In Call of the Sea you play as a woman looking for her husband who went to an island in search of a cure for a mysterious illness that the woman has which is giving her reverse vitiligo. Although the game is set in the early 20th century it is not about a white woman terrified of turning black, but terrified of turning into a fish. Also, if the game was set in contemporary times the couple could have just kept track of each other through tik tok (I have to remind myself to update this review when Tik Tok has been replaced by a more popular social network app, though I fear it may already be too late!).
You solve puzzles that, in true adventure game fashion, relies on the idea that mechanical devices set up three millennia ago still work perfectly without any maintenance in the meantime. These can be tricky, but in general won’t be too difficult to figure out as long as you keep track of everything that is written down in your journal as you discover clues. The game is quite short; I only really got stumped by a puzzle early on, after that I advanced through the game at a brisk pace, seeing credits after roughly four and a half hours. The game is pretty to look at, sporting a style somewhere between cartoon and realism and the story and narration are also strong points. At the end I was forced to make a choice that genuinely felt difficult.
Call of the Sea is not a game for everyone. In fact it is probably specifically for people who enjoy old school point and click adventure games, and seeing as those are in short supply, this will probably keep you entertained until the next remaster of a terrible FMV game from the 90s comes out.