Call Of The Sea
PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series
As her boat pulls into shore, Norah Everhart’s curiosity is aroused. “There’s definitely something strange about this place,” she muses. Not half. Set in the 1930s, her voyage begins with eerie Cthuvian whispers, bizarre underwater dreams and then a note written in French, of which she can translate two words: ‘island’ and ‘death’. These are the kinds of portents you’d find at the opening of a schlocky B-movie horror. But while this South Pacific island certainly isn’t the sun-kissed paradise it first appears to be as she steps onto its pristine sands, that opening is equally misleading. Out Of The Blue’s firstperson adventure is far from done wrongfooting you – though it’s confounding in bad ways as well as good.
It starts unpromisingly, with some of the clumsiest exposition we’ve encountered in some time – and that’s going some given how many videogames we’ve played in 2020. “Those horrible dreams again!” Norah gasps. “I’ve had them repeatedly ever since my mother died and left me that music box in her will.” It’s not the only time we’re treated to this kind of info dump, either. With very little prompting, we learn the precise nature of Norah’s voyage: she’s investigating the disappearance of her husband Harry, who has failed to return from an expedition. In her room she finds a photograph with a key taped to the back and a set of supposedly ‘enigmatic’ instructions, which appear to be fairly straightforward directions to his last-known location. In case we were in any doubt as to her mission, she’s considerately defaced the picture by writing ‘find him’ in capitals on the front.
Things do improve as the developer finds its storytelling feet, though this kind of excessive detail is a persistent problem. To a point, it’s understandable. This is, after all, the studio’s debut, and it’s evidently keen not to leave anyone behind – particularly as the plot takes a sharp left turn or two. And it’s certainly not the only game this month to diminish the sense of discovery by having a character respond to something before you’ve had chance to take it in – whether that be a surprising sight, an unexpected revelation or the meaning of a particular find. We’ve long been fans of Cissy Jones’ voice work, but during her search for Harry (although in Jones’ laudable attempt at a clipped RP accent, it comes out more like ‘Herry’) we sometimes find ourselves wishing she’d shut up for five minutes. All the same, there’s something about her palpable delight at being on a proper adventure that just about compensates for the times we wish she’d give us room to think.
You’ll need to do a bit of that to solve the environmental puzzles that slow her journey inland. And here, at last, Out Of The Blue does hold back a little, as you wrangle with a variety of stone and wooden contraptions, pulling levers to open gates and rotating segmented tiki statues to reveal secret rooms. Though
ISLE OF VIEW
This is a very pretty game in places, overcoming its technical limitations to produce delightful sights. We might roll our eyes a little when Norah gushes “What a beautiful mountainous landscape!” while peering through a hole in a carved figure, but she’s not wrong: the stylised aesthetic combined with the almost total absence of UI means some views look like hand-painted postcards. There’s plenty of environmental diversity, too, particularly as we head inland: indigenous idols are juxtaposed with colossal basalt formations that don’t seem entirely of this world, while fantastical late-game sequences create dreamlike imagery from everyday surroundings. It’s only a pity we can’t admire all this without being told how to feel.
Norah will scribble down items of importance in her journal, you’re otherwise left to solve these on your own. There are no subtle musical shifts to let you know you’re on the right track; it’s only when you have the full solution that the way forward will reveal itself. The challenges gradually become more complex, too, with the explorable area often scaling up to match. As such, Norah’s painfully slow movement, even when sprinting, makes a few of these puzzles laborious – particularly those involving fiddling with ancient mechanisms that trigger environmental changes elsewhere. At times, it feels like a firstperson Zelda on Valium, or Myst if its arcane conundrums had all been half-solved by a previous visitor (in the majority of cases, you’re aided by notes left behind by Harry, who’s already had to figure all this out) and just needed completing by someone whose inner monologue barely pauses for breath. Yet you’re only ever given nudges in the right direction. How the various pieces fit together is left to you to chew over – and in a few cases, while you’re constantly aware of Norah’s ultimate goal, it’s not always immediately clear what your next objective might be.
That in itself is bracing; meanwhile, as discoveries get stranger, and you stumble across disturbing evidence of the way the expedition fell apart, the central plot thickens and grows more absorbing. There is a change in Norah, too, and not just in the way her newfound confidence and courage seems to be having a positive effect on the debilitating illness for which Harry first set out to find a cure. While it would be ungracious to detail precisely how the island’s deepest, darkest secrets affect her (at least, within the confines of a review; our Post Script over the page gives the game away) suffice it to say it’s a transformative experience for our protagonist in more ways than one. The Lovecraft influence becomes more explicit with the presence of a viscous black ooze with seemingly otherworldly properties, alongside murals depicting a race of fish-like creatures. Yet while the influence of a higher power is felt, it’s not necessarily a hostile one. This is never a scary game – albeit partly because we’re always privy to Norah’s instant reaction to unusual occurrences before we’ve had time to process our own thoughts. The writers fail to realise that having your protagonist remark upon something being ominous instantly makes it less so.
If moments like these betray a slight lack of selfconfidence from the studio – in either its storytelling or players’ ability to follow the plot – the final third suggests otherwise. As the developer makes some bold choices (with most paying off) Nora faces a big decision of her own, with one option leading to a particularly striking end that leans into the game’s weirder side. So yes, there’s definitely something strange about this place – and it’s those peculiarities that, for all its flaws, make this Call worth heeding.
The challenges gradually grow more complex, with the explorable area often scaling up to match