''Call of the Sea'' is an

adventure video game An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or Puzzle video game, puzzle-solving. The Video game genres, genre's focus on story allows it to draw ...

developed by Out of the Blue and published by Raw Fury. The game was released for

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ser ...

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...

, and

Xbox Series X/S The Xbox Series X/S are home video game consoles developed by Microsoft. They were both released on November 10, 2020, as the fourth generation Xbox, succeeding the Xbox One. Along with Sony's PlayStation 5, also released in November 202 ...

on December 8, 2020. The game was also released for

Amazon Luna Amazon Luna is a cloud gaming platform developed and operated by Amazon. Luna was announced on September 24, 2020, with early access available to subscribers by invitation beginning on October 20, 2020. In its early access state, Amazon Luna ...

on April 15, 2021, and for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 on May 11, 2021.

Gameplay

''Call of the Sea'' is an

played from a

first-person perspective A first-person narrative is a mode of storytelling in which a storyteller recounts events from their own point of view using the first person It may be narrated by a first-person protagonist (or other focal character), first-person re-teller ...

. The game is set in the 1930s, and players assume control of Norah ( Cissy Jones), who must explore an island set in the

Southern Pacific The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...

to find her husband, Harry (

Yuri Lowenthal Yuri Lowenthal (born March 5, 1971)Birthday references: * * * is an American voice actor, producer and screenwriter known chiefly for his work in cartoons, anime and video games. Some of his prominent roles in animations and anime include S ...

), who has gone missing after embarking on an expedition. The game does not feature a combat system, and players progress in the game by solving various puzzles.

Plot

Norah Everhart receives a package with a picture of her husband Harry, detailing coordinates to an island east of Otaheite (

Tahiti Tahiti (; Tahitian ; ; previously also known as Otaheite) is the largest island of the Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean and the nearest major landmass is Austra ...

). Harry had vanished after embarking on an expedition to find a cure for Norah's mysterious family illness, which is slowly killing her. Norah journeys to the island, which she had had recurring dreams of. Moving inland, she finds a camp used by the expedition, which consisted of Harry, reporter Cassandra Ward, mechanic Frank Dayton, dermatologist Ernest De Witt, stuntman Roy Granger, and their Tahitian guide Teaharoa. The expedition had found a well used by the islanders for a ritual involving a black ichor. Impatient, Roy had used dynamite to blow open the well, accidentally killing himself and splatting De Witt's arm with the ichor. De Witt then started losing his sanity and developing skin blotches similar to Norah's. The team had attempted to replicate the ritual, but abandoned it after the ship that brought them, the ''Lady Shannon'', had washed ashore nearby. Norah replicates the ritual, causing the well to fill with ooze with her inside. She experiences a vision in which she walks off a cliff into a river, while watched by a giant amphibious-looking creature, and finds herself transformed into a sea creature. Norah wakes up near the crashed ''Lady Shannon'', and finds it torn apart with claw marks, with its crew missing. Norah finds the expedition had set up another camp, and De Witt, now insane, had stabbed Frank, but was stopped and tied up, later disappearing. The team had discovered an organ carved into the rocks and used it to open a passage to a temple on the island's peak. Norah travels to the temple, where the expedition had employed loudspeakers to use the organ's music to open the temple door. This caused a rockslide, while Frank had succumbed to his stab wound. After restoring power to the loudspeakers, Norah is knocked out, and dreams of a desert surrounded by the bones of sea creatures, and of her mother's music box, which played the organ's music. Singing it, Norah opens the temple, and finds a note by Harry explaining that she is not ill, but instead changing into something

new New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator ...

. Norah finds gateways that allow her to transform into her amphibious form. She arrives at a village, used by the island's inhabitants, who were 'slaves' of unknown masters. Norah finds a note by Harry explaining that the masters took their slaves to a 'sanctuary' to complete their transformation, which he intended to undergo to become like Norah, so they could be together. This led to arguments between Cassandra and Teaharoa, leading to the latter leaving the island. Norah journeys to the sanctuary, finding sea creatures which treat her with familiarity. Norah also feels more "alive" in the island than she ever had. At the sanctuary, she finds a note from Harry in which he seems to be losing his sanity, with blood leading into the building. Norah enters the throne room, and finds a mutated body, with Harry's glasses beside it. Norah realizes the body is Cassandra's, who, coveting the sea creatures' immortality, had shot Harry, attempted to transform into them, and died in the process. Harry understood that the ritual would not work on him, and left. He sent Norah the package, faking his death in an attempt to get her to undergo the transformation and save herself. Depending on player choice, Norah can either complete her transformation or reject it. If she transforms, she abandons her humanity and journeys to an underwater city for a seemingly joyous eternal life, at the cost of never seeing Harry again. If she rejects it, she lives out the rest of her remaining years with Harry. During the credits, Norah and Harry sing their favorite song, '' Dear Old Pal of Mine'', together. Depending on the choice, the couple will either finish the song, or be interrupted by Norah's illness. Regardless of the ending, Harry is left alone, and years later, now working as the Dean of Archaeology at

Miskatonic University Miskatonic University is a fictional university located in Arkham, a fictional town in Essex County, Massachusetts. It is named after the Miskatonic River (also fictional). After first appearing in H. P. Lovecraft's 1922 story " Herbert West–Re ...

, contemplates whether he made the right decision in lying to Norah.

Development

''Call of the Sea'' is the debut title for Out of the Blue, an independent studio based in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

, Spain. The team consisted of about 12 people. According to Tatiana Delgado, the founder of Out of the Blue, the game was heavily inspired by the works of H. P. Lovecraft. However, she added that they only took inspirations from the "surreal" and "oneiric" part of his work, and asserted that the game would not be a

horror game A horror game is a video game genre centered on horror fiction and typically designed to scare the player. Unlike most other video game genres, which are classified by their gameplay, horror games are nearly always based on narrative or visual ...

. She added that "''Call of the Sea'' isn't a descent into madness but a rise to sanity". The game was a narrative-focused game, with the team working to ensure that the puzzles featured in the game are fully integrated with the story. The game also drew influence from other adventure games such as ''

Firewatch ''Firewatch'' is an adventure game developed by Campo Santo (company), Campo Santo and published by the developer in partnership with Panic Inc., Panic. The game was released in February 2016 for Microsoft Windows, macOS, OS X, Linux, and Play ...

'', ''

Myst ''Myst'' is a graphic adventure/puzzle video game designed by the Miller brothers, Robyn and Rand. It was developed by Cyan, Inc., published by Broderbund, and initially released for the Macintosh in 1993. In the game, the player's charact ...

'', ''

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'', and ''

Subnautica ''Subnautica'' is an open-world action-adventure game developed and published by Unknown Worlds Entertainment. The game has the player as a non-essential systems maintenance chief who is the only survivor of a spaceship crash on the alien planet ...

''. The game was announced on May 7, 2020, during a digital event hosted by

Xbox Game Studios Xbox Game Studios (previously known as Microsoft Studios, Microsoft Game Studios, and Microsoft Games) is an American video game publisher and part of the Microsoft Gaming division based in Redmond, Washington. It was established in March 2000, ...

. ''Call of the Sea'' was released for

and

on December 8, 2020. The game was also released for

on April 15, 2021, followed by versions for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 on May 11, 2021.

Reception

''Call of the Sea'' received positive reviews from critics, who praised the narrative and the island setting, but criticized some of the game's puzzles as being obtuse. The game has "generally favorable reviews" on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

References

External links