Call of the Sea

Steam Reviews

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• Not recommended Posted December 7, 2025 on Steam I want to start off by saying the art, music, and voice acting chops in this game is phenomenal. I loved entering the start of a grand vista no matter the time of day being presented. The game's hook is great and I forgot for a moment that it was inspired by Lovecraftian literature as I got lost in it all. The journal provides fairly detailed drawings, notes, and clues for you to draw on and I appreciate that you can TAB your Journal at anytime, even while interacting WITH puzzle mechanics (wheels, stones, buttons, etc.). At first, I was interested in seeing where Norah's husband had gone and was intrigued to see where its inhabitants had gone off to. However, this game's dialogue is far too frequent. Everytime I picked up a letter or perused a photo, Norah would say something very obvious about the contents of whatever I was investigating. At first, I didn't mind it but the game continues this trend for its entirety. This waters down Norah to being annoying and not at all interesting in how her character feels about the situation. She also takes forever to put the pieces together on what is happening and seems to ask plenty of rhetorical questions as if prompting someone else in the room to fill her in or nudge them in the right direction. Dialogue is important and shouldn't be shoved into every part of an experience. Sometimes, letting the words on paper or a moment in the environment speak for itself does wonders. Also, this game has hardly any flags set up and sometimes Norah would comment on something like a ritual then be confused as to what kind of ritual Harry is talking about. In regards to puzzles, the first few chapters are pretty fun. This game really suffers when you have to trek far distances to maybe do a puzzle right and some of the later chapter puzzles make 0 sense (looking at you north star orientation puzzle). Also, the game has a whole chapter dedicated to timing pools of ooze running towards the middle to pass and those were very boring. The sudden choice of two endings at the end of the game also didn't feel earned due to Norah's development being stifled by her always expositing everything. Overall, I'm glad I played this on sale and would recommend others do so if they want to give it a go.
• Recommended Posted July 17, 2025 on Steam [h2]My Dear Old Pal,[/h2] 　　[i]This afternoon, I finished a game that reminded me very much of the two of us. Our love—so selfless, so clever, and always supportive—was echoed in its story in a way that caught me off guard. I found myself swept up in it completely. 　　It’s a puzzle game, you see, and as you know, I’ve always had a fondness for puzzles. The main character, Norah, is much like myself—always taking notes, thinking things through. Still, I ended up sketching messy little diagrams to solve a few of the harder riddles. On reflection, I might resemble Harry more—leaving his scribbles behind once the challenge is bested. 　　I took quite a few snapshots of the journey, my love—knowing how much you enjoy landscapes. They’re all up on my Steam page, should you wish to peek. The game itself was a real pleasure: the puzzles, the music, the way the story slowly unraveled. And the ending—ah, the ending—it made me cry more than I’d like to admit. It stirred a fear in me, a thought I don’t often dare entertain: [b]what if something like that ever happened to us?[/b] 　　Perhaps I’ve used this letter as a bit of a game review in disguise. But let me say this—anyone who plays it, especially someone lucky enough to love someone as brilliant and beautiful as I do, is bound to feel a great many things.[/i] 　　[h3]Yours, always, Jayson 💞...[/h3]
• Not recommended Posted November 9, 2025 on Steam I wanted to like this game. I love Lovecraft inspired games, especially ones that focus on the psychological side like Dredge. Call of the Sea has a great art-style. But that's where the positives end. The puzzles are all really simple or just plain finicky. A bunch of them require you to have all of the hints possible, which are incredibly easy to miss because the UI symbol for them is so small and you have to be looking right at them (plus they often look exactly the same as other things in the area that are completely non-interactive). The voice acting is also amateurish at best, I know it's a small team but plenty of other indie games have been able to absolutely nail voice acting. There are only two voiced characters, so it really should have been better. And the main character just talks to herself throughout the game, usually for no reason at all. Her reactions are also very counterintuitive to what's happening around her, like reacting with mild amusement when she's on a scary ship at night in a thunderstorm. The story is boring AF and no one is likeable or interesting. When you're not actively solving puzzles, you're just picking up photographs and reading journals, which is were 90% of the story is told. Again, really uninterestingly. The aesthetic of this game is excellent, it had so much potential. But it is just not a very good indie game. Maybe if it came out in 2010, it might have been less underwhelming. But since this came out in 2020, during the golden age of indies that we're still currently living in, it is mediocre at best. Oh and this game has the most BS achievement I've ever seen: Fawning Developers. It requires you to purchase all of the publishers other games to get the achievement. I've never had an achievement make me physically angry before.
