Call of the Sea

 Xbox Series X
User Score
7.3

Mixed or average reviews- based on 116 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 78 out of 116
  2. Mixed: 23 out of 116
  3. Negative: 15 out of 116

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  1. Malkair
    Dec 10, 2020
    6
    Juego con una trama muy interesante y gráficos preciosos, pero con un gameplay desesperante por dos razones principales: La primera, la lentitud, incluso teniendo permanentemente pulsado el botón de correr se hace eterno ir de un sitio a otro. Y la segunda, y principal, muchos de los puzzles son poco coherentes, raros e incluso alguno de ellos tan absurdo que parece metido con calzador. SeJuego con una trama muy interesante y gráficos preciosos, pero con un gameplay desesperante por dos razones principales: La primera, la lentitud, incluso teniendo permanentemente pulsado el botón de correr se hace eterno ir de un sitio a otro. Y la segunda, y principal, muchos de los puzzles son poco coherentes, raros e incluso alguno de ellos tan absurdo que parece metido con calzador. Se le pueden echar unas horas a este título, pero no pasará a la historia. Aún así, se notan el esfuerzo y cariño invertidos por los desarrolladores.… Expand
  2. SuperkenGaming
    Dec 10, 2020
    7
    Call of the Sea
    Crashing Waves
    Call of the sea is a first person adventure puzzle game where you play as Norah who sets out to find her boo Henry on an island and uncover the secrets of an illness she had.. and overall the story is the best part of this 5 and a half hour long journey, ontop of that the puzzles are just challenging enough to feel like a little enough of a nussance to kind    Call of the Sea
    Crashing Waves
    Call of the sea is a first person adventure puzzle game where you play as Norah who sets out to find her boo Henry on an island and uncover the secrets of an illness she had.. and overall the story is the best part of this 5 and a half hour long journey, ontop of that the puzzles are just challenging enough to feel like a little enough of a nussance to kind of be enjoyable to solve, and the world and its art style is so vibrant and pretty.. great environment, great story, decent puzzles… but the problems come with this games pacing and overall performance… Letspretend everything ran smooth.. call of the sea gameplay wise just never gives you a break to let you stop and smell the roses, youre constantly trying to solve a chapters bigger puzzle to open a gate and progress, youre thrown into an era, figure out how you have to arrange things to unlock a door just do it again, its non stop, I get it’s a puzzle game but still, spread it out a bit, give me a brain break… otherwise I feel overwhelmed trying to play through your game… but call of the seas biggest issue other ttan pacing is its performance, ive never played such an unstable game in my life… l tested across multiple high end gaming pcs with xbox game pass, I had issues with crashing going into chapters 2 and 6.. I eventually got chapter 2 to work, but I only got to see the beginning moments of chapter 6.. call of the sea just refuses to load leading me to have to watch the remaining 40 minutes on youtube to get this games ending… and the issue isn’t expclusive to what is admittedly a beta system in xbox game pass for pc, after looking into it, there are reports on all of the sea causing console crashes as well, there was also a bug where I would be shown a giant white blob where cinnmematics were supposed to b shown throughout the entire game!
    If you can get through Call of the Sea, this is a really interesting and pretty straightforward puzzle game.. but if you do decide to give this one a go, don’t do it through xbox game pass for pc
    it probably wont work
    I giv Call of the Sea
    a 7.5/10    … Expand
  3. ultraviper
    Jan 14, 2021
    6
    A lovecraft-inspired-but-non-horror walking simulator. There's no combat, death, or even failure in the game. You just walk (slowly) and solve puzzles. The puzzles are pretty basic, mostly just matching symbols with things you've seen in the environment. Anything relevant to the puzzles gets automatically added to your journal when you see it so it's a little heavy on the hand-holding. TheA lovecraft-inspired-but-non-horror walking simulator. There's no combat, death, or even failure in the game. You just walk (slowly) and solve puzzles. The puzzles are pretty basic, mostly just matching symbols with things you've seen in the environment. Anything relevant to the puzzles gets automatically added to your journal when you see it so it's a little heavy on the hand-holding. The game is short. 6 levels that take about 5 hours total to finish.

    The graphics are well done and the story is decent enough.

    Runs at 60fps on series X but has a horrible motion blur so it looks and feels like a much lower framerate. There is an option in the menu to turn off the motion blur, but it does absolutely nothing.    … Expand
  4. ttj101gr
    May 31, 2021
    6
    The first half is real good nice story and logical puzzles but after that there is little story and most puzzles are just there to slow you down.
    It's like two different games.
  5. ProfAmateur
    Nov 25, 2021
    6
    Call of the Sea is the prove, that a small, unpopular game studio can create satisfying games. The game contains mainly puzzles in a 3D-World. I was positively surprised about the variety of the level design. For example you start at a really nice beach and after some time, you are in a very scary level in the night with rain and thunderstorm. I also liked the sounds and music. TheCall of the Sea is the prove, that a small, unpopular game studio can create satisfying games. The game contains mainly puzzles in a 3D-World. I was positively surprised about the variety of the level design. For example you start at a really nice beach and after some time, you are in a very scary level in the night with rain and thunderstorm. I also liked the sounds and music. The weakness of the game is a puzzle, which really doesn't make any sense and is therefore frustrating. Unfortunately, it's badly adapt for Xbox Series X.… Expand
  6. isocano
    Feb 10, 2021
    5
    No es un juego malo, ni bueno, de ahí la nota. Pongo los pros y contras en una pequeña lista.

