Call of the Sea

If you want puzzles, play it. If you're looking for a good plot, don't bother.

Call of the Sea is a first person adventure puzzle hybrid, in the style of Myst, Obduction, Schizm etc. It's played at a slow pace as you explore a diverse and beautiful island 74 miles off the coast of Tahiti in Polynesia.

You explore this island as Norah Everhart, a 1930s American who has come here searching for her missing husband Harry, after taking delivery of a mysterious letter and an artifact leading to the place.

Rather than being an open world which gradually unlocks more for you to explore, Call of the Sea is split into six individual chapters, so you're not able to really let go and explore everything you can see, which is a bit of a shame. The plus side is there's a chapter select on the main menu, so you can always go back if you miss any achievements or story beats.

The island is beautiful - it's highly stylised instead of being super realistic, and some chapters of the game, especially numbers three and four, really stand out visually on the Series X. The puzzles found within each chapter invariably involve unlocking a way forward to the next one, but they're distinct from location to location, and each one can be deciphered logically - everything you need to complete them is tracked in your journal in-game. I beat the story in about six hours without using a guide, and I implore you to do the same as solving the puzzles after following the clues makes you feel like a bit of a genius - it's very satisfying.

Unfortunately the game does have two massive downsides.

Firstly the story. Without any spoilers at all, it's full of holes, lacks background or explanation, and leaves you feeling deeply unsatisfied by the end. I have a lot of things to say on that, but I can't here without spoiling it. It's childish at worst, and badly written. You just keep thinking: Okay, but why? Why is this happening? If this is the case, how did Norah even get to this point?

Secondly, the protagonist. She never shuts up. Ever. Every single thing you discover, examine, pick up, there's spoken dialogue for it all. That's not bad per se, but the writing and delivery is completely unnatural. Norah talks out loud as if reading from a diary, about everything, past and present, and it's completely immersion breaking, as the only person she's speaking to is you: The player. It's especially annoying when she starts describing your location, and you haven't even looked up and seen what she's talking about, essentially spoiling the discovery you would make for yourself. It's the same with the puzzles. You find a clue or an object which you can manipulate, and Norah talks out loud about what it could mean or be connected to. You could mute the dialogue, but then of course you don't get any where it matters, such as in cutscenes or story beats.

Achievements
None of the achievements are missable, as you can replay every chapter and things you've discovered stay discovered, so there's nothing to worry about there - it's an easy 100%.

Summary
Call of the Sea is a bit of a weird one for me. I went from being disappointed to elated to disappointed again, and although I'd recommend it to Game Pass subscribers just for the excellent middle chunk of gameplay during chapters three and four, Norah will do her best to piss you off whilst you're playing, and the writing and plot will leave you feeling unsatisfied. Really, it's so hard not to tear into it here.

Overall I'm glad I played it, but having beaten all the puzzles and laid the story bare, I can't say I enjoyed anything but the middle part. If you want puzzles, play it. If you're looking for a good plot, don't bother.

A note on the Lovecraft link (SPOILERS!)

The game is based on a Lovecraft story, but it's never, ever stated. A lot of people liked it way more than I did. I'm happy people are enjoying it, because a chunk of the game is really great.

As for the Lovecraft thing, well - this is it, isn't it? It comes back to bad story telling. Without explicitly connecting one's game to a world built in a completely separate medium by an author whose estate you have no rights to, the game itself has to stand on its own merits. The story must work for the game on its own, as that's how it's presented - as it's own thing.

Subtleties and Easter eggs aside, if you're going to have a story where the protagonist goes through what Norah goes through here - a matter-of-fact journey with no room for interpretation as to her literal transformation - then the story has to connect with the player in a way that makes sense.

Standing as it does on its own, for that's how the game is presented, it makes no sense at all and is full of holes. It comes across as amateur, with the writer doing the worst thing they can do - assume the reader (player in this case) already knows what they're saying before they begin to say it. As such, the assumption is carried the whole way through, right to the end, as the writer believes the reader is onboard with them.