Call of the Sea Review - A Puzzling Island Escape

Publisher: Raw Fury

Developer: Out of the Blue

Rating: Everyone

Reviewed on: Xbox One

Also on: PC

Norah knows something is amiss the moment she steps foot on the island. Despite its inviting beauty, an eerie vibe permeates the air. After all, this is the same place that may have claimed the life of her husband, Harry, who never returned from an expedition here to find a cure for Norah’s mysterious illness. This time, though, it’s up to Norah to rescue him. Call of the Sea is the wonderful debut title by Out of the Blue Games and blends a tantalizing mystery that’s matched by equally engaging puzzle-solving and exploration. 

Call of the Sea’s beautiful presentation lured me from the get-go. From the lush jungles to jaw-dropping shipwrecks, this is a beautiful game, and many scenes would look right at home on a postcard. The ancient ruins also wowed me in their haunting beauty and during moments when seemingly impossible machinery comes to life. 

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Norah is more Nancy Drew than Lara Croft, so puzzles take precedence over combat, and they succeed with clever design and strong variety. What I love most is how Call of the Sea makes you feel like both an observant detective and a problem-solving genius. It takes advantage of its alluring beauty by encouraging players to look at everything around them to spot clues and connect dots. An ancient mural or a hastily drawn sketch can often be the difference between a quick solution and more prolonged head-scratching. Inspecting curious objects and notes is part of the fun, and nothing is ever too hidden. I always found everything I needed if I was reasonably thorough in my searches. Furthermore, Norah jots down important info in her journal, which alleviates much of the pressure in terms of committing clues to memory.

Puzzles come in many cool shapes and sizes; they can be as simple as rotating totem poles to match a specific pattern, or as elaborate as deciphering a dead language. One of the largest and most impressive challenges tasked me with discovering the correct melody to play on a giant, ancient organ. Smaller puzzles often feed into larger ones to create a cohesive whole, and it’s fun to see how riddles thematically build upon each other. Call of the Sea regularly surprised me with its puzzle design, and I always looked forward to seeing what was next. 

The challenges grow more complicated the deeper Norah penetrates the island. Most puzzles are reasonably tough, but a couple feel too obtuse. One particularly maddening example involves using symbols to operate a series of locks to open a door. It's a clever idea on paper, but after exhausting the area of all of its notes and visual hints, it felt like the game still wasn’t clearly communicating a key step – like I was missing a crucial piece to a cool jigsaw puzzle. I eventually just resorted to a walkthrough, and I’m still not sure how the answer makes sense.

When the going got tough, however, the strong narrative propelled me forward. I loved picking up notes with more details about Harry’s expedition and further insight into Norah’s illness. The story takes some dark and surprising turns that culminate in a surprising and mostly satisfying conclusion. With all the focus on ancient tribes, mysticism, and death, the endearing bond between Norah and Harry manages to shine through even when Norah is the only one providing insight. 

Call of the Sea kept me hooked from beginning to end, making it a voyage worth embarking on. I could have gotten lost on that island and solved puzzles for double of its actual running time (about six hours), but the game spends as much time as it needs to spin its tale and test your noggin. This is one island worth getting marooned on. 

Score: 8.5

Summary: Call of the Sea's fascinating mystery is backed by clever puzzle-solving to make it an island worth exploring.

Concept: Travel to an exotic island during the 1930s to find your missing husband and uncover the cause of your mysterious disease

Graphics: The scenic island, from its lush jungles to its haunting ruins, evokes feelings of both awe and trepidation

Sound: Norah’s determination and fear comes through in Cissy Jones’ voice performance, and the soundtrack hits at the right moments to elicit feelings of success and suspense

Playability: The complex puzzle-solving makes the most of the game’s otherwise simple interactions to make sure your brain works hard, not your hands

Entertainment: Clever puzzles and an engaging narrative make Call of the Sea a voyage worth taking

Replay: Moderate

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Cyberpunk 2077 Last-Gen Review – A Tale Of Two Night Cities

Publisher: CD Projekt

Developer: CD Projekt Red

Release: April 16, 2020

Rating: Mature

Reviewed on: Xbox One

Also on: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Stadia, PC

Cyberpunk 2077 hosts a massive sandbox filled to the brim with politically charged conflicts catalyzed by powerful people. Protagonist V might grace the game’s box art, but the hero is overshadowed by Night City’s towering skyscrapers and intriguing citizens. From sunny beaches to gloomy landfills, Night City feels alive even when you’re not around to witness every shady transaction or police investigation. At least, it does when you’re not playing Cyberpunk 2077 on last-gen hardware.

