Call of the Elder Gods Review: Tasteful Puzzles And Adventuring

Back in 2020, a wonderful puzzle game titled Call of the Sea was released by Out of the Blue Games. Described as a "real surprise" in our review, it came out of nowhere and wowed not only genre fans, but the gaming sphere as a whole.Now, with the sequel, everything is poised to get even weirder with Call of the Elder Gods.

Based on HP Lovecraft's novella The Shadow Out of Time, this new story centers on Professor Harry Everhart (the husband of the protagonist from Call of the Sea) and Evangeline Drayton, a student. The thing is, at no point does Call of the Elder Gods feel like a clone of a prior work, whether it's Out of the Blue's own catalog or Lovecraft's countless stories of cosmic horror.

It builds on the success of Call of the Sea, and aims to make things more expansive, without losing any magic or getting in over its head.

Inspired By Lovecraft, But All Original

If you're unfamiliar with the premise, you don't need an Encylopedic knowledge of Call of the Sea or Lovecraft to dive into the sequel. Other than a few thematic ties to the original (as well as a connection to Harry's wife, Norah Everhart), we're off to the races with the new point of view character, Evangeline.

Given that Evangeline is a student, it's a perfect framework for the story: keep things casual for the first 30 minutes or so and provide an excuse to kick the adventure off. The best part is that, at no point, does the use of Evangeline stymie the pacing. She's a welcome addition, and her rapport (or lack thereof at first) with Harry makes for an interesting dynamic.

Cissy Jones and Yuri Lowenthal are up to the task of voicing these respective characters, and this time around, the locales are fantastic and varied, bringing us across the world on an adventure that feels more sweeping than the original. The story is paired with gorgeous visuals, which really help the new locations pop and come to life.

The Elder Gods Mystery Is Engaging

Call of the Elder Gods generally does a great job with pacing and keeping the puzzles engaging. At its core, it's essentially an escape-room game, whisking you away to different sandbox-contained locations that offer a series of puzzles.

For instance, you might need to find a key to unlock a specific section of a mansion, then head into a garden to uncover more puzzles, all of which eventually lead to a discovery or a special room that moves the story forward.

Like Call of the Sea, Call of the Elder Gods is a healthy mix of hidden "press this" puzzles that reward keen-eyed players, in addition to logic puzzles that need to be solved with information from your surroundings. Think of things like a statue appearing on a wall with a sun, hinting that you'll need to turn that statue to face something either resembling a sun, or an icon of it.

Although things get complex at times, it's rarely frustrating, even the aforementioned hidden-object searching, which verges on "hidden pixel" classic adventure-game silliness. It never quite crosses that line, but there are a few solutions that elicited an audible "wow that was really tucked away in there" reaction from me.

The journal system is key to the game, and it jots down things your character notices from inspecting everything. In other words, it might show symbols or painting details you've discovered conveniently in one place, so you don't need to jog from room to room (and back) to solve puzzles. It's very well done in a way that doesn't outright spoil solutions, as you still need to figure them out.

If all else fails, you can use the game's hint feature, which provides a big picture sense of what you should be doing on the first slide, followed by individual puzzle hints. Conversely, you can turn on "hard mode," which provides the following challenges:

• No journal.
• Some "interactions" and dialogue that help with puzzles are turned off.

Although this toggle is available at any time in-game and still allows achievement progress, I would have liked to have seen way more customization here. Playing with the journal feels fine, but I couldn't help but feel slightly off when playing both all-in hard mode and standard mode.

This And Call of The Sea Are A Great Double-Feature

If you're looking to scratch a puzzle itch and are fond of escape room-type games, Call of the Elder Gods is a great shout. The narrative is engaging but not overly in-your-face, as the focus is squarely on the strength of the puzzles and locales.

Call of the Elder Gods is another hit for Out of the Blue Games, and I can't wait to see what they do next. It seems like they've found a winning formula; building on their prior works but also keeping them utterly distinct.