzler that leaves the player wanting more, for better or worse

It's always difficult to tell how long a game should be, what feels like a "good" length. Call of the Sea I managed to beat in three sessions, probably adding up to around 5-6 hours, I got it for free on PlayStation Plus, but ultimately for it's cost at the time (~£15) I feel like I would have gotten my moneys worth.

And yet, I feel as if Call of the Sea should have more to offer. Off the top of my head, I'd guess that the game had around half a dozen proper puzzles, they're intricate sure, and unbelievably satisfying to figure out. They're truly engaging and built into the world wonderfully, and at no point did I feel they were unfair, nor did I think they were too easy, I had a "Eureka!" moment with each, which is something I admire in a puzzle game, to be able to strike that balance.

However, as mentioned, there's not many of them, and what's their is artificially expanded by climbing animations (admittedly not used frequently but they take so long that it irked me) and large maps that can feel hollow. Don't get me wrong, they're strikingly pretty (kudos to the art direction), but if you strip away the visuals, there's long stretches of nothing between puzzle elements.

In other games, you could argue these long walks give the player a chance to ruminate on the situation, to think on the story and try to piece things together, and I honestly think Call of the Sea could have pulled that off if they'd given more intrigue to the mystery, instead of holding its cards close to its chest for the most part before spelling it out for you, there's not much to ruminate on aside baseless speculation until the end.

Ultimately, Call of the Sea acts as a great novella, if a little hollow past the surface, there's not many layers to it. The puzzles are well thought out, and the story is very sweet, just lacking complexity. I feel as though it hits a funny point on the Goldilocks spectrum; it's not too short, it's not too long, but it's not just right.