Lovecraftian Adventure Game
Call of the Elder Gods is a first-person adventure game developed by Out of the Blue and published by Kwalee in 2026. Players step into the roles of Evie Drayton and Harry Everhart as they unravel a mystery involving the Great Race of Yith.
The game is an almost direct sequel to its predecessor, Call of the Sea, although it does not require you to have played the previous game. That said, having done so certainly helps.
It follows the same effective formula as the original, focusing on puzzle-solving and a narrative built around mystery and adventure, all wrapped in a cosy atmosphere with stylised visuals. I’ll say straight away that, while it no longer has the advantage of novelty, it is a sequel that lives up to the success of its predecessor.
Warning: Spoilers Ahead!
Call of the Elder Gods story
Prologue: A Dream, a Phone Call and a Therapy Session
Our protagonist begins in a strange dream, in a dreamlike setting she recognises as an ancient city hidden within the jungle, while hearing the words of a ritual being recited. She soon realises it is no ordinary place because of the stars overhead. The memorised words finally come together as a single sentence: “Find a statuette and save my race.”
She reaches the statue and wakes up in her bedroom, where we are introduced to Evie Drayton. Evie has been having these recurring dreams since 1956, when she completely lost consciousness. During that period, she was studying at a site in Norway called Spitsbergen Island in Svalbard. Evie is a student at Miskatonic University. The statue from her dreams is real and was recently excavated during an expedition funded by Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee at the Rappahannock River. Another figure involved is Professor Harrison Walton Everhart.
Evie receives a phone call from the Dean of Archaeology at Miskatonic, who arranges to meet her in Boston at 6 p.m.
We are then introduced to our second character, Professor Everhart, while he is speaking with the doctor who has been prescribing his medication. The doctor is a psychiatrist, and he asks Everhart about his wife, Norah. Yes, these are the same characters from the first Call of the Sea game. On top of that, Everhart has been seeing oily shadows following him around, even within his happiest memories.
Evie arrives at the Everhart mansion and immediately notices a car speeding away. No one answers the door. She decides to enter the mansion on her own.
Chapter 1: The Everhart Mansion
Evie enters the grounds of the mansion and discovers an open window. She learns a little about the Everhart family through the paintings displayed throughout the house. There are signs that the place has been left in disarray, and Evie is nosy enough to poke through nearly everything belonging to Professor Everhart. In doing so, she discovers that the Everhart family had ties to the occult, beginning with Harry’s mother after she lost her first son, John.
After solving a few puzzles around the mansion, Evie uncovers a hidden compartment containing a mysterious music box, followed by a secret passage concealed behind the fireplace.
The passage leads to a room resembling an alchemist’s workshop, where she finds Professor Everhart lying on the floor beside the shattered remains of the statuette. The professor explains that someone attacked him and attempted to steal it. Everhart tells Evie about the dark orb within the statue, which contains the blood of an Elder God. The person responsible was clearly his psychiatrist, though Everhart himself destroyed the statuette to stop it falling into the wrong hands.
Everhart decides to accompany Evie to Virginia, to the Rappahannock River, in search of other examples of the statuette.
Chapter 2: Of Colossal Caves and Ancient Relics
They drive to the site, which turns out to be an actual cave that has been closed to the public following a death. That does not stop them from breaking in. They split up with walkie-talkies to stay in contact, but Evie soon falls through a hole, separating them.
With no other option, she follows the excavation trail until she reaches a lake deep inside the cave.
Further in, they reunite in an area covered with murals. The professor explains that they may contain a coded message written in ancient languages. The creatures depicted in the murals are clearly the Yith.
Although Everhart made Evie promise not to do anything reckless, she discovers a diving suit among the cave structures and decides to descend into the depths of the lake. As she progresses, she encounters the same black ooze contained within the orb of the statuette.
Eventually, Evie reaches a complex beyond the flooded area, filled with more murals depicting the Yith race. The place resembles a highly advanced chamber from the distant past. There she discovers that more of the statuettes exist and that they can be used to repel the black ooze.