On high-end PCs, the allure of interacting with VIPs and coasting down neon-bright boulevards is on full display, despite Cyberpunk 2077’s notorious glitches. Chromatic implants glisten in dark hotel rooms, flickering lightbars boast picture-perfect reflections in rain puddles, and character models are particularly striking. However, the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions of Cyberpunk 2077 are marred by several additional bugs and ugly visuals. Overall, my extended stay in Night City was unpleasant, and a far cry from the experience PC players have described.

 

Even after I decluttered my screen by disabling film grain and many of Cyberpunk 2077’s other graphical features (these options don’t noticeably enhance the visuals when kept active), the look of the game remained the same: Drab and dreary. The colors are drained of vibrance – vehicle paint jobs, flashy jumbotrons, even the sun’s rays. NPCs are poorly rendered and appear as indiscernible shapes. And surfaces have flat textures that are obvious at most draw distances. It’s hard to enjoy the interactivity of Night City when quest givers or companions are polygonal blobs, and that sweet sportscar you spent a small fortune on is just a blurry object with pallid wheels. Eventually, these textures load, but by then, the damage to immersion has already been done.

Framerate drops are a common occurrence and tend to disrupt basic exploration and action sequences. In densely populated districts like Watson and Heywood, you’re often forced to stop as the hardware attempts to manage the myriad NPCs and traffic jams. I’ve also noticed that when driving at high speeds, the game freezes regularly, which can lead to crashes.

The spotty enemy A.I. from the PC version carries over here, but trying to fulfill objectives covertly or survive boss encounters can be frustratingly difficult when the frames start to randomly hiccup. On multiple occasions, I’d sneak behind an enemy to incapacitate them, the game would seemingly pause for loading purposes, and then suddenly the guard I was targeting would randomly respawn behind me. Smaller bugs (like T-posed NPCs) stopped happening on a regular basis after CD Projekt Red’s latest hotfix, but game-breaking issues – weapons not appearing, the scanner being unusable – forced me to reload saves or restart my console periodically.

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I can’t help but lament Cyberpunk 2077’s potential. Night City is an ambitious open world. Seaside carnivals give way to bustling marketplaces. Trailer park communities hide in the shadows of glass spires. Meeting new faces is exciting and selecting unique lines of dialogue can even change the outcome of a side quest or relationship. Your choices always feel meaningful. But appreciating all of that is practically impossible on these consoles; graphics aren’t necessarily the most important part of a game, but in the last-gen versions of Cyberpunk 2077, the visuals and performance are so bad that they neutralize the game’s biggest strengths.

Cyberpunk 2077 wasn’t optimized for last-gen consoles, and no amount of interesting side activities can remedy that. On PC, the world lives up to its title as the “City of Dreams.” For Xbox One and PlayStation 4 players, however, their time in Night City is likely a nightmare.

The upgraded difference

If you have the enhanced versions of last-gen consoles – PS4 Pro or Xbox One X – Cyberpunk 2077 is a smoother experience. At the very least, the NPCs look fine and textures are far more detailed, although I spotted occasional pop-in. Bugs and crashes might still plague your playthrough from time to time, but the experience feels more stable, and is definitely a step up from the base Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions.

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Score: 5.5

Summary: Cyberpunk 2077 may shine on high-end PCs, but constant bugs and poorly rendered graphics make it a less-than-ideal experience on last-gen consoles.

