Oh, Those horrible dreams again..!!
Developed by Out of the Blue, Call of the Sea is a short and sweet adventure-filled puzzle game that is borrowed heavily from the 19th-century novels of Jules Verne and HG Wells.
With constant traveling to mysterious locations, you will get to explore the remnants of an ancient civilization, tropical islands, and a lot more while making constant discoveries throughout your journey.
The gist of the Game
Call of the Sea takes place in 1934 as a woman named Nora, suffering from an unknown disorder, finds herself on a quest to find her missing husband. It explained that her missing husband, Harry, initially ventured out to South Pacific in search of a cure for the illness that she suffers from, where her arms have blotches on them.
They craft the entire adventure in a way where the players will learn more about Nora’s past relationships with her husband and the events that took place on the island involving the entire crew. Making your way, you rely on clues that Harry has left, and through the notes, journals, and Norah’s remarks. Enjoying the journey, you will get to know about their tragic and sweet love story.
Get immersed in the discovery
Immersions in puzzle adventures are everything. Puzzle adventure is about playing a game and dig so much into it that all you care about is getting on to the next puzzle. Call of the Sea is such an amazing first-person puzzle adventure that makes the player immerses in a world that begs to be explored with a few unconventional design choices.
The difficulty is also quite interesting, as the developers incorporated easier puzzles that revolve around a much more complicated design. These puzzles are very carefully designed, and these are all about the perspective of the players.
As you make your way through, you will find time-consuming areas as well in the game, such as inspecting tabletops and careful eye at images on the wall, and a lot more. These inspections will make things easier for you when reaching a hurdle with progression.
There will be times throughout the game when you need to loom notes and clues and double back to see if there’s anything is missed. In the later part of the game, they do not explain some puzzles adequately and hence take a lot of trial and error to solve.
Not only this, but you will be lost in transitions as well. Call of the Sea will transport you from one place to another with no genuine connection to the previous area. Most of the time, Nora passes out in one place and wakes up in the new site. This will not only make you wonder on the island but will also hurt your sense of direction and confuse the understanding of the events taking place.
Get to know Nora
Nora is a strong female protagonist that is voiced by Cissy Jones. She is on a quest to discover herself, her identity, and the truth behind the disappearance of her husband. She keeps a journal with herself that she updates upon each discovery. This journal is also full of text and is quite helpful in sharing insights when you missed something or just thoughts that aren’t explicitly present in the dialogue by the midpoint of the adventure.
Voice, Music, and Graphics
The Voice of Nora is given by actor Jones. It’s an enormous task to carry an entire campaign of the game where you are essentially talking to yourself, but she has done it so effortlessly and nailed the overall performance. The range of emotions displayed in dialogue was also perfectly delivered through moments of stress, humility, and curiosity.
Music in Call of the Sea is also called interestingly. It plays a more subtle role in the adventure as the developer used more environmental sounds to immerse the player. There are immense moments in the game where the music was present to stand out more prominently and significantly positively impact enjoyment.
Talks about the graphics, Call of the sea knock visuals out of the park. The developers have created a beautiful and thriving world with so much detail in the stunning tropical environment. These finely placed set pieces tell stories and brim beautiful insights with every discovered note. The use of lightning is also properly done on guiding the player.
Our Verdict
Call of the sea is a puzzle adventure that all fans of the genre should play. It is riding in environments that are strikingly immersive as the player and Nora find themselves traveling deeper down the rabbit hole of mystery and making discoveries. There are moments of confusion in its designs and directions but, all the tools are present to explore this beautifully charming adventure through engaging miss style puzzles and a captivating story. The only wish is to remain unfulfilled – it was to be a little longer.
Our Verdict for the game is 8 /10
