Call of the Sea looks the part with some excellent vistas but it squanders its fantastic premise on an extenuatingly slow walking speed, irritating puzzles and, worst of all, a cartoony and edulcorated version of the Cthulhu mythos that, despite stated intention, has ultimately nothing to do with Lovecraft's vision.
///Spoilers follow///
The Cthulhu mythos has never been particularly conducive or compatible with gaming: a medium that's usually all about player agency and empowering power fantasy is fundamentally at odds with a mythology in which mankind is powerless before beings beyond its means or even comprehension, the very exposure to which is enough to send one spiraling into madness. Previous games had to bend over backwards in order to implement action combat in ways that made sense, with varying results, as combat with mythos beings is not only inadvisable: it is pretty much impossible. With that in mind, this is where a non-violent walking simulator/puzzle game can do things that an action game can't, as rendering the player powerless is what these game are often about.
Call of the Sea follows Norah, a young woman suffering from an unknown ailment, which has undermined her health for several years, and whose archaeologist husband Harry has departed in search of a cure for her illness. When she loses contact with him and she receives a mysterious parcel containing strange items, Norah decides to set out in search of Harry. From this premise and the title alone, for anyone who knows the first thing about the Chthulhu mythos, it is immediately clear that Norah is a human hybrid in a semi-advanced stage of her mutation into a Deep One, a race of humanoid sea creatures who sometimes mate with human females, and whose offpring in turn eventually mutate into feral Deep Ones and leave humanity to rejoin the ocean.
If you like H.P. Lovecraft's horror fiction, the idea of playing as a Deep One hybrid is a tantalizing one, as seeing the mythos from those eyes is a novel experience. Unfortunately, Call of the Sea decided to excise the entire horror element out of H.P. Lovecraft. To paraphrase the words of the game director: "You do not live a horror story, but you experience the discovery of facts from those who have lived a horror story." That is the members of the husband's expedition, who have one after the other come to a sticky end, either falling prey to mundane accidents or killing one another in a fit of madness. I don't need to point out that the horror in Lovecraft is not found in the events that transpire in the stories, rather in the discovering of the overarching nature of the cosmos, and how human beliefs and theologies are insignificant falsehoods before the horrifying reality of what's really out there. It is therefore impossible to separate Lovecraft from horror, even if, as this game does, you premise that the protagonist doesn't feel horrified because she has mythos blood in her veins.
Another problem are the symptoms of Norah's mutation: Deep One hybrids start showing signs very early on in life, assuming features that more and more resemble those of a fish. It is what Lovraft describes as the "Innsmouth look", an unsighly appearance, coupled with violent antisocial tendencies. For a quality portrayal of this in the gaming medium, refer to Dark Corners of the Earth, in which a husband had to lock his wife in the attic, so by the time her mutation was complete she wouldn't be able to harm her family (which she does anyway). A harrowing sequence, complemented by the other encounter with other Innsmouth dwellers in various horrid stages of mutation.
Norah shows no sign of that whatsoever: she is suffering from some nondescript illness and has strange spots on her forearms and hands, which could be easily mistaken for vitiligo or liver spots. She covers them up with gloves, and that's the extent of the inconvenience brought about by her ongoing mutation. Outside of that she is conventionally attractive, chipper and no less social than your average bookish lady. In other words, her mutation barely shows any outer marks at all.
At the end of the game it is revealed that the husband had long ago discovered what she was and, knowing she would rather die of her illness than to leave him, had decided to trick her into going to the island and complete her mutation (now requiring some sort of bizarre ritual) so that she could be with her people and live. It's an odd plan that only makes sense upon superficial inspection, to say the least.
The multiple endings are the usual matter of choosing one of two buttons to see one video play instead of another: in one, Norah decides to go back home and spend a few more years with her husband before succumbing to her "illness", in the other she chooses to definitively give up her humanity and join the fish collective, or a romanticized, idealized, bizarrely aspirational vision of it, in which a generic "elder god" telepathically speaks to her in very paternal terms, disconcertingly calling her by her human name as she swims towards a bright light. Imagine Dagon referring to someone by their human name: "Come, Bob, come be a fish with us..." It's an irritatingly sanitized and edulcorated version of the mythos, made "safe for consumption" for an audience usually incompatible with it.
