Observation

I just "finished" the game and need to write down my frustration. This is basically movie story with puzzle mini games and a lot of confusive navigation and controls (on PC), which could be finished just in 3-6 hours according to more lucky gamers than me. Originally I was looking forward to play Observation and its story revealed to be really interesting, but my experience was ruined mostly due to bugs of my installation. Most of the time I felt frustrated, because i didn't undestand where to go or why the controls are so complicated and different in each mini game. Only very later I realized there is supposed to be some navigation hint during moving with sphere, but my game just didn't provided this function to me unlike for others. Additionally, I was stuck about 40 minutes in one part until I checked the internet discussion and find out there is bug which prevent me to continue on mission. I needed to quite the the game and start that particular part about 3 times until one character finally appears to me so I could go on. However, the saddest thing for me is that I was unable to finish it, because the final puzzle game on station had glitched controls. I spent on this game twice much time than many others and still forced to watch the final of the game on youtube, which is the most miserable thing any game ever gave me :(

It has been suggested that playing "Observation" is not unlike taking the role of "HAL", the rogue AI from the renowned novel/movie "2001". That is not an inaccurate comparison, although "SAM", the AI you embody, is... arguably?... More benign? Much like No Code's prior entry, "Stories Untold", a tremendous amount of "Observation"'s strength comes down to atmosphere. The game does an excellent job of making you feel the claustrophobia and disorientation of its space station environment, and mostly, that's a good thing. It feels like it could be a real place, inhabited by a real international crew. For fans of "Stories", I would make a case that "Observation" also has the stronger story of the two (I had some issues with "Stories" denouement), but perhaps balanced by the greater variety of environment and play in "Stories". You do the same tasks frequently in "Observation", and while it mostly hits the sweet spot of "I'm getting good at this" rather than "I'm getting bored with this", I suspect results may vary. Without intending to damn with faint praise, I will say that it's as well "Observation" isn't a lengthier game than it is. You can do a lot of wandering trying to find the next story point (I hit a FAQ at a couple of points, mostly related to things not being where expected on the outside of the station), and some spots feel not unlike trying to find the "hot spot" in an old-school adventure game, only in a three-dimensional zero-gravity environment, sometimes while using the interface of cameras with extremely slow panning to find those hot spots. This is sounding more negative than I probably intend. The bottom line is that I came away from "Observation" satisfied with the time I spent on it. It tells a fascinating story, leaving a few things to the player's interpretation without being needlessly opaque. It's surprising how attached you become to SAM and Fisher. It's creepy without being overly jump-scary or violent. I thoroughly approve.

You have no agency and you can not change a thing. All you can do is follow instructions and roll movie on. There is exactly one way how story can progress. All you can do differently is to find some pieces of information (that will not tell you anything important or revelatory, to be honest). What I like is zero gravity and space station interior that looks like...well... space station interior. Also, idea that you play as AI that controls the station is great, but it ends up with finding systems in rooms via camera to interact with them and solving puzzles. Also, this is not sci-fi, it is just horror in space. Lot of mystery, zero science, just some technobabble here and there. Characters acts like total nuts, just to be more mysterious or scary. I have finished it in single afternoon and because there is no replayability involved, I feel bit of disappointment. Yet, it was fine to play this... once. If you are big Interstellar fan, you may like it much more than I do.

The game's strong points are clearly the ambiance (kind of sci-fi horror suspense), the visuals and the interesting story telling which makes you wanna know more. The puzzles are original for a fair amount of them, even though sometimes you feel a bit lost with no idea of what you have to click. The only problem of the game is that it's not perfectly polished. Some animations are rough (especially facial ones) and I've encountered a weird bug at the end with the camera positioning. But it's nothing game breaking, just a little bit immersion breaking. I highly for recommend for someone interested in sci-fi, story oriented games and who's not repulsed by "slow moving" games.

Has the making of a brilliant game but let down by lousy controls and awful timed puzzles. Detaching clamps proved impossible with keyboard controls. Will just watch end on youtube.