Call of the Sea

This game, while beautiful to look at, has a bit of an identity crisis. It's trying to be both a colorful 1940s adventure game and a dark Lovecraftian horror game, and ultimately fails at being either. It's still fun to play, but the fact that it can't decide what it wants to be really detracts from the experience, at least for me.

Fairly original game based on Lovecraft's works, particularly on The Shadow over Innsmouth. Contrary to usual way of making Lovecraftian game, you won't find too much otherworldly horror and filth of the Great Old Ones. Everything is bright, colorful and beautiful (even through the story isn't devoid of sadness). Puzzles are nice but, frankly, too easy. Just as something requiring a bit more thinking starts, the game ends. I'd really like the game be a little longer with harder puzzles but I can't say I had bad time playing Call of the Sea. There are some references in the game to various stories by Lovecraft I personally liked very much.

great visuals and voice acting, chapter select, manual saving anytime, random autosaves. only 3 slots, the autosave indicator is practically unnoticable and it doesn't save on exit on its own, far from perfect. textures only show properly on the 'epic' graphics setting, making the game unplayable otherwise, as critical information is simply not visible. only a global gfx quality setting is bad enough and inexcusable when it literally breaks the game. and with any dpi scaling enabled (bigger text in windows, etc.), can't change resolutions or fov. performance really tanks starting with chapter 3, guess by then they gave up on what little optimization happened. settings are resolutions, windowed mode, v-sync, field of view, brightness, separate volumes, rebindable controls, invert y axis, sensitivity, vibration, spoken and subtitles languages. then toggles for a crosshair, easily readable journal font, barely noticable, mostly useless hotspot indicator, smooth camera rotation, head bobbing, flashing lights, closed captions, motion blur. an always run setting would've been necessary, and better journal navigation and document examination instead of always having to zoom in and click 'read' for a non-handwritten version even if the readable journal font is on. crashing a few times in chapter 6 was also a concern and cause for frustration. puzzles are a mixed bag at best, the end of chapter 3, the constellations in chapter 6, and simon says in chapter 4 being the low points. turning on close captions shows the simon solution, so there's that. there are timing-based puzzles in chapter 5 too, the dreaded underwater level, and no puzzle skip. exploration is hindered by performance, the useless hotspot indicator, controls and slow movement even with sprint (when it's available). unskippable credits too. bring up the menu and leave, but then no post-credits scene for you, and with 2 endings, gotta watch the whole thing twice (or just youtube it).

While I don't think the PC version supports linked VR, I was deciding whether to buy here or online console oculus version. A sale popped up, and I thought it would be convenient to not have to run it with the laptop as well, so I bought the Oculus native port. Bad move. From the PC trailers I'd watched, I expected the Oculus port to be the same, but it's like comparing unreal 2004 to unreal 2, so a big step down. Worse, for the first time in my life, I finally understood how some people complain about nausea. I've done VR since I made VRML environments in the 1990's, and never felt nauseous until this title. And it's not scene specific. The voice acting and stylization is nice, and the score works, but I think it needs the accompanying visuals to really make the wonder of it all work. The VR port is lacking that (and is even slower), plus the nausea really let me down. The Oculus version is nothing like the PC version.

Call of the Sea is a really nice point-and-click puzzler, with a really original setting and stunning graphics. P&C means that you get really interesting puzzles to solve, but it also means you engage in the occasional pixle hunting project, especially as there are a few puzzles that lack an intuitive solution. At a little over 5 hrs of gameplay, I wouldn't get this at the list price, but on sale it can be a nice addition to the library for those looking to scratch a walking sim itch. No performances issues on my end. The only real downside for me was the story. It's a wild, sci-fi type narrative mystery, but it never really cohered for me, and the "big reveal" at the end felt forced and unsubstantiated by the clues leading up to it. I suppose there are some horror themes, but this is NOT a scary game at all, nor is the narrative particularly gripping. While the voice acting is very good, and the writing very strong, the mythology behind it just doesn't make sense (made all the more obvious by the Rube Goldberg architecture). In the end, I just mostly ignored the story and enjoyed the exploration, which is fun and satisfying when you get through a particularly knotty puzzle.