This is another baffling aspect of this game: you come away from it feeling like maybe it actually wasn't meant as a part of the Cthulhu mythos. After all it never mentions any mythos deity by name and, barring an easter egg nodding to the Marsh fish cannery in Innsmouth, there seems to be no direct connection to Lovecraft at all, which makes you wonder if we are looking at some sort of copyright-safe Lovecraft-adjacent piece of fiction, like Eternal Darkness on the Nintendo Gamecube was. A quick glance at the game's website dispels those doubts, however, as they are extremely unambiguous in positioning it as part of the Lovecraft lore, eveng going as far as analyzing the meaning of "lovecraftian" and how it applies to their vision with the horror element removed.
That removal is the only explanation for why they decided to omit any reference to specific elder gods, or any faithful representation of their form and behavior. It's not for copyright reasons, as lesser productions have used the Lovecraft brands very liberally before. One can throw the writers a bone and try to assume Norah is an unreliable narrator due to the gradual loss of her humanity, as such her perception of cosmic horrors is not the same as ours, but this is quite the stretch to make, especially given the stated intent of the designers. Taking the horror out of Lovecraft is an extremely bizarre choice, and a fool's errand at that, and the game's world suffers because of it.
///Spoilers end///
So if the story and implementation within Lovecraft lore don't work, what about gameplay and presentation? Sadly, things don't get much better. While the art direction of the island looks very nice, in a "made with Unity" sort of way, especially when exploring its cavernours depths, performance is fairly poor, with frame rate drops and a few glitches: multiple times I emerged from a cutscene to find a row of floating arms where my character used to be, evidently leftover of the loading process. Voice acting is middling, with a lot of actors usually performing in minor roles in larger productions delivering performances that range from acceptable to inadequate. The protagonist, for instance, maintains the same tone regardless of what happens on screen. The game seems to try to justify that with the fact she doesn't feel threatened by the things she sees, but that hardly excuses her lack of expression.
It's the gameplay, however, that really brings this game low. It's mostly a blend of puzzle solving and walking simulator, with emphasis on walking: simply put, the movement speed in this is suffocatingly slow. There is a run botton, and the speed boost it provides is comparable to the walk speed in your average first person game, if not slightly lower, while your normal pace will make you feel like your controller is broken. I was checking my phone while jogging around the island, the mere act of going from A to B being a veritable chore.
Your mileage may vary on the puzzles, and for the most part they are decent, but I found many of them to be very irritating: it usually boils down to coming to a gate that requires a code to enter, which will require slowly walking back through the area looking for clues, then slowly making your way back to the gate, and if you got it wrong, do it again. It's tedious, and Norah's commentary is hardly compelling. There is one area where you begin at the top of a deep cistern-like area with a spiraling staircase. You need to go all the way down to acquire a code, then all the way up to activate a series of switches according to it, then all the way down again to progress. Absolute timewaster, and it's but one of them.
Call of the Sea had a lot of potenttial due to its excellent premise. Unfortunately the execution is lacking and especially its wanton disregard for the Cthulhu mythos (made even worse by the statements by the developers, who seem to have done it on purpose) makes this very hard to recommend to Lovecraft fans. You might get more out of it if you go in knowing very little about the source material.
///Spoilers follow///
The Cthulhu mythos has never been particularly conducive or compatible with gaming: a medium that's usually all about player agency and empowering power fantasy is fundamentally at odds with a mythology in which mankind is powerless before beings beyond its means or even comprehension, the very exposure to which is enough to send one spiraling into madness. Previous games had to bend over backwards in order to implement action combat in ways that made sense, with varying results, as combat with mythos beings is not only inadvisable: it is pretty much impossible. With that in mind, this is where a non-violent walking simulator/puzzle game can do things that an action game can't, as rendering the player powerless is what these game are often about.
Call of the Sea follows Norah, a young woman suffering from an unknown ailment, which has undermined her health for several years, and whose archaeologist husband Harry has departed in search of a cure for her illness. When she loses contact with him and she receives a mysterious parcel containing strange items, Norah decides to set out in search of Harry. From this premise and the title alone, for anyone who knows the first thing about the Chthulhu mythos, it is immediately clear that Norah is a human hybrid in a semi-advanced stage of her mutation into a Deep One, a race of humanoid sea creatures who sometimes mate with human females, and whose offpring in turn eventually mutate into feral Deep Ones and leave humanity to rejoin the ocean.
