Call of the Sea

The year is 1934. You are playing Norah Everhart, a woman with a mysterious family illness. Your husband Harry went on an expedition to find a cure but never came back. When you receive a package with a picture of Harry and the coordinates to a remote island in the Southern Pacific you decide to follow him. As you arrive on the island you realize this is the same island you have been dreaming about. How strange. You start exploring the island to find your husband – and maybe a cure for your condition.

So you are kind of ill, but not ill enough to journey all on your own to a deserted island. And surely a woman can fend for her own on a lonely island with hints of a lost civilization and heavy Cthulhu vibes. Cause these are the 1930s. Why wouldn’t you go on an adventure?

The Good

Sarcasm aside. This is the game: You are alone on an island and try to figure out what happened to the expedition and your husband. So you do some exploring and try to solve some puzzles.

If you played games like this before the puzzles won’t be very hard. Especially since all the necessary hints are scribbled in your journal as soon as you find them. So you advance pretty quickly and can finish the game in around six hours, including searching some areas for secrets. I was surprised how fast I got to the end.

The graphics are really nice. At some points, you might just stop and look a the landscape. Some puzzles will trigger cutscenes which are well done as well.

Norah's voice acting is done by Cissy Jones, who also appeared in games like Firewatch, The Walking Dead and Life Is Strange. This part is working fine.

The … I don’t wanna say bad, cause it is not necessarily bad, but … let’s say, the not so good

For my taste, the puzzles are a bit too easy. Unless you missed a hint there is not that much to think about as you only have to look in your journal to know what is important. Also, there are not enough puzzles. But then again, other players might find this length ideal.

The story has one major problem. After the prologue, the ending is pretty much clear. If you have ever read, seen, or played any Cthulu- or Pulp-infused story nothing will surprise you here.

On the other hand, the game is not just about Norah and Harry. You also get to know the other members of the expedition a bit. The mechanic Frank Dayton, doctor Ernest De Witt, stuntman Roy Granger, and their Tahitian guide Teaharoa and reporter Cassandra Ward. Some parts of their story are revealed through letters you find around the island. This is rather odd. Why would they send letters to each other when they could just talk to each other? This is not really elegant, but of course, there needs to be a way for Norah to find out what happened.

Also, Norah moves rather slow. Even if you are running, this can become annoying. Luckily you don’t have to do much backtracking (unless you get stuck).

Final thoughts

If you like puzzle games you can do on the weekend without the danger of getting stuck at complicated puzzles Call of the Sea is a really nice game.

If you prefer a longer game with more challenging puzzles and a better story, I suggest you buy Obduction instead.