• Recommended Posted June 28, 2025 on Steam [i]"In real life, true love stories don't end with a wedding."[/i] A magnificent game telling a truly beautiful love story. I was just amazed by everything in this game. The graphics were simply stunning. I loved exploring every corners of the environment, examining every detail and reading every document I could find. I also really liked the game's take on Lovecraftian themes. The plot kept me intrigued from start to finish, blending emotional storytelling with Lovecraftian mystery. And the various puzzles were well designed and logical to solve, especially after finding all the notes and logs in the in-game journal. I absolutely loved this game and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys story-driven adventure games. Looking forward to play Call of the Elder Gods next!
• Not recommended Posted March 18, 2026 on Steam Classic case of never hearing the phrase "Show, don't tell". Had to turn subtitles off and mute the game for the outspoken "inner monologue" mouth diarrhrea. Overstays it's welcome and becomes a series of chores. Very clear, very early how the story will progress and end. No mysticism and barely scraping the Lovecraftian feel. Oh, black ichor, oh "there's sum'thing in tha wataah". Some glowy beady eyes and that about does it. Also... Steam/// Where is the damn NEUTRAL button. It's not a negative, neither a positive. It's meh...
• Recommended Posted March 11, 2026 on Steam [h1]A wonderfully emotional story with puzzles that are better than you think.[/h1] I think this game is best played without ANY story spoilers, so I'll avoid talking about that, except to say that the type of story it turned out to be was a pleasant surprise. The contrast between the general tone of the art and music and the subject matter hit a note I never expected. Worth checking out just for that. The format is slow-paced first person exploration, journal collecting, and puzzle solving. Exploration is not very deep - although there are branching paths, there is no sense of decision making as you have to visit every area of the game to progress through it all. Sometimes there's some backtracking, which can be a bit of a drag. At the end of the day, it feels slow and linear - which is fine, as long as you know what you're getting into and are okay with soaking in a mood. The puzzles snuck up on me. At first they are very simplistic which made me think that they would be just "filler", something to give you a break from wandering around reading journals. As the game goes on, you won't find anything that requires genius level IQ - but puzzles do become increasingly more involved and I found myself having to really pay attention to what was being asked of me, and really having to do the work. I felt smart by the end, which is what I am after from a puzzle game. The presentation is absolutely delightful. Voice acting is excellent, and I really appreciate the direction. The performers (at least in English) were given license to ad lib their lines a little; often diverging from the written text (which you see in the captions) to make their lines sound more natural. To my taste, this was a big success. The voiced characters, particularly the protagonist, are very believable and sympathetic. The visuals are sumptuous and inviting, and to me simply looking around the setting was a joy all its own. Music is sparse and low key, setting a mood of solitude and beauty. The story, again not to spoil anything, drew me in, in some ways serving my expectations and in other ways completely defying them. To be blunt, I loved it. I won't forget it any time soon. I was extra slow, taking 7½ hours to complete the story where most people take more like 5. I guess I was extra thorough in combing through areas, and probably dumber than most when it came to solving the puzzles. I used walkthroughs twice - once because I got impatient with a puzzle (I was thinking backwards - the answer was so simple I was ashamed of myself for looking it up), and another time I was stuck because I had simply overlooked a path in a large area. In any case, those 7½ hours were definitely well spent, particularly because of the story. If you just want mindbreaking puzzles or a video game twitch challenge, maybe this isn't for you. If you want escalating puzzles that will stretch your brain a little as you explore a beautiful environment and increasingly compelling story, give this a try.