If you like H.P. Lovecraft's horror fiction, the idea of playing as a Deep One hybrid is a tantalizing one, as seeing the mythos from those eyes is a novel experience. Unfortunately, Call of the Sea decided to excise the entire horror element out of H.P. Lovecraft. To paraphrase the words of the game director: "You do not live a horror story, but you experience the discovery of facts from those who have lived a horror story." That is the members of the husband's expedition, who have one after the other come to a sticky end, either falling prey to mundane accidents or killing one another in a fit of madness. I don't need to point out that the horror in Lovecraft is not found in the events that transpire in the stories, rather in the discovering of the overarching nature of the cosmos, and how human beliefs and theologies are insignificant falsehoods before the horrifying reality of what's really out there. It is therefore impossible to separate Lovecraft from horror, even if, as this game does, you premise that the protagonist doesn't feel horrified because she has mythos blood in her veins.
Another problem are the symptoms of Norah's mutation: Deep One hybrids start showing signs very early on in life, assuming features that more and more resemble those of a fish. It is what Lovraft describes as the "Innsmouth look", an unsighly appearance, coupled with violent antisocial tendencies. For a quality portrayal of this in the gaming medium, refer to Dark Corners of the Earth, in which a husband had to lock his wife in the attic, so by the time her mutation was complete she wouldn't be able to harm her family (which she does anyway). A harrowing sequence, complemented by the other encounter with other Innsmouth dwellers in various horrid stages of mutation.
Norah shows no sign of that whatsoever: she is suffering from some nondescript illness and has strange spots on her forearms and hands, which could be easily mistaken for vitiligo or liver spots. She covers them up with gloves, and that's the extent of the inconvenience brought about by her ongoing mutation. Outside of that she is conventionally attractive, chipper and no less social than your average bookish lady. In other words, her mutation barely shows any outer marks at all.
At the end of the game it is revealed that the husband had long ago discovered what she was and, knowing she would rather die of her illness than to leave him, had decided to trick her into going to the island and complete her mutation (now requiring some sort of bizarre ritual) so that she could be with her people and live. It's an odd plan that only makes sense upon superficial inspection, to say the least.
The multiple endings are the usual matter of choosing one of two buttons to see one video play instead of another: in one, Norah decides to go back home and spend a few more years with her husband before succumbing to her "illness", in the other she chooses to definitively give up her humanity and join the fish collective, or a romanticized, idealized, bizarrely aspirational vision of it, in which a generic "elder god" telepathically speaks to her in very paternal terms, disconcertingly calling her by her human name as she swims towards a bright light. Imagine Dagon referring to someone by their human name: "Come, Bob, come be a fish with us..." It's an irritatingly sanitized and edulcorated version of the mythos, made "safe for consumption" for an audience usually incompatible with it.
This is another baffling aspect of this game: you come away from it feeling like maybe it actually wasn't meant as a part of the Cthulhu mythos. After all it never mentions any mythos deity by name and, barring an easter egg nodding to the Marsh fish cannery in Innsmouth, there seems to be no direct connection to Lovecraft at all, which makes you wonder if we are looking at some sort of copyright-safe Lovecraft-adjacent piece of fiction, like Eternal Darkness on the Nintendo Gamecube was. A quick glance at the game's website dispels those doubts, however, as they are extremely unambiguous in positioning it as part of the Lovecraft lore, eveng going as far as analyzing the meaning of "lovecraftian" and how it applies to their vision with the horror element removed.
That removal is the only explanation for why they decided to omit any reference to specific elder gods, or any faithful representation of their form and behavior. It's not for copyright reasons, as lesser productions have used the Lovecraft brands very liberally before. One can throw the writers a bone and try to assume Norah is an unreliable narrator due to the gradual loss of her humanity, as such her perception of cosmic horrors is not the same as ours, but this is quite the stretch to make, especially given the stated intent of the designers. Taking the horror out of Lovecraft is an extremely bizarre choice, and a fool's errand at that, and the game's world suffers because of it.