Suddenly, a hydraulic mechanism comes to life, allowing Evie to redirect the black ooze towards the area where Everhart is waiting.
Everhart also solves a musical puzzle but begins seeing the shadows again. Even so, he obtains another statuette containing black ooze and sends it to Evie in the deeper sections of the cave.
While making her way back, Evie hears another voice over her walkie-talkie. It is not the professor, but her deceased father. Moments later, Everhart’s voice returns. Using the statuette, Evie manages to pass through the black ooze.
Still beneath the lake, she hears Everhart say that someone has arrived at the cave, followed by the sound of gunfire. Forced to remain underwater, Evie waits until her oxygen runs out. When she surfaces, she discovers that Everhart’s psychiatrist is there, holding a gun.
Chapter 3: A Guide to the Members of the Starry Wisdom Society
Evie is kidnapped and taken to the Starry Wisdom Society, a remote estate high in the mountains and surrounded by forest.
She wakes up tied to a chair with two men staring at her. One of them is Caleb Bowen, a man who works for the US government, or at least did many years ago.
Bowen attempts to manipulate Evie, turning her against Everhart by accusing him of being a communist. He hands her a photograph showing a group of people, including Everhart and Evie’s father, during the Pacific expedition. Evie’s father died during that expedition along with every other member, something she never knew.
Bowen asks her several questions, including whether she knows Doctor West.
They present her with a text written in symbols she recognises: the Pnakotic Manuscripts. The psychiatrist then places her under hypnosis and instructs her to read the book.
Evie travels through another ethereal, dreamlike setting, reliving the moment her father met Everhart, agreed to join the Pacific expedition, and eventually died. She continues hearing voices. The being speaking in her mind is called the Great Engineer. She finally sees the creature, a Yith, before waking up.
Meanwhile, Everhart sneaks into the estate and discovers a sanctuary filled with Egyptian gods and hieroglyphics. The Starry Wisdom Society helped finance Everhart’s expeditions.
There he finds evidence of secret rituals and an obsession with Ancient Egypt. They were also involved in Peaslee’s expedition to the Rappahannock River.
Everhart finds Evie and helps her escape, but along the way she notices a painting she recognises as the Great Engineer of the Yith. Evie proposes that they travel to Spitsbergen to find the alien being, while Bowen heads for Pnakotus.
Chapter 4: ZNP-C
They decide to travel to Spitsbergen.
During the flight, Evie brings up the photograph she saw showing her father. Everhart explains what happened, essentially recounting the events of the first Call of the Sea game and the search for a cure for Norah Everhart.
Evie’s father, Frank, was attacked on the island and wounded, which eventually led to his death. Evie also learns that Everhart has secretly watched over her ever since. Despite everything, she forgives him.
The two arrive in the snowy mountains of Norway. As they travel, they discuss something Everhart discovered at the estate: the possibility of mind-swapping.
During a blizzard, they make their way to a radio station. Upon climbing the structure, Everhart spots what appears to be a spacecraft trapped within the ice.
Everhart recalls his wartime experience in codebreaking and uses those skills to decipher a hidden message within the station. The message provides the code for a mysterious reinforced door.
The station is merely a cover story. A lift takes them down to a secret bunker where a creature trapped in the ice for countless years has been under study.
Inside one chamber, they watch the black shadow move like smoke. They eventually reach the heart of Project Chronos, but the black shadow attacks them, forcing them to flee through an ice cave.
There, Evie catches a glimpse of a colossal Yith imprisoned in the ice. They are standing at the base of the flying saucer.
Chapter 5: Prisoners of Ice
Using a specialised device, they synchronise Evie’s brainwaves with those of the Yith.
She comes face to face with the Great Engineer of Pnakotus, who has been waiting for her for years. The creature finally provides some answers. It explains that Evie must close the loop by travelling to Pnakotus aboard its vessel and stopping Bowen. The one who chose Evie was not the Yith, but Doctor West.
The Yith explains that Evie’s mind exists within its body, while its mind occupies Evie’s body. That is why they are able to understand one another. The connection began when Evie visited Pnakotus during another point in time.
