Discovered on the occasion of theone of the very first Inside Xbox dedicated to the new features to come on the new Microsoft consoles, Call of the Sea today dissipates its fog to offer itself to everyone.
The first game from the Spanish studio Out of the Blue was quickly tattooed in the memory of those who came across its trailer last summer. Sometimes called "Firewatch at the beach", Call of the Sea indeed carries references to the illustrious game of Campo Santo over the shoulder.
But is a palette of pastel colors and the involvement of actress Cissy Jones enough to follow the same path as her model? It's a little more complicated than that, as we'll see immediately.
Call of the Sea is available today on PC and Xbox via Steam, GOG, Humble or Game Pass.
L'amer, qu'on voit danser
South Pacific, 1934. Struck by a strange affliction since the death of her mother, Norah is physically diminished, and her skin covered with black spots. Harry, her explorer husband, sets up an expedition to try to find a cure. A journey that takes him to an island that does not appear on any map, in the middle of the ocean.
One fine day, Norah stops receiving letters from her husband. Or, rather, the last sounds like an invitation to find him. Is Harry in danger? Does he need Norah's help to return to civilization? It is on these questions that Call of the Sea starts.
Obviously worried, Norah manages to find Harry's trace, and also lands on this paradise-looking island. A less devious quest begins than one can imagine; the island being less a haystack from which to extract a needle than a series of very well marked corridors.
Everyday I'm puzzling
Out of the Blue defines itself as "a studio of narrative games and puzzle games". And that's exactly what Call of the Sea is. Divided into six chapters, the adventure will make you discover each time a new part of the island, within which a puzzle awaits to be solved in order to progress. The solution is never very complicated. But to find it, you'll have to dig.
Traces of Harry's expedition are still visible (camps, abandoned documents, tombstones…), and Norah will have to scrupulously go through all the clues at her disposal to find her husband.
I take this opportunity to address the case of a rather annoying bug of which I, it seems, was the only victim. After the third chapter, most of the "non-essential" documents that I was able to consult forced me to restart my backup. It was indeed impossible for me to ask the document to return to the game. Nothing insurmountable for the developers who, warned, will soon correct this. End of parenthesis.
Good news for those who are only there for the story: the protagonist will automatically compile the elements necessary to solve a puzzle in her notebook. Thus, the very numerous documents being there only to thicken the intrigue are not likely to lead you on the wrong track. The other side of this medal is that the difficulty will seem childish to the most accustomed to the genre.
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Most of the time, it's about decoding cryptic language, or putting symbols back in order to unlock a door. Your memory is rarely put to the test, Nora's notebook being accessible at any time to put your nose back in your notes.
Unfortunately, that's the only thing Call of the Sea has to offer in terms of gameplay. Like all representatives of the first-person narrative game, what sorts the wheat from the chaff is the script. And the title of Out of the Blue unfortunately fails to captivate us from start to finish. It is not, however, for lack of trying.
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A whirlwind of references
Call of the Sea multiplies the appeals of the foot to fans of science fiction and fantasy. Lovecraft's work is also inscribed as a watermark throughout the adventure – the game literally starts with a sentence pronounced in R'lyehian, the fictional language of Cthulhu. From the Mountains of Madness to the Charles Dexter Ward Affair, passing through the evocation of amphibian humanoids, Out of the Blue does not miss an opportunity to show us that the studio has done its homework well.
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And let's admit that it works pretty well. Especially since the shift is interesting: integrating elements of the classic horror story into the paradisiacal setting of an island lost in the middle of the Pacific creates a dissonance that captivates. In another register, fans of Lost will have fun finding references to a mysterious trapdoor lost in the jungle that must be blown up using sticks of dynamite.
So many screenplay elements that make you smile, and that establish a repository to hang on to. Unfortunately, these little diegetic treats ring hollow. Because we now have to address a subject that annoys: the writing of the title, which is clearly not at the level of the idols that the studio wants to ape.
