Call of the Sea

Lore & Background

Call of the Sea is the debut title of Out of the Blue, an independent studio based in Madrid, Spain, with a team of about 12 people. The game was announced on May 7, 2020, during a digital event hosted by Xbox Game Studios, and released for Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on December 8, 2020. It later launched on Amazon Luna on April 20, 2021, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 on May 11, 2021, and Nintendo Switch on May 12, 2021 in North America.

The game is set in the 1930s and follows Norah Everhart, voiced by Cissy Jones, who receives a package with coordinates to an island east of Tahiti. Her husband Harry, voiced by Yuri Lowenthal, vanished after an expedition to find a cure for Norah's mysterious family illness. The game features no combat; players progress by solving puzzles integrated with the story. The plot involves a black ichor, a ritual, and Norah's transformation into a sea creature, with two possible endings: she can complete the transformation for eternal life underwater or reject it to live out her remaining years with Harry.

According to Tatiana Delgado, founder of Out of the Blue, the game was heavily inspired by the works of H. P. Lovecraft, specifically the surreal and oneiric aspects, and was not intended as a horror game. Delgado stated, 'Call of the Sea isn't a descent into madness but a rise to sanity.' The game also drew influence from Myst, Soma, and Subnautica.

Reader's Guide

Call of the Sea stands as a notable entry in the adventure game genre for its deliberate departure from Lovecraftian horror tropes, instead framing its narrative as a journey toward clarity and transformation. The game's focus on puzzle-solving and environmental storytelling, combined with a dual-ending system, offers players agency in a story about illness, identity, and sacrifice. Its critical reception was generally favorable, with praise for the narrative and island setting, though some puzzles were criticized as obtuse. The game's success led to a sequel, Call of the Elder Gods, announced in June 2025 and set for release on May 12, 2026, developed by Out of the Blue Games and published by Kwalee, inspired by Lovecraft's The Shadow Out of Time. The sequel will feature returning voice actors Yuri Lowenthal and Cissy Jones. Call of the Sea's legacy includes demonstrating how independent studios can craft intimate, narrative-driven experiences within a mythos framework, and it remains a reference point for Lovecraftian games that prioritize wonder over terror.

Did You Know?

• Call of the Sea was the debut title for Out of the Blue, a Madrid-based studio with about 12 team members.
• The game's protagonist Norah is voiced by Cissy Jones, and her husband Harry by Yuri Lowenthal.
• The game was released for Nintendo Switch on May 12, 2021 in North America, alongside the PlayStation versions on May 11, 2021.
• No sequel has been officially announced by Out of the Blue or Raw Fury.

A Story of Transformation and Choice

Set against the backdrop of the 1930s Southern Pacific, Call of the Sea follows Norah Everhart as she tracks her missing husband Harry to a mysterious island east of Tahiti. Harry had departed on an expedition to find a cure for Norah's slowly fatal family illness, but his disappearance leaves behind only a package containing coordinates and a photograph. What Norah discovers upon reaching the island is far stranger than a simple rescue mission. The island harbors an ancient well tied to a ritual involving a black ichor, and the scattered remnants of Harry's expedition—reporter Cassandra Ward, mechanic Frank Drayton, dermatologist Ernest De Witt, stuntman Roy Granger, and their Tahitian guide Teaharoa—reveal a trail of accidents, madness, and betrayal. At the story's heart lies a revelation: Norah is not ill at all but is in the process of transforming into something new, distantly related to an ancient sea god. The game's branching conclusion forces players to choose between eternal life as a sea creature, severed from Harry forever, or a finite but shared life with him. Either way, the epilogue at Miskatonic University leaves Harry alone, questioning whether his deception was truly an act of love.

Puzzle-Driven Exploration Without a Weapon

Call of the Sea deliberately strips away the combat mechanics that define so many modern adventure titles. Played entirely from a first-person perspective, the game places the player in Norah's hands as she navigates a lush 1930s island, relying solely on observation, environmental interaction, and puzzle-solving to move forward. There is no health bar, no enemy to fight, no quick-time event. Progression comes from deciphering the island's secrets: operating a rock-carved organ to unlock a temple passage, restoring power to loudspeakers that channel music into a key, and following the scattered notes and camps left behind by Harry's expedition. The development team at Out of the Blue made it a priority that every puzzle served the narrative rather than existing as a mechanical obstacle. The game's design drew clear influence from titles like Firewatch, Myst, Soma, and Subnautica, all of which favor atmospheric exploration and story-driven discovery over action. This commitment to a contemplative, narrative-first experience gives the island a quiet, almost dreamlike quality that sets the tone for the story's surreal revelations.

A Small Studio's Lovecraftian Dream

Call of the Sea represents the debut project of Out of the Blue, a twelve-person independent studio based in Madrid, Spain. Founder Tatiana Delgado has spoken openly about the creative wellspring behind the game: the surreal and dreamlike dimensions of H. P. Lovecraft's fiction. Delgado was careful to emphasize that the team drew only from the "surreal" and "oneiric" aspects of Lovecraft's work, explicitly rejecting the horror label. In her words, the game is "not a descent into madness but a rise to sanity," a framing that recasts the island's strange occurrences as a journey toward self-acceptance rather than psychological collapse. The team treated the project as a narrative-first experience, ensuring that the puzzles woven throughout the island were not arbitrary obstacles but extensions of the story itself. The game was announced on May 7, 2020, during a digital event hosted by Xbox Game Studios, and was published by Raw Fury. Its release on December 8, 2020, marked the studio's arrival on the scene with a bold, atmospheric adventure that prioritized emotional storytelling over spectacle.

Reception and the Road Ahead

Upon its December 2020 launch on Windows and Xbox platforms, Call of the Sea earned generally favorable reviews, with critics singling out the richly written narrative and the evocative island setting as its greatest strengths. However, a recurring note of criticism targeted certain puzzles, which reviewers found occasionally opaque or difficult to parse. Despite these mixed feelings on the mechanical side, the game's emotional core and atmospheric world-building resonated strongly enough to earn it a dedicated following. The title's reach expanded steadily over the following years: Amazon Luna players gained access in April 2021, PlayStation 4 and 5 owners followed in May 2021, and Nintendo Switch players finally received a port in September 2025. The most significant chapter in the game's ongoing legacy arrived with the release of its sequel, Call of the Elder Gods, which launched on May 12, 2026, for Windows, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S. The existence of a direct follow-up confirms that Out of the Blue's debut struck a chord with audiences and that the world of Norah Everhart and the Southern Pacific island still has untold stories to tell.

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