The Indie Informer

Several years ago, when we were all confined to our homes during a global pandemic, I was inhaling games at an alarming pace. All things considered, it was a bright spot during a rather dark time. I felt like I had all the time in the world to try and experiment with games that otherwise would have been banished to the gaming backlog of never-ending length.

It was during this golden period of gaming that I stumbled upon Call of the Sea, a classic puzzle experience with supernatural and dark themes framing the story. From the moment I rolled credits, I knew this was about to be one of the most underrated games I’d ever have the pleasure of discovering. The respectfully paced six-hour experience was a textbook example of great puzzle design, and yet at the time I felt like it didn’t nearly get the flowers and buzz it deserved.

So color me surprised when I heard there was a sequel on the way: Call of the Elder Gods. Of course, this was a must-play for me, and after spending hours with the title, I can happily say that Call of the Elder Gods is not just a fitting sequel to Call of the Sea, but a fantastic puzzle game that stands on its own and surpasses its predecessor in almost every way.

The premise is simple: you follow a duo of researchers who have been ensnared in a Lovecraftian mystery in which the more they uncover, the more they put themselves in peril. Each new discovery takes you to a new location that comes with its own flavor of puzzles and pieces of lore that aim to twist your experience in new and unexpected directions.

Although fairly similar in tone, the story of Call of the Elder Gods feels like a step up from Call of the Sea. The fully voice-acted script is chock-full of twists, turns, and unexpected moments of suspense and drama. Every chapter feels like another layer of an onion peeling back, revealing more key players, supernatural elements, and answers.

You’re not necessarily getting an Oscar-worthy horror mystery, as several cheesy lines and moments felt like leaps in character logic, but for what it is, the journey was consistently entertaining. Almost every time I felt myself stop caring about the story at large, there was always something that pulled me back in.

This is helped by the inclusion of two controllable characters in the gameplay. Each chapter features moments where you swap between protagonists, and while it serves no real mechanical purpose beyond presenting multiple puzzle rooms within a scene, it certainly helps add tension and intrigue to what would otherwise be a rather one-note adventure.

While fans of Lovecraftian tales may find a twisted version of comfort within this story, the real showstopper here is the puzzle gameplay. As a self-proclaimed puzzle aficionado, this is my comfort food. Call of the Elder Gods delivers a consistent and impressive suite of puzzles whose quality easily surpasses that of its predecessor.

Puzzles are notoriously hard to build. How do you gauge difficulty? How do you avoid being too obtuse? How do you avoid becoming repetitive? When crafting a puzzle game, there are numerous pitfalls to avoid, and where I feel Call of the Sea may have fallen victim to some of them, Call of the Elder Gods masterfully weaves through most of them.

The big difference this time around is the feeling that each chapter serves as its own escape room in some regard. Swapping between environments like a mansion, an underground cave, and the building housing a secret society really lets your brain naturally compartmentalize each puzzle area and what you’ll need to complete your objective. I never really found myself frustratingly trying to use the clues of one puzzle to solve another, or searching one large area of the map when I should have been confining myself to another.

Of course, this is all glued together by the fantastic notebook mechanic that returns from the first game. As you examine elements of each level, the game records all of the important clues to help narrow your focus. Eliminating those inconveniences gives the puzzles more opportunity to shine and leaves less time spent stumbling through unintended misdirection.

The puzzles themselves have improved as well. The amount of variety shown from chapter to chapter was fantastic to see. Once again, aided by the broader environmental scope and wider narrative elements, the game is able to throw in dozens of puzzles that are not only thematically different, but also functionally different.

You have rotating statues, pump management, code deciphering, fill-in-the-blank challenges, and much more that helps keep the gameplay stimulating and interesting the entire time. Coupled with the fact that none of them feel too obtuse, even without hints, thanks to all of the mechanics discussed thus far, it really brings everything together and makes this game feel like a poster child for great puzzle design: delivering a lot of value from small, self-contained challenge rooms.

I think it’s safe to say I enjoyed my time with Call of the Elder Gods. While we often praise titles like Outer Wilds and Blue Prince for building these impressively complex networks of puzzle design that constantly loop and build upon themselves, few games can successfully achieve that, and many collapse in on themselves attempting to do so.

Call of the Elder Gods should be another blueprint people look toward. A game that aims to deliver dozens of creative and challenging puzzles wrapped in a unique story. For puzzle fans like myself, it provides a fantastic experience that hits all the right notes.