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Community => Adventure Related Talk & Chat => Topic started by: Racoon on Mon 21/12/2020 16:23:29

Title: Call of the sea
Post by: Racoon on Mon 21/12/2020 16:23:29
Has anyone here played the Adventure  "Call of the sea"? I just finished it and feel like I need to share my exitement for this game. I mean it is absolutly BEAUTIFUL, not just the art but also the story. I feel like it was exactly the game I hoped it would be. Well, some clues were a little bit obvious, but I am not a fan of hardcore difficulty puzzles, so that worked just fine. I leave the trailer here if anybody is interested in this game :)

Title: Re: Call of the sea
Post by: Ponch on Tue 22/12/2020 01:28:56
I bought it last week and I hope to be able to play it in another day or two. Glad to hear that I chose my Xmas purchase wisely. Thanks for the review! (http://www.barnrunner.com/pics/misc/Roger_Santa.png)
Title: Re: Call of the sea
Post by: Frodo on Tue 22/12/2020 01:56:46
I bought it a few days ago.   :cheesy:
It's in my GOG library, but I haven't started playing it yet. 
Title: Re: Call of the sea
Post by: KyriakosCH on Tue 22/12/2020 05:59:10
Looks very pleasant :)
Title: Re: Call of the sea
Post by: Mandle on Tue 22/12/2020 12:09:40
I have seen some reviews of this game and it seems like a mashup of pulp-fiction adventure novels, Lovecraft, and MYST... And there is nothing at all wrong with that!!!
Title: Re: Call of the sea
Post by: Racoon on Mon 28/12/2020 10:59:04
Let me know what you think of the game when you played it :)
Title: Re: Call of the sea
Post by: Ponch on Fri 03/09/2021 02:30:34
Finally got around to playing this game. I really liked it. The mish mash of pulp Lovecraft love story was kind of unique.  :cheesy:
Title: Re: Call of the sea
Post by: WHAM on Fri 03/09/2021 15:58:39
I played, streamed it on Twitch and even wrote a review of it on my Steam profile: https://steamcommunity.com/id/whamtheman/recommended/1042490/

Long story short, though: I didn't like it very much. I expected more puzzle solving in the vein of Myst, a chance to rake my brain and feel challenged, but got something so watered down it often felt like I was playing a short and simple kids game.
Then again, for people who are new to both Lovecraftian mythos and puzzle games, this may well work as a soft landing into the two genres, so it's not all bad and I can see there being an audience out there for it. Just not what I was looking for.
Title: Re: Call of the sea
Post by: Rincewind on Mon 11/10/2021 07:16:42
Played it around when it came out, and I'm still a bit in two minds about it, to be honest. On one hand, the graphics and sound were great, it captured that mystical, magical feeling of a tropical island while at the same time managing to imply something eerie and otherwordly. And I thought the game's romantic twist on the whole Lovecraftian mythos felt fresh and fun, really glad to see a new take on that kind of story. Doing Lovecraft as drama instead of horror? Love it!

However, I found the puzzling and gameplay to be a bit lacking. They start off easy enough to breeze through without much thinking, which I don't mind in general, I've really enjoyed a lot of the more puzzle-light and story/exploration-heavy games in recent years (Firewatch, Gone Home, Edith Finch, etc) but when the game later on decides to throw in one really cryptic puzzle it felt very out of place and more like an attempt to pad out the games length than anything else. (I'll admit it stumped me and my GF so hard that we almost stopped playing in pure frustration) Which is sad, because there was a satisfying sequence of really clever puzzles closer to the end that I actually enjoyed.

Overall, it felt a bit too uneven, gameplay-wise. I would rather have seen that it focused entirely on the story and exploration and made it more in the vein of above mentioned Gone Home/Edith Finch, or focused more on the puzzles, making them a bit more consistent challenge-wise.
Having said that, I did enjoy the story, the exploration and the whole atmosphere of it, so I would recommend trying it out for that reason alone.
Title: Re: Call of the sea
Post by: Racoon on Wed 17/11/2021 17:11:02
Quote from: WHAM on Fri 03/09/2021 15:58:39
Long story short, though: I didn't like it very much. I expected more puzzle solving in the vein of Myst, a chance to rake my brain and feel challenged, but got something so watered down it often felt like I was playing a short and simple kids game.
Then again, for people who are new to both Lovecraftian mythos and puzzle games, this may well work as a soft landing into the two genres, so it's not all bad and I can see there being an audience out there for it. Just not what I was looking for.

Thats funny because I tried the remastered version of Myst recently and it could not convince me at all. And I was really eager to like it, because its such an well known and liked adventure game.
But everything seemed so confusing and difficult that I lost having fun with the game. Maybe I will pick it up later again and give it a second try.

But yes, I think everybody has different things they look for in a game, for me it is aesthetic, ambience and emotional connection, and difficulty plays a minor role.
Title: Re: Call of the sea
Post by: Racoon on Wed 17/11/2021 17:20:00
Quote from: Rincewind on Mon 11/10/2021 07:16:42
Overall, it felt a bit too uneven, gameplay-wise. I would rather have seen that it focused entirely on the story and exploration and made it more in the vein of above mentioned Gone Home/Edith Finch, or focused more on the puzzles, making them a bit more consistent challenge-wise.
Having said that, I did enjoy the story, the exploration and the whole atmosphere of it, so I would recommend trying it out for that reason alone.

Maybe the developers were scared that making the puzzles harder would draw away the more casual adventure gamers. With some of the puzzles I also wondered how easy they were, but overall I was glad that I wasn´t stuck for hours on one and could just move on smoothly with the story (apart from the one you mentioned I think. I remember having to look in a walkthrough one time).

But I agree that the games selling point were the story and atmosphere :)