As someone who’s averse to puzzles that require more than a few minutes of thought, 2020’s Call of the Sea really surprised me. Yes, I struggled with several of the puzzles and required a guide on occasion, but the vibrant art style and cosmic horror-tinged story really grabbed me, as did Norah, the charismatic protagonist. Six years later the team are back with Call of the Elder Gods, which picks up after the events of the original game and builds on them in some meaningful ways.
Call of the Elder Gods is set many years after the original game and sees you playing as two very different characters. Evie is a young woman experiencing dreams of an ancient civilisation and periods of memory loss, while Harry is the husband of the aforementioned Norah. The game weaves together these stories well, linking Evie to the events of the original game while continuing Harry’s story following the passing of Norah prior to the game starting. She returns in a way too, acting as the wry narrator, and I genuinely enjoyed hearing her chime in on events throughout the game.
The story is a lot grander than the original game too, and it actually reminded me of Indiana Jones at times thanks to the regular globetrotting (including Indy map animation) along with some other themes I won’t spoil here . While the original game was largely confined to a tropical island, Call of the Elder Gods takes you to nearly every corner of the globe. I appreciate the regular changes of scenery, although there’s something to be said about how the original game managed to tell a tight, compact story set on a single island and I think that’s partly what grabbed me about the game.
You’ll spend your time switching between Evie and Harry’s shoes to explore locations and pick up copious amounts of paperwork full of lore about secret societies, paranormal experiments and the cosmic mythology that runs through the game. When you’re not reading or talking, you’ll be solving puzzles. As mentioned, I’m not the sharpest tool when it comes to puzzles but these are some of the best I’ve seen.
There’s a huge amount of variety, and you’re never far from your next job, whether that be sorting things, dabbling in Latin or codebreaking, testing your musical knowledge, flicking switches and more. It’s rare to see the same puzzle appear more than once, and when it does it’s usually part of a single, multi-stage puzzle. It never feels stilted, either. It’s not the cerebral equivalent of wandering into a room full of waist-high cover; each puzzle is organically woven into the stage and you’ll need to find solutions that help you power on a radio tower or unlock a door to proceed through the chapter.
These puzzles are definitely on the tougher end of the scale for someone with my monkey brain, but thankfully the game includes a very generous hint system. Ask for a hint and it’ll give you a general nudge towards the solution. Ask for another and you’ll get clearer instructions on what to do next. If you keep asking then eventually it’ll just give you the solution in a neatly annotated screenshot, so there’s no ambiguity and you can push ahead with the game without feeling stuck for too long.
That said, some puzzles are so large with multiple stages that they aren’t easily summarised with the in-game system, and one in particular had me struggling to solve it even with the full solution laid out in front of me. That’s probably an issue with me rather than the game, but it sure made me feel stupid.
As with the first game, Call of the Elder Gods has a gorgeous aesthetic reminiscent of old adventure book covers. With the wider variety of settings they’ve been able to stretch their legs a bit, designing multiple interior and exterior locations that all feed into that Indiana Jones feeling I mentioned previously.
On Nintendo Switch 2 there were no issues whatsoever with performance either, making the game a great candidate for portable puzzling. It’s an audio treat too, and while the music didn’t make much of an impact on me, the voice acting was top notch. Harry sounds suitably curmudgeonly, Evie keeps him on his toes and Norah sounds older and wiser than ever before.
Call of the Elder Gods is a must play for puzzle fans, that much was always going to be the case. However, thanks to a generous hint system and another excellent story that takes some really unexpected twists, it’s a game that everyone else can enjoy too.