///Spoilers end///
So if the story and implementation within Lovecraft lore don't work, what about gameplay and presentation? Sadly, things don't get much better. While the art direction of the island looks very nice, in a "made with Unity" sort of way, especially when exploring its cavernours depths, performance is fairly poor, with frame rate drops and a few glitches: multiple times I emerged from a cutscene to find a row of floating arms where my character used to be, evidently leftover of the loading process. Voice acting is middling, with a lot of actors usually performing in minor roles in larger productions delivering performances that range from acceptable to inadequate. The protagonist, for instance, maintains the same tone regardless of what happens on screen. The game seems to try to justify that with the fact she doesn't feel threatened by the things she sees, but that hardly excuses her lack of expression.
It's the gameplay, however, that really brings this game low. It's mostly a blend of puzzle solving and walking simulator, with emphasis on walking: simply put, the movement speed in this is suffocatingly slow. There is a run botton, and the speed boost it provides is comparable to the walk speed in your average first person game, if not slightly lower, while your normal pace will make you feel like your controller is broken. I was checking my phone while jogging around the island, the mere act of going from A to B being a veritable chore.
Your mileage may vary on the puzzles, and for the most part they are decent, but I found many of them to be very irritating: it usually boils down to coming to a gate that requires a code to enter, which will require slowly walking back through the area looking for clues, then slowly making your way back to the gate, and if you got it wrong, do it again. It's tedious, and Norah's commentary is hardly compelling. There is one area where you begin at the top of a deep cistern-like area with a spiraling staircase. You need to go all the way down to acquire a code, then all the way up to activate a series of switches according to it, then all the way down again to progress. Absolute timewaster, and it's but one of them.
Call of the Sea had a lot of potenttial due to its excellent premise. Unfortunately the execution is lacking and especially its wanton disregard for the Cthulhu mythos (made even worse by the statements by the developers, who seem to have done it on purpose) makes this very hard to recommend to Lovecraft fans. You might get more out of it if you go in knowing very little about the source material.
Jogo simples com um belo visual é pra relaxar mesmo.
A very lovely short story game.
It's a very slow walking sim, which isn't great but the game never forces you to walk for unbearably long before making you solve some puzzle or giving you a good story bit
The puzzle quality is genuinely good, puzzles that are decent headscratchers but not too ambiguous or abstaract that you need to look them up, same with the story, genuinely well placed and keeps you guessing until the end without outstaying it's welcome.
It's a good game for 1 sitting but achievement clean up is a bit messy, with the game offering no skip options for on rail sections and ladders in this game being either buggy or dreadfully slow.
It's a very slow walking sim, which isn't great but the game never forces you to walk for unbearably long before making you solve some puzzle or giving you a good story bit
The puzzle quality is genuinely good, puzzles that are decent headscratchers but not too ambiguous or abstaract that you need to look them up, same with the story, genuinely well placed and keeps you guessing until the end without outstaying it's welcome.
It's a good game for 1 sitting but achievement clean up is a bit messy, with the game offering no skip options for on rail sections and ladders in this game being either buggy or dreadfully slow.
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.
Beautifull puzzle game. Not so long and not huge difficulty. It was a pleasure.
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.
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.
The game offers a captivating story, beautiful graphics, and a unique setting that will keep players engaged for about 6 to 8 hours. The game’s puzzles may be challenging or annoying.
Great story with some bullshit puzzles
A truly amazing game.
It's kind of slow, but I think that's a good thing, since it help you savor the gorgeous scenery.
The puzzles are simple, so you don't get stuck easily, but the hunt for the hints is what I enjoyed more.
Graphics and soundtrack are both amazing, and at times I found myself just wandering around, watching every single detail that I could notice.
Story-wise, it was one of the most touching I've experience this year.
And, for those unknowing, this game have a particular twist to the eldritch horror "trope" that many games like this (investigative walking sim) have, making me wish that many more games should explore the bizarre beauty the weird creatures of the oceans possesses.
Oh yeah, I also cried a bit throughout this game :v
It's kind of slow, but I think that's a good thing, since it help you savor the gorgeous scenery.
The puzzles are simple, so you don't get stuck easily, but the hunt for the hints is what I enjoyed more.
Graphics and soundtrack are both amazing, and at times I found myself just wandering around, watching every single detail that I could notice.
Story-wise, it was one of the most touching I've experience this year.
And, for those unknowing, this game have a particular twist to the eldritch horror "trope" that many games like this (investigative walking sim) have, making me wish that many more games should explore the bizarre beauty the weird creatures of the oceans possesses.
