Call of the Sea is a first-person adventure game developed by Out of the Blue Games and published by Raw Fury. It’s a mystery filled with wonder, puzzles, and some story moments that will have you holding your breath.

The story is set in 1934 and you play as Norah, a woman heading off on her own to find her missing husband. She has a mysterious illness and her husband had set out on an expedition to find her the  cure. When his letters abruptly stop, Norah takes matters into her own hands to find him. Or, at least figure out what happened to him. She finds herself alone, on a sketchy island in the South Pacific, The captain that brings her there tells her he’ll pick her up in three days. Thus, the adventure begins.

Don’t worry; Call of the Sea isn’t actually timed. The game moves forward once you’ve done everything you need to in the current area. This is nice considering you can take your time and explore every nook and cranny, but it also means you might be stuck in a specific spot for a long time if you can’t figure out what to do next. Norah keeps a journal so clues and evidence you find (that are important) will be noted there, and you can look at it any time.

The mysteries of the island, Norah’s illness, and the disappearance of her husband (and his exploration crew) are revealed slowly through environmental and found narrative. Norah narrates a lot. Sometimes to the point where she’ll overexplain something. She’ll speak while you play, so it was somewhat difficult to focus on exploring or solving a puzzle because I tuned into what she was saying, just in case it was something important. It was jarring at times, but not anything big enough to make me want to quit the game.

The puzzles are a huge portion of Call of the Sea. I’ll begin by saying puzzle games aren’t my strong suit despite telling myself otherwise whenever I boot up a puzzle game. Within the first few puzzles, I’m always humbled. The puzzles in this game were somewhat tricky and that was partially on my lack of puzzle-solving skills, but also partly the game.

Let me explain: I knew what to do for many of the puzzles, but the solution itself wasn’t clear because I played differently than how the game wanted me to. For example, one early puzzle had a totem of five symbols that needed reordering. First, I tried the order I found the symbols in. Nothing. I tried many combinations and nothing worked. I ended up looking at a walkthrough to find the solution and it turned out I was correct. I needed to organize the symbols in the order I found them throughout the island. The problem was, I found the symbols in a different order than the game wanted me to. The symbol I was supposed to find first, I found last. That’s how many of the puzzles are.

That said, I wasn’t too impressed with most of the puzzles in Call of the Sea. I believe the narrative and exploration is its strong suit, despite Norah talking so much. The opening cutscene felt like I was watching an (interactive) movie and it was wonderful. The game is broken up into six chapters, which are all relatively short depending on how quick you can solve the puzzles. Each area really only has a handful of smaller puzzles plus one big one to solve before moving on. Otherwise, the majority of the game is walking around and clicking on everything you find to learn more about the island, and what previously happened there.

Having the game in first-person was too much, though that’s a personal preference. I couldn’t play for too long without getting dizzy since you’re moving the cursor all over the screen to look and click on everything possible. The cursor is a small dot in the middle of the screen, and I needed to be absolutely precise in where I clicked or else Norah wouldn’t notice anything.

Chapter three in particular was rough to get through because Norah is stranded on the beach at night during a thunderstorm. I’m sensitive to lights and always play my games with the brightness all the way down, but I needed it up for chapter three. But even with my brightness at 100%, it was difficult to see and the bright flashes of lightning every so often gave me a headache.

These aren’t necessarily negatives, but with such an enticing storyline, I would have loved to sit down and play Call of the Sea for a couple hours at a time. Unfortunately, I was only able to play in short bursts because of the POV and the lighting.

Otherwise, there are many features to love about this game. The music and sound effects brought the island to life. Plus, the game is fully voice acted, which was top-notch. The story kept me on my toes, between Norah’s missing husband, her illness, and the creepiness of the island. However, I think the puzzles could have been done a bit better. If you’re looking for an atmospheric title with a strong storyline, then certainly check out Call of the Sea.