Call of the Sea (Xbox One)
Call of the Sea is a narrative exploration game that utilizes a few familiar horror concepts but is it not at all a horror story itself. The game makes no attempt to terrify the player, but by dipping into certain elements it can create a strong sense of atmosphere for its mystery even though much of its plot is one of self-discovery and persisting love. You are never in peril, but supernatural elements do add a sense of cosmic wonder to a journey that is more interesting for not indulging in anything horrific.
Call of the Sea is the story of Norah, a woman living in the 1930s with an unknown illness that is slowly becoming worse and wearing her down. Her husband Harry is eager to find a cure or at least some information on what afflicts her, and so he takes off to an island near Tahiti on a lead. When he doesn’t return though, Norah receives a letter guiding her to where he was last seen, heading out herself to not only try to find Harry on a strange mysterious island in the Pacific but starting to uncover the trail he left behind as he learned more and more about Norah’s illness. The game is presented in first-person and Norah does not see many other characters during her own expedition, but the player isn’t left in quiet contemplation as Norah’s reflections on what she finds are spoken aloud. Not only is this helpful for deciphering certain objects and files you find along the adventure as she can provide some context you might not be privy to, but she also has many small comments about her own life with Harry as well as her history with the disease. While the exploration of the island will eventually lead to more concrete truths about what has happened to Harry and what her affliction is, the personal window provided by her thoughts is definitely important in giving this game its emotional stakes, those simple memories combining into a picture of a life the couple lead that makes you desire a happy ending to the adventure.
Landing on the island you will find it a gorgeous natural world with vibrant colors, and while the impressive and stylistic visuals can sometimes be broken a little by things like rendering distance making an object disappear before you’re too far off or a swinging hook might clip through beach debris, the overall impact gives an appealing atmosphere to the space you’ll be exploring so thoroughly. Ancient ruins, established campsites, and bright and beautiful underwater reefs give a strong sense of place while usually feeling fairly realistic in their design despite some supernatural elements, small stories sometimes told just by the placement of objects in an area. This is particularly enhanced by following behind Harry’s trail, finding not only areas where his expedition team left behind tools and research material but also records of what they were up to at that place. In some ways, Harry’s story as well as that of the ancient people you learn of through reliefs and what Harry’s expedition was able to interpret end up being the true story of the adventure, Norah an observer in a similar manner as the player. Her relevance is mostly as the reason behind Harry’s work, but there are a few revelatory moments to give Norah something to work through emotionally so you aren’t just picking up the breadcrumbs of a story you didn’t see unfold.
The major mystery of the game is certainly the most enticing part of the tale, and even though Chapter 2 ends with a pretty big revelation when there are only 6 in total, you’ll realize quickly there is still a lot of context missing that is left to be filled in as you go forward, Call of the Sea showing some of its hand to entice you in deeper as it has had time to hook you with more elements that need answers. The music does a good job of adding to the air of mystery, a subtle soundtrack walking along with you as you explore areas at your own pace. In certain cutscenes the game manages some excellent synchronicity between reveals and environmental alteration in time with the backing music, the game prodding you towards a well-earned sense of wonder as something unexpectedly grand takes place.
Most of your adventure will involve walking around the island’s different areas both in search of information left behind and for the solutions to puzzles that block your progress. Call of the Sea’s most interesting puzzles are based around ideas like interpretation and collating different pieces of information found as you were poking around the area. The game may present you with a series of symbols from ancient writing and you gradually discover their meaning, but then you need to discover how those symbols must be arranged to activate a device. Quite often the initial solution that comes to mind won’t be the right one as you need more context for the data you’re working with, and the game keeps such puzzles contained within the current space so you’ll at least have a fairly good sense of what might be relevant at the moment.
You are given a journal that automatically keeps track of not only the goings-on of the story (both Norah’s current actions and what you learn of Harry’s history) but also records vital information for the puzzles. If you need certain symbols you’ll find them perfectly reproduced in the journal so you won’t need to walk back and forth if you forget a vital piece of info, and while this does definitely help avoid tedium or frustration, it can also take a bit of the wind out of the sails of certain puzzles. By placing all the data next to each other it can make some solutions a bit too obvious, but sometimes even when you do believe you know what to be looking for you’ll suddenly find some complication like a damaged or even missing object so you need to logically deduce the answer in lieu of this information gap.
There are definitely some simpler and straightforward puzzles along the way as well, and it might be wise to have a few breather activities between the more involved and complex ones, but at times it can feel like you spend a fair bit doing lesser activities. For a fairly sizeable section of one chapter you’re underwater and the exploration leaves little room for finding interesting information while the puzzles are often little locks where you need to manage liquid flow. The liquid flows in at different speeds so you need to time their activation right so they hit the center around the same time, these locks one of the few times speed is really important to the gameplay and they are used perhaps too many times for how easy they are to accidentally get out of sequence. Similarly a music puzzle you play by ear takes a while to figure out and resets its “sound and repeat” sequence for any failures, so during those moments it strays away from its wheelhouse of interpretation focused puzzles it does feel a touch weak.
THE VERDICT: Call of the Sea has some excellent design work with evocative music for its mystery story and the areas you explore are good hosts for the narrative exploration while also being lovely to look at. Learning about the events that befell Harry’s expedition, the people involved in it, and uncovering the ways of an ancient culture also gives you an enticing narrative to follow, Norah’s commentary helping to root her more into it when at times it can feel she is a bit disconnected from the tales told through papers and murals. The clever puzzles based on interpreting many different sets of data that don’t just link together smoothly are the real highlight of the adventure though, and while it sometimes dabbles in less thrilling puzzle ideas, the more creative ones shine and give you some compelling gameplay to attach to an emotional narrative.
And so, I give Call of the Sea for Xbox One…
A GOOD rating. A bit more consistency in puzzle design would definitely raise my estimation of Call of the Sea as at times it felt like it could be rated more highly, but moments like the water section mentioned earlier do lead to little droughts in story with lesser gameplay to sustain you. When things begin you have the game dishing out beautiful scenic areas, frequent expansions to your understanding of Harry’s expedition and the ancient civilization of the island, and intriguing puzzles about finding the way different sets of data come together. It does a solid job of hooking the player and drawing them in more and more, those lulls a bit unfortunate but the grander details of the mystery still effective enough to keep the player engaged and there is still a good amount of emotional weight as the player is given a clear picture of Harry and Norah’s relationship thanks to the choice to have her speak her thoughts aloud. There are little highlights to the records of Harry’s expedition as well, characters you come to know and mysteries developing within that tale beyond their discoveries, the game mixing in some interpersonal drama that way even though Norah rarely talks directly to anyone. Its nature as a first-person narrative exploration game likely lead to Norah not being in the spotlight too often, but she gets enough moments that the journey can feel personal even if a bit more agency than following in people’s footsteps the whole game could have potentially been a more gratifying means of self-discovery for the character.
I’ve avoided directly acknowledging the clear moments of horror inspiration and I think that’s for the best, as while they do add a sense of mystery at moments and others set a proper tone for a darker part of the tale, they’re more used to capture the sense of unease when dabbling in something unknown and supernatural. It is an emotional story with fantasy elements, clever puzzles, and heartfelt story moments, the relationship between Harry and Norah easy to get invested in and so the surrounding elements of the island’s relation to the illness and the trials and travails of the expedition end up more effective for it. It’s a mystery tale first and foremost, but throwing in portions from horror, romance, and even drama we get a narrative exploration game that has an enjoyable narrative on top of providing interesting gameplay roadblocks that require some thought to overcome.