Oh yeah, I also cried a bit throughout this game :v
This review contains spoilers
Esse jogo é bem simples na verdade, fazer puzzles e pronto, mas a história é muito cativante e descobrir os mistérios da ilha é bom demais, porém se fosse por isso esse jogo seria somente um 7 pra 7.5, porem o final desse jogo ME DESMORONOU, eu chorei muito, principalmente por estar em um relacionamento o final me afetou mais do que devia, dar ao jogador o papel da escolha no final é muito mais forte do que um curso linear, eu chorei muito mesmo e foi uma das experiências mais marcantes em video game, mesmo que pela sua gameplay e num geral o jogo ser apenas bom, o final foi tão impactante que eu não posso dar uma nota menor que 9, que sacana esse final foi.
This review contains spoilers
Odpaliłem trochę tak bez zastanowienia co to w ogóle jest, a siedziałem w weekend do nocy żeby skończyć historię. Fajny klimat wyspy, kilka naprawdę fajnych zagadek i trochę szkoda, że nawiązania do Cthulhu nie są bardziej rozbudowane.
First impressions seems alright, overdone theme of loved one missing and you looking for them. But it does have nice visuals. Will try to play whenever in the mood for something this specific.
Call of the Sea, shallow as a puddle.
Plusy: ładna grafika, sporo różnorodnych łamigłówek
Minusy: fatalna fabuła, bugi, potwornie wolno bohaterka chodzi, przeciętny VA
Minusy: fatalna fabuła, bugi, potwornie wolno bohaterka chodzi, przeciętny VA
Call of the Sea was a very fun puzzle adventure game! The story was definitely engrossing and the puzzles bolstered the story as it went along. The environments were definitely interesting to look at and just gaze upon the areas. My only real issue with it was some puzzles were tough to figure out what to do and took a while to figure out. But, I definitely enjoyed my time with Call of the Sea in general!
Meh
parecia que eu tava fumando um baseado enquanto jogava pois não entendia nada mas depois que engata vc fica passada
Call of the Sea (2020): Un walking simulator con dos cimientos, sus puzzles, poco inspirados, obtusos y alargados artificialmente, y su narrativa, que hace aguas por todas partes (je), incoherente e intencionalmente confusa para forzar la "sorpresa" al jugador. Todo mal (3,85)
Really good game.
The artstyle is the reason I wanted to play this, as this is one of the most beautiful games I've ever played. Sometimes I would just sit and stare at the game, it just look so good.
The Story is what takes center stage here, and its pretty good. It starts out a little boring, but as it continues it gets pretty wild. Everyone diving more and more into insanity from being on the Island was a crazy thing to wacth unfold. It's also a really beautiful love story, one of sacrifice and determination from both Harry and the main protagonist Nora. It really starts to tug on your heart strings near the end.
Nora herself is a pretty good protagonist. My only problem with her would be how sometimes she can seem a little niave to her cituation, or she won't have the proper reaction to the absolutely insane things happening around her. She's still a great charcter though, very selfless and determined to save her husband.
The gameplay is puzzles. These puzzles often are very obtues and convaluded, at least they were for me. Chapter 3 probably was the worst of it. I hate to have to look up walkthroughs when playing games, and I think that's what seperated the good puzzle games from the great ones, when they aren't complete horseshit. I did like a good bit of them though, so its not like they were all bad.
The thing I can't stand with this game the most is this horrible motion blur. My gosh, this is some eye melting mush of motion blur. It takes the game from stunigly beautiful to making it look just terrible. You have to play it to see what I mean, it's really bad. There should atleast have been an optipon to turn it off.
Something I got to quickly mention is the musical score. It was absolutley beautiful, and really made everything fully come together whenever it came on.
Lastly, the ending. It was weird, it was a little convaluded, maybe a little dumb, but it was very bittersweet. Having to chose between going back to Harry and living with your illness until you die, or accepting your fate, is something that I'm wondering if that was something the developers should have done. I chose to accept my fate, I did this because everything Harry did, and everything people died for, would have been for nothing. Harry's ending is a bit sad, but I think he would rather Nora be alive and well then her be dead.
All and all, I enjoyed this game quite a bit. It's puzzles could have been a lot better, and the motion blur is some of the worst I've ever seen. But the story is great, the artstyle gorgeous, and the music fantastic. I'm not sure I would recomend this to anyone who like games in general, but If you like Story driven and/or puzzle games, play this game.
