Call of the Sea

A first-person puzzle game inspired by HP Lovecraft (Cthulhu).

It's a low-budget indie game, and at first I was put off by the cartoony art and glitches. The glitches got significantly better after chapter 1 and were gone after chapter 2. And I quickly got used to the art and swept up in the story.

The story was really good, and I was filled with ever-growing dread and anticipation from the moment act 2 began. The main character's voice actor was really good. The puzzles were perfect. A few were headscratchers that stumped me for a while, but I never needed to look up a guide.

I tried to explore everything in one playthrough. I completed the game and had about 90% of everything (60% of achievements) after 8 hours. Another 1 or 2 hours for a quick run-through to grab the things I missed and get 100%.

If HP Lovecraft made a video game, it would be exactly like Call of the Sea. I think the ending was somewhat more logically understandable and less terrifying than most of his stories, but Call of the Sea is still a fantastic addition to the eldritch horror genre.