3/5 ★ – nicholaswilder's review of Call of the Sea.

After a long and emotional journey through The Last of Us Part II Remastered, I decided to pick up Call of the Sea while on sale as a palette cleanser game before the next big AAA investment. As a big fan of games like Gone Home, Firewatch, and What Remains of Edith Finch, a 2-3 hour narrative based adventure puzzle game (and a fairly easy Platinum Trophy at that) felt like the perfect move. Set in the 1930’s, Call of the Sea follows Norah, a woman searching for her missing husband and his expedition. Norah suffers from a mysterious family illness that her husband was determined to cure before he left. After receiving a package with coordinates, Norah’s led to an island in the South Pacific and what follows is described as “an otherworldly tale of mystery and love.” The island is beautifully designed and I found a good amount of challenge in many of the puzzles - being much closer to a game like The Witness than to Gone Home. Where it let me down was the story which I struggled to get invested, and by how small the icon was for objects that you can interact with. I’d constantly miss things if I wasn’t standing right up against them and aiming from the “perfect” angle, making the experience frustrating. Call of the Sea will satisfy fans of the genre but for me, it won’t stack up against the greats. For fans of Firewatch, Dear Esther, and The Witness.