Score: 3.6/5
Letter Grade: B
The artstyle is the reason I wanted to play this, as this is one of the most beautiful games I've ever played. Sometimes I would just sit and stare at the game, it just look so good.
The Story is what takes center stage here, and its pretty good. It starts out a little boring, but as it continues it gets pretty wild. Everyone diving more and more into insanity from being on the Island was a crazy thing to wacth unfold. It's also a really beautiful love story, one of sacrifice and determination from both Harry and the main protagonist Nora. It really starts to tug on your heart strings near the end.
Nora herself is a pretty good protagonist. My only problem with her would be how sometimes she can seem a little niave to her cituation, or she won't have the proper reaction to the absolutely insane things happening around her. She's still a great charcter though, very selfless and determined to save her husband.
The gameplay is puzzles. These puzzles often are very obtues and convaluded, at least they were for me. Chapter 3 probably was the worst of it. I hate to have to look up walkthroughs when playing games, and I think that's what seperated the good puzzle games from the great ones, when they aren't complete horseshit. I did like a good bit of them though, so its not like they were all bad.
The thing I can't stand with this game the most is this horrible motion blur. My gosh, this is some eye melting mush of motion blur. It takes the game from stunigly beautiful to making it look just terrible. You have to play it to see what I mean, it's really bad. There should atleast have been an optipon to turn it off.
Something I got to quickly mention is the musical score. It was absolutley beautiful, and really made everything fully come together whenever it came on.
Lastly, the ending. It was weird, it was a little convaluded, maybe a little dumb, but it was very bittersweet. Having to chose between going back to Harry and living with your illness until you die, or accepting your fate, is something that I'm wondering if that was something the developers should have done. I chose to accept my fate, I did this because everything Harry did, and everything people died for, would have been for nothing. Harry's ending is a bit sad, but I think he would rather Nora be alive and well then her be dead.
All and all, I enjoyed this game quite a bit. It's puzzles could have been a lot better, and the motion blur is some of the worst I've ever seen. But the story is great, the artstyle gorgeous, and the music fantastic. I'm not sure I would recomend this to anyone who like games in general, but If you like Story driven and/or puzzle games, play this game.
Score: 3.6/5
Letter Grade: B
Story was interesting and original and like half of the puzzles were fun and engaging. The rest of them were incredibly obtuse though. Took me a while to figure some of them out.
PROS:
- the art style is really gorgeous, kind of a pastel vibe, and looks and runs great on PS5.
- the voice acting is all very solid, although I do wish that the protagonist Norah would sometimes let the player soak up what they're saying without feeling the need to exposition-dump constantly (more on this later).
- the story was definitely interesting enough to keep me playing until the end, and the game is relatively short so it doesn't overstay its welcome.
- the puzzles, for the most part, were quite good. They hit the sweet spot of not too easy but also not too hard that I wanted to bash my head against the wall solving them.
CONS:
- as mentioned earlier, Norah talks WAY too much in this game. Sometimes I just wanted to take in the scenery and vistas of the island the game takes place on without her constant voice over.
- earlier on in the story there is a creepy, almost psychological horror Cthulu vibe that the game presents, but this seems to just get abandoned a few chapters in, which is a shame. I'm thinking in particular of one of the early 'dream sequences' which has a moment in it that I won't spoil but which genuinely unnerved me, would have loved to have seen the devs explore this angle more.
- my biggest gripe in this game has to be the movement speed. It is, admittedly, plot related as Norah has an illness which inhibits her movement, but this seems like a concession which is only a detriment to the player. One of the chapters towards the end of the story features a puzzle which requires moving between multiple floors of an in-game space, and it is so much more frustrating than it needs to be because of the protagonist's slow movement speed. There is a sprint button, but it is still not fast enough.
OVERALL - 4/5 - for fans of puzzle games and maybe even walking sims there is a lot to like here, as a beautifully realised game-world combines with an interesting plot to create an engaging experience. The movement speed sucks, though.
- the art style is really gorgeous, kind of a pastel vibe, and looks and runs great on PS5.
- the voice acting is all very solid, although I do wish that the protagonist Norah would sometimes let the player soak up what they're saying without feeling the need to exposition-dump constantly (more on this later).
- the story was definitely interesting enough to keep me playing until the end, and the game is relatively short so it doesn't overstay its welcome.
