Call of the Sea

This seems to be a good game—however, I cannot recommend buying this as of now, because the graphics are really badly optimized: The game, despite its rather basic graphics style, is running much too slowly, laggy und stuttery. I mean, come on, I am running Assassin's Creed Valhalla on Very High settings with over 60 FPS, and Call of the Sea is barely slugging along just so so. These issues should be addressed by the developers immediately.

First of all, the performance of the game is just fine. I'm getting 80-120 FPS on max settings with a mobile RTX 2070. For one thing, people underestimate how taxing stylized visuals can be. For another, if you want all games to run similarly and be able to run them just like everyone else does, buy a console! At least as far as I've played it, I had a great time with exploring that gorgeous island and solving some basic puzzles. BUT... Based on the description, the trailer and reviews, I assumed that this game only draws very slight inspiration from Lovecraft but being about a milder form of mystery. More focused on the fantastical and surreal instead of being creepy or featuring violence. Well, I was wrong. It didn't take long for the first death and blood to make an appearance. And so it's too dark for my taste. Despite what I would argue is deceptive presentation, I'm neither going to subtract points, nor ask for a refund because it's a great effort that I'm sure many people will enjoy. (Character movement really should be faster though.)

This is a fun little puzzle game. Graphics are ok. The story is above average. All in all a fun game with one very bad flaw: The character movement is much too slow with cumbersome ladder use thrown for a good measure. If the character moved faster, it'd cut 30% of the play time, I imagine. Time is the single most priceless thing we have and paying players should always have the choice to skip cutscenes, run however they like. I hope this will be addressed in a future update.

Call of the Sea is short nice mystery adventure that will take probably one longer afternoon to go through. Lengthwise I would compare it probably to something like Vanishing of Ethan Carter. Presentation is great, graphics are stylised but sit with the overal tone very well. I have played the Windows Store version of the game and did not encounter any technical issues. Game run well on max detail in 1080p/60 even on very mediocre machine. Gameplay wise you are looking on slow paced linear adventure puzzle that is carried by its story and presentation. Puzzles are, I would say, on easier side, although for non-adventure gamer like me I think they are just about right to not be trivial but not frustrating either. Story is really the mainstand here and it actually took an unexpected direction, which was refreshing. Mind you - this game IS NOT a Lovecraftian horror even though there are some common themes with the Mythos. One think I liked was the protagonist, who was collected, calm and determined throughout the most of the game (again nice change from some Mythos inspired games). All in all if you are in for an interesting story with nice presentation and are not bothered with short length and linear gameplay this is a solid pick. I rate above average, but mind you I played it as a part of a gamepass and I did not run into any technical issues .