Call of the Sea (2020)

There may be other reviews that are giving details about the story but I feel like to know anything givers away too much of the magic that is the story. If you are a fan of dark and mysterious things you may begin to add up the hints, but the story is in how unique the experience is.

Norah is wonderfully brave and daring. Where other characters in her shoes have succumbed to madness she experiences joy and wonder. She's been suffering a lifelong illness that left her weakened and frail. So the ability to move without a cane is a wonderous first for her. She's inquisitive and her dairy fills with the details of her journey. She is both studying the history but also writing details to the mystery so that you may piece together the puzzles of the island.

The puzzles are also brilliant. These aren't the cheap simple puzzles you get in most narrative forward puzzle games. They are layered and make you think on a few different levels. They leave you feeling rather brilliant for solving them. I didn't feel that any of them overstayed their welcome. And I finished the overall story in a brisk 7.7 hours. All in one go.

The choice at the end made me reflect on my own past and current loves. As someone quite sentimental this was an incredibly touching story. About trust, loyalty and going the distance. Any distance.

You have to play this

I happened to stumble across this game during a sale, and I'm so glad I picked it up. The puzzles ranged from ok to good to frustrating. I was proud of myself when I solved some, but I'm very impatient and had to look up a few of them. The music and visuals give this game it's form but the story was its heart. It's part love story, and I got so invested in reuniting these two cuties. I hope this game gets lots of love, and I'll be checking out Out of the Blue's other games.

I played this on my PS5, and the platinum was kinda fun, you get rewarded for exploring and some of the trophy names are pretty funny especially "Fawning Developers" and "You looked that up in a guide!"

I played this game as part of the Xbox Game Pass collection and immediately dived into the colorful, beautiful scenery and the calming sounds of the island. The story is intriguing, you walk around an island, and solve puzzles for a fairly short gameplay.

Story

It's 1934 and you play as Norah, who arrives at this island to find out what happened to her husband, who disappeared on an expedition previously. You find yourself on an unknown tropical island that has remnants of a lost civilization, which you slowly uncover pieces of throughout the course of the game. As you explore the island further, you not only put together what happened to your husband, you dive further into your own identify and heritage.

Gameplay

It's a narrative walking simulator with puzzle solving. At first, it feels like the puzzles mesh well with the environment and you can explore the areas you're in to solve it. However, as you progress in the game, the puzzles become rather vague and infuriating to figure out; almost like the developer lost some steam later in the game, and just threw in whatever. I was a little annoyed that I had to look up answers more often that I wanted. Maybe I'm just not that clever, lol.

Overall

It's short with colorful scenery on a tropical island, and has a strong start. The story is really interesting, I liked the development of Norah's character and the discoveries with the lost civilization. If you don't mind some of the puzzles being a bit vague and might have to look up answers, I think this game is worth playing when it goes on sale on Steam or available on the Xbox Game Pass.

Call of the Sea is a really nice relaxing puzzle game with a really decent story. The puzzle solving is fun, if you like those type of games you will love this game. It's a fantastic game about love, friendship, mystery and the struggle of terminal disease. The story is what matters in this game, being able to experience that incredible history was amazing.

The game has some technical issues but it really doesn't matter and doesn't affect the gameplay in any way. The puzzles even though there's not a lot of them are really good and pretty well-balanced in difficulty which progresses with every chapter. I highly recommend this game to everyone who found The Witness or narrative experiences like What Remains of Edith Finch an unmissable treat.