Return of the Obra Dinn

Played it tag-team with my wife, and having two sets of eyes / ears was definitely helpful. Very much enjoyed a very unique experience.

Really nice and original game. Worth a shot, easy to come back to.

The game is only for people who enjoy puzzle games. It is too difficult and repetitive for anybody else. The concept is interesting for about 5 minutes, but at the end of the day it is just watching cutscenes repeatedly. It's full of grind, and if you're not into puzzles in a big way, that grind will feel like a chore. I personally can't finish the game and I wasted my money on it. I hate puzzles and I know never to buy them, so why did I get suckered in? Well, the hype was so huge for this game, and the reviews were so raving, that I was led to believe it was not just a puzzle game but a classic and great game that transcends genre. It does not: if you don't like puzzles, don't waste your money. The false advertising from reviewers is not the game's fault. If the reviewers had said "puzzle gamers only" then it would have been great for those people. But for me, I struggled with it for hours until I am wasting my free time not having fun. I already work at my job and don't need to be working on my leisure time too. So if you're like me, avoid.

As usually the first and the positive reviews are the only ones with any visibility I don't think that you will read this but... I did not like this game. The visual aspect is amazing, the sound design is out of this world, and the walking simulation aspect of triggering different flashbacks to join the dots is cool. But then you are left with "tell who was this character, how it died and if someone killed it, who". As if that mechanic could hold the entire game. Spoilers: it does not because Obra Dinn barely defines the characters, barely defines the motivation and barely defines anything. It has a couple of wonderful ingredients but it leaves you just with trial and error between people from the same nationality in combinations of 3 or 4. Moreover, I can excuse the gaps in storytelling as gaps that you can fill yourself, but this game seriously lacks for some common element that could push you to feel the tragedy of the ship. It feels gamey, it feels artificial, it feels even pedantic and it feels, most of all, like a waste of serious technical talent.

(Completely subjective) Beautiful and unique art style paired with matching atmospheric music set the stage for a delightful experience while slowly solving/deducing the book of the obra dinn. ...but when I finished the game and connected the last piece of the puzzle, last piece of the story, I've realized there was nothing waiting for me and the whole buildup of the characthers and the story just crashed like a ten story building. I don't know how to express my dissapointment with how hollow the ending left me. No murder mystery, no plot twist, no major puzzle pieces that change or provide further explanation of the 'mystery', nothing that would leave me satisfied apart from the fact that I finished lackluster ending ruined it for me