- the puzzles, for the most part, were quite good. They hit the sweet spot of not too easy but also not too hard that I wanted to bash my head against the wall solving them.
CONS:
- as mentioned earlier, Norah talks WAY too much in this game. Sometimes I just wanted to take in the scenery and vistas of the island the game takes place on without her constant voice over.
- earlier on in the story there is a creepy, almost psychological horror Cthulu vibe that the game presents, but this seems to just get abandoned a few chapters in, which is a shame. I'm thinking in particular of one of the early 'dream sequences' which has a moment in it that I won't spoil but which genuinely unnerved me, would have loved to have seen the devs explore this angle more.
- my biggest gripe in this game has to be the movement speed. It is, admittedly, plot related as Norah has an illness which inhibits her movement, but this seems like a concession which is only a detriment to the player. One of the chapters towards the end of the story features a puzzle which requires moving between multiple floors of an in-game space, and it is so much more frustrating than it needs to be because of the protagonist's slow movement speed. There is a sprint button, but it is still not fast enough.
OVERALL - 4/5 - for fans of puzzle games and maybe even walking sims there is a lot to like here, as a beautifully realised game-world combines with an interesting plot to create an engaging experience. The movement speed sucks, though.
+ Beautifully made environments.
+ The lighting and atmospheric effects fit so well with the artstyle, and the artstyle itself is quite gorgeous.
+ A great return to a somewhat forgotten time period.
- The puzzles are somewhat random, and the story itself is quite predictable, but it does not detract from the experience.
+ The lighting and atmospheric effects fit so well with the artstyle, and the artstyle itself is quite gorgeous.
+ A great return to a somewhat forgotten time period.
- The puzzles are somewhat random, and the story itself is quite predictable, but it does not detract from the experience.
Es un poco como si La forma del agua fuese un juego escrito por Nolan.
Gradually felt more and more like a drag for me. It started out strong, but lost me as it went on with the narrative and puzzles. Kinda sad because I wanted to like it besides visuals :/
Ein Spiel was ohne Combat klarkommt und durch die entspannte Atmosphäre eine Art Urlaubsgefühl mit Schnitzeljagd auslöst.
Call of the Sea ist ein Indie Spiel mit cleveren Rätseln die nie zu konfus sind um sie nicht zu verstehen, aber gleichzeitig auch nicht zu einfach um einfach durchzusprinten.
Die Grafik ist in Ordnung, und die Sprecherin kann meiner Meinung nach nicht immer die Emotionen rüberbringen die gerade passend sind.
Teilweise ist es sehr auf Laufen, Objekt anklicken und Kommentar anhören getrimmt.
Trotzdem hat mir das Adventure mit seiner Story, die sich durch Notizen, Briefe und Fotos erzählt, sehr gut gefallen.
Außerdem gibt es an vielen Ecken was zu finden, seien es Collectibles oder Easter Eggs, was mir sowieso immer gefällt.
Call of the Sea ist ein Indie Spiel mit cleveren Rätseln die nie zu konfus sind um sie nicht zu verstehen, aber gleichzeitig auch nicht zu einfach um einfach durchzusprinten.
Die Grafik ist in Ordnung, und die Sprecherin kann meiner Meinung nach nicht immer die Emotionen rüberbringen die gerade passend sind.
Teilweise ist es sehr auf Laufen, Objekt anklicken und Kommentar anhören getrimmt.
Trotzdem hat mir das Adventure mit seiner Story, die sich durch Notizen, Briefe und Fotos erzählt, sehr gut gefallen.
Außerdem gibt es an vielen Ecken was zu finden, seien es Collectibles oder Easter Eggs, was mir sowieso immer gefällt.
Esperaba algo más del argumento y los puzles a veces son un poco meh, pero a nivel visual es muy bonito, solo por eso ya merece la pena.
The puzzles are mostly good, although most can be easily figured out by finding all of the journal notes. The visuals are often striking, unfortunately the narrative is disappointingly a bore. In the end I think I liked Call of the Sea, though I don't see it sticking with me for very long.
just didn't click
This review contains spoilers
Puzzles were all essentially, collate information once information is collated puzzle solves itself. Story was decent, endings fine on their own but once you know both its kinda disappointing.
decent walking sim. it has some okay puzzles and an okay story and largely manages to be okay. the highlight of the game is its environments which are beautiful.