Call of the Sea

Call of the Sea is a first-person puzzle adventure. In 1934, Norah travels to the South Pacific to track down the expedition of her missing husband. On a remote island she finds abandoned camps, mysterious ruins and clues to an alien civilization. The focus is on exploration, observation and a personal story rather than combat.

Call of the Sea was released on Dec 8, 2020, for PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S. The PS4 and PS5 versions followed on May 11, 2021. The adventure has been available on Nintendo Switch since Sept 9, 2025. The Meta Quest version, Call of the Sea VR, already came out in 2023 as a standalone version designed for virtual reality.

The original puzzle adventure was released for PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, PS5 and Nintendo Switch. The Xbox version supports Smart Delivery. A standalone native version is available on Switch. Call of the Sea VR was built specifically for Meta Quest and is not simply another screen version of the main game.

You explore the island from Norah's perspective, examine objects and connect clues to solve puzzles. The puzzles are based on patterns, symbols and spatial relationships. There is no classic combat system. Instead of reflexes, the adventure mainly demands attention and an understanding of its locations.

On PC, a digital soundtrack and an artbook were released separately. The Deluxe Edition bundles this content with the base game. Call of the Sea VR, by contrast, is a standalone adaptation for Meta Quest, with controls and visuals tailored to virtual reality.

For the Windows version, Steam lists at least an AMD FX-6100 or Intel Core i3-3220, 8 GB RAM, a Radeon HD 7750 or GeForce GTX 650, and DirectX 11. Recommended are a Ryzen 7 1700 or Core i7-6700K, 16 GB RAM and a Radeon RX Vega 56 or GeForce GTX 1070 or GTX 1660 Ti. Steam lists 15 GB of free storage.

In 1934, Norah follows the trail of her husband Harry, whose expedition vanished on an island in the South Pacific. What begins as a search for a missing group leads to the remains of an unfamiliar culture and to questions about Norah's own past. The story unfolds through clues and discoveries found along the way.

On the island you find mechanisms, symbol sequences, devices and notes whose meaning only becomes clear through exploration. Information from different areas connects. When you match symbols or set a machine in motion, this often opens the way to the next section.

Tropical coasts, abandoned expedition camps and monumental ruins form the backdrop. Call of the Sea tells a large part of its story through the visible traces of past inhabitants and visitors. The shift between lush nature and unusual structures creates an increasingly eerie atmosphere.

The story is experienced from Norah's point of view. You move freely through the areas that are accessible at any time and examine your surroundings. Instead of defeating enemies, you have to interpret observations correctly. Puzzles are the central challenge.

Norah is voiced by Cissy Jones in the English original. Her thoughts and reactions accompany the discoveries on the island. German on-screen text makes the story accessible even without English skills.

Call of the Sea offers German on-screen text. The main version has English voice acting. Nintendo lists German, English, French, Italian, Japanese, Spanish and Korean among the supported languages for the Switch version.

Call of the Sea is a single-player adventure. The Xbox versions support Smart Delivery, and Xbox Series X|S also lists optimizations such as higher frame rates and 4K support. The Switch version can be played in handheld, tabletop and TV mode.

The Switch version was released on Sept 9, 2025. It offers German text and supports the Pro Controller. On the Nintendo console, the story is available in full as a standalone download release.