    Pros: - Buena parte artística - Buen trasfondo de historia - Buena variedad de puzzles - Atención por el detalle y diría que se ha hecho con mimo (por este punto he dudado en ponerle un 6) Contras: - Gameplay lento - Historia y puzzles, aunque buenos, creo que no pegan, lo veo con    No es un juego malo, ni bueno, de ahí la nota. Pongo los pros y contras en una pequeña lista.

    Pros:
    - Buena parte artística
    - Buen trasfondo de historia
    - Buena variedad de puzzles
    - Atención por el detalle y diría que se ha hecho con mimo (por este punto he dudado en ponerle un 6)

    Contras:
    - Gameplay lento
    - Historia y puzzles, aunque buenos, creo que no pegan, lo veo con calzador
    - Algún puzzle puntual demasiado random
    - Puede llegar a ser aburrido si no eres fan del género puzzle

    Neutral:
    - Sonido bien (aunque en exterior al inicio del juego el sonido del mar puede llegar a molestar un rato)    … Expand
  7. DarkProtagonist
    Dec 13, 2020
    6
    Call of the sea has a lot going for it so you might like it but I didn't. It's very nice looking and well acted throughout and the puzzles were unique and interesting but not difficult so anyone interested will likely be able to get through it without a guide but not get board with the puzzles. Once the story started to form I felt it was really obvious how it was going to go with littleCall of the sea has a lot going for it so you might like it but I didn't. It's very nice looking and well acted throughout and the puzzles were unique and interesting but not difficult so anyone interested will likely be able to get through it without a guide but not get board with the puzzles. Once the story started to form I felt it was really obvious how it was going to go with little surprise or suspense. It gets a lot of points in telling this sort of story with a much brighter and non-oppressive tone that elevates past something I'd forget about quickly. For the most part it was fine in all the aspects i talked about before but I had some major issues with some of the choices the devs made.

    1. The main charter caries around a journal that basically spells out what's important to puzzles and what's not and some puzzles don't really work without it so it kind of ruins the investigation. If you are playing with something but no journal entry pops up you know you are not supposed to play with it yet and it kind of hurts the puzzles. This can be a plus for people who are not into this so I get that this may be a plus for some people.

    2. Many puzzles are frustrating to put the solution in and slow things in a frustrating way. the worst offender is you visit a large area where you need to flip switches in a particular order but you only get the combo at the end of the area causing you to wonder around finding the right switch and repeated till you find them all. I think it took 10 min game time to do when i knew exactly what to do. it would be infuriating if I was stumped and want to try stuff.

    3. There are a several segments that drag on without much happening way past their welcome. They come at story points that are meant to be impactful and normally I don't mind and like these segments at fist but they go on way longer then you'd expect without anything interesting happening and end up feeling like padding the game didn't need.

    If the art style grabs you or you want to play an adventure game that's not cartoony but not something that's dark and gritty like the sherlock holms games it's defiantly an ok enjoyable game but I wouldn't go out of my way to play it.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

14
#14 Best Xbox Series X Game of 2020
6
#6 Most Discussed Xbox Series X Game of 2020

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
75

Generally favorable reviews - based on 31 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 21 out of 31
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 31
  3. Negative: 0 out of 31
  1. Het Nieuwsblad
    Feb 15, 2021
    60
    Call of the Sea is basically one big escape room, in which you go from location to location while solving varied and mostly interesting puzzles. Sometimes, however, developer Out of the Blue expects a little too much, which can lead to frustrating moments and a wandering player.
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  2. VideoGamer
    Feb 5, 2021
    70
    We get a story whose late twists are telegraphed within the first hour or so, and an ending drenched with homage to the Shape of Water. The journey, however, is worth taking. I relished the spectacle of a stranded ship, its hull gashed with Godzilla-sized claw marks. And, in the wavering depths of a dream sequence, Norah swimming down towards a pair of glowing eyes. Still, that sort of thing is par for the course, when you’re in Lovecraftland. What rescues the game from the descent into cliché isn’t a rise to sanity. Nor is it the call of the sea. It’s Harry. You believe in Norah because she believes in him, and even when the plot goes bats you want to see them back together. Who would have thought that the solution to madness might be marriage? Thanks, Old Pal.
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  3. XboxAddict
    Jan 25, 2021
    85
    My only real complaint is that there’s very little replay value outside of getting the second ending (though it’s just a final choice you make, so you could just play the final chapter again), searching for hidden collectables and cleaning up missing achievements. The setting and narrative are fantastic and it’s an adventure I’m glad to have been a part of. You can tell that Call of the Sea was made with much care and love as it’s one of those games that simply has a lot of character and heart.
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