What I'm Doing Here

Because I enjoy adventure games, I decided to start this blog and record my fun and frustrations as I play various adventures and some RPGs. I try not to spoil the games, so you can read and play, or play and read. I'm also reviewing some games, as I used to do in the past for Four Fat Chicks. I hope I'll spark your interest in playing, or at least entertain you with my musings. Please note that my musings are only speculations. You, or the game designer, may disagree with my opinions. At the end of each entry is a link to the next entry about that game, and you'll find a list of beginning links to the right, just under my cat's photo. Feel free to comment and play along! Enjoy!

Monday, December 13, 2021

Call of the Sea: Lovecraftian Puzzler

 


Have been gone for awhile due to a bad medical diagnosis, but I acquired an X-Box Series S, which I'm really enjoying. The X-Box can take screenshots, but I haven't figured all of that out yet. I will be playing more games directly on my computer, which will allow me to insert screenshots, but I'll just summarize my playthrough here because I've finished the game anyway.

Didn't know what to expect from this. It was about to leave Game Pass when I played it, so I shamelessly used walkthroughs for a lot of it in order to finish before it went. Sorry I did that now because I could have figured most of it out myself. When I gave up the WTs I had more fun.

The story, which turns Lovecraftian before the halfway point, takes place in the 1930s, which I find fun. They did the time period quite well. The main character has some kind of obscure fatal disease, and her husband has traveled to the South Pacific in an attempt to find a cure. (Why? That's never explained. Hey, it's a good setting for a game.) He's been gone too long, so we go to find him. Following his trail eventually answers the question about the fatal, obscure disease. As a plot, it works.

It's a good game! Really solid adventure with excellent puzzles. A few are a bit too detailed for my taste, but you can find clues to most of it. I had a bit of trouble with navigation--the game doesn't hold your hand with that--and that was frustrating at one point when I couldn't find an exit and wound up just floating through mostly nothingness. A couple of times, though, the game takes you on a rollercoaster ride through the sea and it's fun!

The graphics are outstanding. The voice acting is outstanding (the lead character is the same actress who voices the female character in The Long Dark). It has six chapters, all quite distinct and engrossing. I wasn't fond of Chapter Three, which takes you to a shipwreck. You have to put together lots of little clues, all involving a lot of back-and-forth travel, to solve the puzzle. I'm not sorry I went to the WT for that one. There's a big payoff once the puzzle is finished, though.

Actually, the game gives excellent payoffs to all the main puzzles. These really make this game stand out.

The game gives you fair warning that there are two possible endings so you can save appropriately. However, it has an excellent autosave feature that will always take you to a recent point without having to replay tons of stuff. With that you don't really need to do hard saves, but I did anyway.

I really enjoyed this and I highly recommend it. It was an excellent return to adventure gaming for me. Great stuff!



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