Very conflicted about this one. Closer to 3 stars than 4 for sure. I love the game's aesthetic, it is incredibly beautiful and what drew me to it in the first place. And the sense of mystery is strong.... at the start of the game.

The main issues I have with this game are the protagonist who DOES. NOT. STOP. TALKING, the puzzles in chapter 4 & 5 and the larger story.

Firstly, the protagonist's constant babbling creates an atmosphere in which the mystery becomes increasingly less interesting because you are so constantly bombarded with information. This becomes especially bad once the potential threat of the ooze becomes known yet the protagonist never stops talking about how safe she feels around the ooze and how the island seems to be threatening to everyone but her. It left me kind of uninvolved in our protagonist because it seemed like everything would turn out fine for her regardless, and there were quite a few times where an important piece of dialogue was immediately cut short by a different line reacting to something completely pointless.

Secondly, the puzzles in chapter 4 and 5 range from so strangely simplistic that you spend way too long trying infinitely more complex options because it does not even occur to you to try it, to needlessly convoluted puzzles which require either luck or a guide to solve.

Finally and most importantly though I found myself exponentially less interested in the world being build as the story went on and I realised where it was headed. It could have worked, but the amount of time focussed on the strange politics of gods and subjugation and slavery in this fish world took away any air of mystery that might have existed.

I am still giving it 3.5 stars because I really enjoyed my first ~3 hours, as well as most of chapter 6. But unfortunately the middle section of the game and the overarching world being set up just tanked my interest hard. Could've been a fantastic addition to the puzzle/walking sim-genre, but ended up being just pretty good.

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

He dudado sobre si darle o no el recomendado. Por un lado la ambientación, el doblaje o algunas de las animaciones están hechas realmente bien. Por el otro, la mitad de los puzzles, y sobre todo el último, me parecen de los puzzles más aburridos y de ensayo y error que he visto. Incluso en guías (estando ya harto he buscado) dicen que lo hagas de una forma concreta, sin saber ellos muy bien porque así funciona, pero funciona. Creo que el juego no comunica nada bien que quiere de ti, y si la exploración fuese ágil, pues todavía, pero la protagonista se mueve extremadamente lento, incluso después de que se le permita "correr".

Cada vez que disfrutaba del juego y de algunos puzzles que, aunque complejos, me parecen justos (de esos que al saber la solución piensas: "Madre mía, soy tontísimo, como no lo he visto antes"), aparecía unos de esos puzzles de ensayo y error o de los aburridos. Estos no me han dejado que el juego me guste más, pero supongo que, en el cómputo general, he estado más tiempo entretenido que cagándome en la pobre familia de los devs, que no tienen culpa de absolutamente nada.

David’s 30 Platinum Trophies Before Turning 30

4/30

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️: As close to perfection as one can get.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5: Excellence incarnate.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️: Amazing experience.
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5: Good game.
⭐️⭐️⭐️: Fun enough to be worth your time.
⭐️⭐️.5: Missed the mark in a considerable amount of elements.
⭐️⭐️: A trudge towards progress/completion.
⭐️.5: A great deal of regrets playing this.
⭐️: Truly disappointing.
.5: Kudos to anyone with a shred of bother.

The above rating descriptions pertain strictly to the overall rating after taking into consideration the elements below, for which I’ll still employ a five-point rating to get an average afterwards.

Graphics: 5 - Just beautiful.

Gameplay: 3.5 - A captivating puzzler that truly needs a bit of mental flexing. My only qualm is that it’s a bit slow for my personal pace.

Audio: 4.5 - With environmental sounds as enchanting as the world they bring to life, it’s also such a pleasure listening to the protagonist.

Replay Value: 1- The slow pace that I’ve mentioned made it tedious to clean up missed collectibles, so make sure to soak it all in with one go as much as possible. You can’t skip cutscenes, too.

Story: 5 - Wonderfully tragic, blending mystical elements to provide some captivating magical realism.

Overall: 3.8 - Answer the call.

Generally a decent time. Interesting setting helped by pretty nice graphics and environmental design and the story remains intriguing all throughout the end. Unfortunately the same can't be said about the puzzles which are average at best and sometimes kinda take you out of the experience all together. For the most part they do not feel organic or clever at all sadly. The PC version also runs pretty bad with shader/traversal stutter and some pretty heavy slowdowns when water/particle effects take up too much screen space.

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.