Evie awakens within the city from her dreams, millions of years in the past. She has become a Yith. The city existed on Earth when the planet was still a single continent. She travels to the great library and discovers notes left behind by Professor Everhart. The Yith draw energy from the black ooze, which is contained beneath several chamber levels alongside the black smoke polyps.
Evie obtains the coordinates to Pnakotus and returns to her body inside the cave. They board the Yith vessel and enter the coordinates. The flying saucer begins its journey towards the city.
During the trip, Evie explains that the Yith can swap minds and that Everhart exchanged minds with one at some point. Mid-conversation, she experiences another vision.
This time she finds herself in the future, standing beside a mind-transfer machine inside a modern building. Bowen has succeeded and now oversees something called Project Archive.
Evie adjusts the mind-transfer machine.
Before that, however, we see who remained aboard the vessel in Evie’s place: Doctor West.
West explains that defeating Bowen will require Evie’s life as a sacrifice. He also says that they have already gone through this before.
At that moment, Evie returns to her own body. She becomes convinced that West and Bowen are working together. Before Everhart can tell her what he heard, the vessel reaches its destination.
Chapter 6: Pna-ko-tus
They arrive in the Pacific, where Pnakotus still remains after all these years. They realise they are somewhere in Australia, within the Great Sandy Desert. Everhart still cannot decide whether to tell Evie the truth.
They quickly spot remnants of the ancient city, including a massive stone gateway and a Society camp. Nearby lies the psychiatrist’s corpse, consumed by the black ooze. To make matters worse, a polyp is circling overhead.
They manage to open the gateway and enter a ruined city buried beneath the sand. Their path leads them to a dark central tower where the polyps gather overhead like a storm. There they hear Bowen’s chants.
The confrontation takes place there, with Bowen powering a mind-transfer machine. The professor has two choices: allow Evie to sacrifice herself to stop Bowen, or stop her and sacrifice himself instead.
Call of the Elder Gods ending
Everhart Sacrifices Himself
Everhart rushes ahead of Evie and touches the black ooze.
He finds himself in another dimension, surrounded by the substance alongside Bowen. He grabs the statuette Bowen is using and smashes it, killing the cultist. Everhart is then consumed by the black ooze.
He awakens in another realm where he hears Norah’s voice once again.
This place is known as Ichor, a realm beyond time and space connected to the Elder Gods. The shadows had been Norah’s attempts to communicate with her husband from Ichor.
The black ooze did not kill Everhart because Norah, linked to the gods, protected him.
Everhart says goodbye to Norah.
He awakens back in the city with Evie. To his surprise, Bowen is standing once more, or at least his body is.
Someone else now inhabits it: the Yith, who thanks them for saving its race.
Evie Sacrifices Herself
If Everhart allows Evie to go through with the sacrifice, she touches the black ooze and ends up in the same place as Bowen. She does exactly what Everhart did, destroying the statuette before being consumed by the black ooze.
She also awakens in Ichor, where she hears her father’s voice delivering the same message Norah gave to Everhart.
Evie returns to herself and receives an ending very similar to Everhart’s.
The Yith inhabiting Bowen’s body then addresses Evie as Doctor West.
Mythos
Call of the Elder Gods focuses on the Great Race of Yith and, naturally, on the story The Shadow Out of Time, from which much of its narrative is drawn. The Yith are known for two things. First, they appeared on an iconic cover of Astounding Stories. Second, they are an extraordinarily intelligent and advanced race with the ability to swap minds with other beings. This ability allows the Yith to travel into the past and future, which explains part of their vast knowledge.
In Lovecraft’s story, Professor Nathaniel Peaslee experiences a mental possession that transfers him into the body of a Yithian for many years, while the Yith inhabits his human body. During this exchange, Peaslee discovers the immense library and learns part of the Yithians’ history, whose records document civilisations from the past and future before their eventual destruction at the hands of an enemy race.
