Call Of The Sea
Developer Out Of The Blue Publisher Raw Fury Format PC (tested), Xbox One, Xbox Series Release Out now
As her boat pulls into shore, Norah Everhart’s curiosity is aroused. “There’s definitely something strange about this place,” she muses. Not half. Set in the 1930s, her voyage begins with eerie Cthuvian whispers, bizarre underwater dreams and then a note written in French, of which she can translate two words: ‘island’ and ‘death’. These are the kinds of portents you’d find at the opening of a schlocky B-movie horror. But while this South Pacific island certainly isn’t the sun-kissed paradise it first appears to be as she steps onto its pristine sands, that opening is equally misleading. Out Of The Blue’s firstperson adventure is far from done wrongfooting you – though it’s confounding in bad ways as well as good.
It starts unpromisingly, with some of the clumsiest exposition we’ve encountered in some time – and that’s going some given how many videogames we’ve played in 2020. “Those horrible dreams again!” Norah
