A Confused Journey of Cosmic Horror

The team at Out of the Blue Games did just as its name suggests back in 2020 when it released Call of the Sea. They developed their own unique charm that helped them stand out among the veritable sea of ​​first-person narrative puzzle games, following that up with the wonderfully weird American Arcadia. Now, five years later, Out of the Blue is back with Call of the Elder Gods.

It is a direct sequel to Call of the Sea, although the developer insists that both games can be enjoyed independently. Indeed, I also played Call of the Sea about a month before my time with Call of the Elder Gods and I felt that while there are ties to the narrative and gameplay, each game has its own distinct flavor that makes it a unique, deeply engaging experience.

As with its predecessor, Call of the Elder Gods is a first-person puzzle game that focuses heavily on storytelling, dialogue, and complex puzzles. HP Lovecraft’s influences are clear and obvious, as the game uses a real war chest of both subtle references to the allegorical myths that have inspired many films, television shows and video games.

Call of the Elder Gods draws from many elements of Lovecraft’s mythology, creating a tale that is equal parts terrifying, mysterious and utterly captivating. If you’ve been waiting for the big Lovecraft debut of 2026, look no further, as Call of the Elder Gods will gently guide you into the screaming darkness you dare not tread.

Fear of the Unknown

Call of the Elder Gods tells the story of Evangeline Drayton and Professor Harry Everhart, two people brought together by a common interest in the occult and otherworldly workings of the universe beyond our understanding. Driven by strange dreams, Evangeline finds Harry in the middle of an existential crisis, as the two travel together to discover the truth.

The game seems to take its strongest Lovecraftian influences from stories like At the Mountains of Madness and Call of Cthulhu, as adventures built around curious stone cities built on the geometry of the land itself are prevalent. If you have a basic understanding of the Cthulhu mythos, you’ll be fine, but if you’re someone who’s developed the same maddened passion for it as the characters in the game, the level of detail the developers go into is amazing.

Like Out of the Blue’s previous efforts, Call of the Elder Gods focuses as much on delicate, inviting prose as it is about drawing you into its world as much as it is about giving you a few laughs every now and then. Each character in Call of the Elder Gods has a strong, insightful personality and a tangible motivation. Those features are refocused and shaped more during the game, allowing each character to feel like they’ve experienced their own adventure. Writing and voice acting are truly amazing things.

Call of the Elder Gods also evokes an uneasy sense of dread throughout its runtime. Wandering through its well-designed environments alongside its well-assembled orchestra is an eerie feeling, but it also creates the same level of eerie beauty that Call of the Sea does. The presentation of Call of the Elder Gods is amazing, it shows how incredibly talented this team is.

I’ve never really liked the 2D style that Call of the Elder Gods uses in its cutscenes, and despite it being more lifelike than other examples, I still find this style of storytelling to be outdated. It’s not inherently a problem, as it’s more involved than other games’ efforts, but still, it’s one aspect of the game that feels simplistic. Every other aspect of the story and the way it is brought to you is top notch.

Cosmic Puzzle Adventure

At its core, Call of the Elder Gods is a narrative puzzle game. If that scares you, I’ll tell you that this type of game often makes me feel anxious, too. Playing a game like this often feels like peeling back the layers of a cosmic curtain, enraged by what you see as you try to figure out what crazy solution the developer came up with.

Older puzzle games from the 1990s and even the early 2000s had a bit of a problem with this, where the solution was so weird and illogical, that they were given the wrong colloquialism of a logical puzzle of the month. These types of puzzles and solutions have thankfully been minimized, although they do occur from time to time. Call of the Elder Gods does its best to ensure that each puzzle and solution is built on what you can see and hear.

The game trusts you to understand and understand what it is showing you, letting the player feel the weight of each puzzle. It throws all kinds of puzzles at you at a fast pace, too, which helps keep the game from feeling like it’s under-slogged. No puzzle ever feels the same, as the game aims to make sure you don’t feel like you’re solving a fixed solution.

Some puzzles are smaller, more focused tasks, while others rely on multiple, multi-level solutions that require you to constantly keep tabs on your notes. It’s the kind of game where you can benefit from taking your own notes, too, as some of the puzzles are complicated. As usual in the genre, I felt head-scratching most of the time.

Take a Suggestion

Call of the Elder Gods is a game that depends on you to approach it calmly, and gives you all the tools to tackle its puzzles with as much ferocity as you like. One of those features I appreciate is the hint system, which doesn’t punish you or your ability to earn achievements. And it doesn’t directly state the answer in a few cases, but just directs you to what you will now see as the obvious answer.

Developers want you to be happy, and they have no interest in making you feel stupid for not getting something. While the hint system is meant as a last resort, the game does its best to make sure you don’t feel like a fool for asking for advice. It’s a great system, and one that other puzzle games should look to emulate.

In addition to how well the game treats you as a player, it also gives you a lot of great options about how it actually feels to play. There are some really subtle options that you can check on or off to give the game its own personal flair, including a smooth transition option that gives the game a nice cinematic feel.

There is also an option to turn off the head, which is great if you are someone who has any potential health issues. There’s a lot of effort put into the game options to make sure that everyone can experience the game, and that’s always great to see. Accessibility options aren’t always top of mind for some developers, so it’s great if a developer goes the extra mile.

Visually, Call of the Elder Gods is a complete gift. The environments are stunning to look at, and the game uses amazing post-processing effects to create a surreal, dream-like quality to the feel. It’s on the cartoony side, but it combines that well with a realistic look. The art direction is flawless.

It also runs like a dream. On PC, I didn’t have any issues with any kind of frame rate, and you can choose not to install it entirely if you’d like. It’s not a very difficult game, so most rigs should be able to do it well. I was able to hit about 130 FPS, and it remained stable throughout my time with the game. This is a team that understands hardware, and it has been a hallmark of its games since its inception.

Call of the Elder Gods is a beautiful, scary and sometimes funny first-person puzzle game. It’s very focused on the world and its characters, with great writing and lovely voice acting. The puzzles are clever, offering a combination of subtle and grandiose brain teasers. If you’re a fan of cosmic horror or Lovecraftian tales, Call of the Elder Gods will be a game you’ll want to get into right away. This is one of the highlights of the year so far, and it’s not one you’ll want to miss.

Released

May 12, 2026

The ESRB

Youth / Language, Tobacco Use

Engineer(s).

out of the blue

Publisher

Kwalee

Good and bad

• Outstanding writing and voice acting
• An eerie, atmospheric score that evokes traditional film scores
• Innovative and challenging puzzle design
• Beautiful and atmospheric world design
• The hint system is incredibly helpful, and doesn’t penalize the player
• Lots of options for how the game feels
• It avoids the moonshine of old puzzle games

• The 2D cutscenes are decent, but the style feels dated