The race responsible for the downfall of the Yith are the Flying Polyps, prehistoric and invisible beings. In the distant past, they fought an actual war against the Yith and emerged victorious. Even so, little is known about them or what drove them to war beyond their malevolent nature.
This conflict took place in Pnakotus, the capital of the Great Race of Yith, a city containing an enormous library where the Yith stored knowledge gathered across millions of years. The Yith inhabited Earth during the Devonian period before later exchanging bodies with beings from other eras. In Pnakotus, they conducted studies into the planet’s history across time itself.
In the story, Lovecraft repeatedly describes the vast library-city of the Yith, located in what would one day become Australia’s Great Sandy Desert, but he never actually names it Pnakotus. The name Pnakotus became established later through Mythos encyclopaedias, role-playing game supplements, video games, and later authors, who came to identify that Yithian city by that name.
The Starry Wisdom Society is clearly based on the Church of Starry Wisdom, a cult devoted to Nyarlathotep that was discovered in Providence by Professor Enoch Bowen. In The Haunter of the Dark, Robert Blake finds the Trapezohedron within the abandoned church, where the dark avatar of Nyarlathotep resides.
The game also references other elements of the Mythos, such as Doctor West, although it never directly links him to the original character. Azathoth is mentioned as well.
A cozy Adventure Journey
Visually, Call of the Elder Gods carries over the same strengths as its predecessor. The graphics are attractive and cosy, with a look that moves away from realism through its more stylised character models, cel-shaded lighting, and colourful environments. Like the previous game, it blends Lovecraftian horror with adventure. In my first review I compared it to Jules Verne, but this time it feels much closer to Indiana Jones. The game sets out to be a walking simulator focused on exploration and puzzle-solving, with a lighter touch and a more complex narrative. Even so, the Lovecraftian elements remain wrapped in a layer of mystery and danger, making them compelling enough to keep you invested.
From the outset, the game builds an atmosphere of secrets, with a story centred on uncovering mysteries and finding the treasure before your enemies do. Meanwhile, a larger plot gradually unfolds in the background, with everything narrowing down until the various threads connect. Since Lovecraft’s universe is already mysterious by nature, there’s a real sense of satisfaction in learning more and more about the alien race, its world, and its secrets.
No, the game is not horror. Call of the Sea wasn’t a horror game, and this one is even less so.
Gameplay
Call of the Elder Gods does not offer much variety in its gameplay. You walk around, solve the puzzles placed in your path, and read documents. There are no situations involving real danger or demanding reflexes, and the only punishment for failure is being stuck in the same place until you work out the solution. Naturally, the game integrates its puzzles into the narrative, meaning their existence and solutions feel like part of the world itself rather than artificial barriers. As for difficulty, it varies. Some puzzles are more challenging, while others are straightforward. It largely depends on the player.
Even when a puzzle slows your progress, the game manages to hold your attention from beginning to end. Credit goes to the narrative, as there are no sections that feel dull or out of place. You are either moving the story forward or engaged in solving a problem. For example, the game does not suddenly throw in a frustrating stealth section or an awkward platforming sequence. It remains focused on what it wants to be, and if that appeals to you, there are unlikely to be any unpleasant surprises along the way.
The game also includes choices and multiple endings, although the differences between them are not particularly significant.
Characters and Narrative
The characters are excellent as well, and this time we have two protagonists: Evie and Professor Everhart. At first, I assumed Evie would be the typical highly intelligent but irritating strong-willed character, but I was completely wrong. The way the game ties her story to the professor’s narrative, particularly through the ghosts of the past that haunt them, is touching and fits naturally into the plot. The same applies to the professor. He has that grumpy side to him, but it’s easy to overlook because players already know him from the first game. We know what he has been through, so it does not take much effort to become attached to him.
One feature the game includes is a voice-over narration that follows the characters’ journey, which creates some interesting moments of meta-narrative. That said, I feel that at certain points the narration talks a little too much, describing things that are already happening on screen. It could have been handled with a bit more restraint. It is noticeable enough to mention, though not a major issue. This aspect could have been perfect, but it falls slightly short of that.