Concept: Use your hacking and fighting skills to unearth the nefarious schemes of a tech megacorporation while becoming a living legend in Night City’s criminal underworld

Graphics: On the base versions of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, the visuals are grainy and washed out. Simply put, the game looks awful

Sound: Sometimes sound effects like explosions, gunshots, or footsteps are awkwardly inaudible, but the voice acting (especially Keanu Reeves’ performance) is solid

Playability: Framerate drops and glitches run rampant on this version, making Cyberpunk 2077 a true test of patience

Entertainment: Conversing with Night City’s ensemble cast is fun, but outdated combat mechanics and faulty enemy AI might convince you to play stealthily more than you’d like

Replay: Moderately Low

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Gears 5: Hivebusters Review – A Quick Blast Of Mayhem

Publisher: Xbox Game Studios

Developer: The Coalition

Rating: Mature

Reviewed on: Xbox Series X/S

Also on: Xbox One, PC

Short and bloody sweet, Gears 5: Hivebusters pumps out excitement with the urgency of a rattling lancer, rarely slowing as it hits the mark with its cover-based firefights. The troubled open-world exploration that was introduced in Gears 5 is nowhere to be found, and neither are Kait Diaz or the Fenix Family. We instead see Gears doing what it does best: mulching Locus Horde flesh. Players experience this familiar action through the high-powered mayhem of Scorpio Squad, a band of misfits who have assembled for a suicide mission.

Scorpion Squad is the team that was introduced in Gears 5’s Escape mode, and Hivebusters tells their origin story. They must sacrifice themselves to take out a massive Swarm hive – a selfless act that could save all of Sera. This narrative moves along quickly, but isn’t short in vision. We get plenty of fun and over-the-top banter from the squad’s Leslie Macallister, Lahni Kaliso, and Jeremiah Keegan, who have traveled to the lava-rich and beautifully realized Galangi islands. They move through jungles and caverns as they track down the hive, as well as something else that is big, unexpected, and spewing a toxin. The story and narrative truck along nicely, making the three hours it lasts for fly by.

The squad is equipped with a familiar arsenal, but they are without Jack – a flying robotic helper that previously provided support functionality. To make up for Jack’s absence, each character has a different ultimate ability that runs on a cooldown and can be enhanced through upgrades. Mac deploys a useful energy shield, Keegan generates ammo, and Lahni gets to have some fun with an electrified knife, the best of the three. The ultimates are game-changers in how frequently they can be used and how much they aid the team.

Most of the firefights throw caution to the wind and bombard the player with all types of enemies attacking from every vector. Locust foot soldiers take cover behind barriers, howling juvies leap from the trees, and swarms dance overhead. The intensity achieved by some of these firefights is awesome, and developer The Coalition does a nice job of changing them up from moment to moment. One minute, you need to hunker down and hold the line as foes approach. The next minute, you can use the environment as a weapon to melt or crush foes. Many of the fights are decently long, and reach satisfying levels of chaos. The Coalition’s fingerprint is pushing the player to the point of feeling overwhelmed, then turning it up a notch by throwing in a boss-like encounter at the end.

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Given how quickly environments can be explored, the annoying transitions to other areas where the team needs to cut through vines, climb a cliff, or pry open a door are in great abundance and do slow the fervent pace down, but they are just small blemishes on an otherwise outstanding Gears of War experience.

Hivebusters doesn’t have the variety or world-building of the core Gears games, and doesn't take any chances along the way, but is a fun alternative that I wouldn’t mind seeing more of. It’s nice to get to know more of the characters in this universe, one of whom flips double middle fingers in the face of danger, which may be the most Gears of War thing I’ve ever seen.

Score: 8

Summary: The cover-based firefights continue to satisfy in big ways.

Concept: The series’ long-running cover-based formula still packs a punch, and is the core focus of this entry. It has a retro feel and moves along nicely

Graphics: The protagonists’ bulky shoulder pads are barely noticeable given the immense level of detail in the environments. The backdrops and foliage in the jungles are a sight to behold

Sound: Great voice performances that meld with the terrifying shrieks of the monsters. The score pounds at the right times

Playability: The lancer’s chainsaw may have some rust on it, but it’s still fun to use, as are all of the familiar gameplay mechanics. The new ultimate abilities add a little strategizing to the gunplay

Entertainment: Hivebusters provides about three hours of excellently designed gunfights that are great solo or with friends

Replay: Moderately Low

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