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Talking for nothing
In our opinion, Call of the Sea suffers from a major flaw. All the more major as it is supposed to offer him his letters of nobility. Played by Cissy Jones (Delilah from Firewatch), Norah never shuts up. So you're going to tell me that in Firewatch too, his character was talkative. I would answer you that, in the play of Campo Santo, it was a question of dialogue. Here, Norah is talking to herself.
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Norah is one of those characters who describes absolutely everything they see, even if it means proclaiming the obvious ("Oh! A document left abandoned on this sandy beach. Perhaps I should examine it in order to find clues ? "). Obviously, the interpretation of Cissy Jones is out of reach. The actress incarnates her character wonderfully, and certain passages (in the approach to the denouement, in particular) do not fail to provoke empathy in the player. Unfortunately, and we mentioned it above, the writing of the title could not be more scholarly and lacks nuance.
Perhaps the studio's desire to cast a wide net is responsible for the simplicity (or the heaviness, it depends) of the tone used? It is true that despite its horrific inspirations, Call of the Sea remains a PEGI 7 game that first speaks of love, before weaving its mystery into the background. But the least we could have done was not to make the person we embody irritating. At the end of the 5 hours it takes on average to complete the adventure, the player will have already rolled his eyes a good thirty times in front of certain lines of the script that are at best corny, at worst completely high-sounding.
A technical mastery that bodes well for the studio
Our grievances against Call of the Sea are all the more frustrating because the title's technical packaging is lavish. With the exception of the first chapter which really pushes the color saturation too far, the rest of the game can hardly be called anything other than enchanting.
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Some staging ideas also work very well. One thinks in particular of this chapter on a beach where, in the middle of a night storm, it is a question of going back and forth in a wreck of a boat to find clues to the resolution of an enigma. By combining superb light effects with a successful sound design, and taking into account that at this moment of the adventure the player does not yet know what sauce he will be eaten, Out of the Blue sets up an atmosphere spooky.
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Finally, on the score side, the composer Eduardo De La Iglesia signs an original soundtrack that we would have liked more integrated into the unfolding of the adventure. Working in the service of immersion, and in colorful themes reminiscent of the thrill of adventure and the oppression of an insoluble mystery, the music deserved to take up more space in the specifications. In the future, the Spanish studio would be well advised to rebalance its forces, even if it means drastically reducing the share of dialogues in favor of a pretty melody which, in certain contexts, does much more for the immersion of the player.
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Call of the Sea : l'avis de Clubic
Perhaps we got carried away too quickly, wanting to see Call of the Sea as the worthy heir to Firewatch. If the imprint left by the game of Campo Santo is still fresh, Call of the Sea knows where it must end the resemblance to forge its own identity.
Problem, the first game of Out of the Blue has at least as many qualities as defects. The main ones, in both categories, being its remarkable artistic direction and its regrettable lack of ease in writing. Added to this defect is another, perhaps even more embarrassing: a wonderfully interpreted protagonist who is made to say nonsense all the time.
At the time of the balance sheet, we therefore find ourselves with our ass between two chairs. A buttock satisfied with having had a great time on this mysterious desert island, multiplying quotes to Lovecraft, Lost and so on. The other part of the seated is nonetheless sullen by these clumsy monologues and by puzzles with a little too childish difficulty.
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Call of the Sea is the very archetype of "average" games; likely to leave both good and bad memories depending on the mood of the moment.Out of the Blue's game sometimes gives us the impression that it doesn't know what its strengths and weaknesses are, which causes a few road trips. Fairly common errors, for a first game, which should not prevent you from spending a head there, if you are an Xbox Game Pass subscriber.
Artistically enchanting, Call of the Sea is essentially flawed by a very academic writing, which serves the interpretation of the protagonist by an actress with mad talent. But we can also see a desire for the studio to cast a wide net which, combined with the great accessibility of its puzzles, would tend to make Call of the Sea a narrative game to be enjoyed with the family, on a long winter evening.
Most
- artistically superb
- The accuracy of Cissy Jones' interpretation...
- Supported but pleasing references
- An often successful staging
- A game accessible to young players…
The lessers
- Simplistic writing
- … marred by incessant chatter
- … at the expense of any difficulty
Test carried out on PC using a key provided by the publisher.
