Return of the Obra Dinn

Such a nice change from all the colorful games. I enjoyed the game very much, it was fun because it is not over-complicated and spartan graphics makes you think about the story much more, which I like. It could overwhelm at first but after a while, with some information collected, it was very understandable understandable what to do. With such graphics sound is of paramount importance and this game scorces high on that front.

Se ha dicho mucho acerca de que este juego es una excelente historia de detectives y cuán lógicos son sus acertijos. Así que usaré un enfoque diferente pero similar en esta crítica. Este juego es un grandioso acertijo de pensamiento lateral compuesto principalmente de pistas visuales en lugar de verbales, donde se recorre una inmóvil puesta en escena admirando el paisaje y buscando respuestas a lo que está sucediendo en esta nave maldita. O esta maldita nave, como prefieran. Me encantó este enfoque, y más de una vez me encontré diciendo en voz alta cosas del estilo de: "¿Cómo [insertar aquí la denominación colectiva de los seres sobrenaturales que moran en el infierno] voy a saber si ésa es su hamaca si no hay ... ¡Aaah! ¡Ya ví!" Justo como en los mejores acertijos de pensamiento lateral, hay que hallar las preguntas correctas que encajen con el detallito que se encontró hace un buen rato, para resolver finalmente el acertijo. Tip: mis ojos agradecieron cambiar a monitor Commodore 1084 (esquema azul claro y azul). --- Much has already been said about this game being an excelent detective story and how logical are its puzzles. So lets take a different but akin approach in this review. This is a vast and great lateral thinking puzzle comprised mainly of visual clues rather than verbal ones, where you can roam around a still tableau admiring the scenery and looking for answers as to what the heck is happening in this cursed ship. Or this damned ship, whichever you prefer. I really loved this approach, and more than once I found myself saying things like "How in [insert otherworldly geographic location here] am I gonna know if that is his hammock if there is no... Ooooh! Clever!" Like with all good lateral thinking puzzles, you need to find the right questions that fit with the tiny little detail that you gathered a while ago, to finally solve the puzzle. Tip: I found that using the Commodore 1084 (light cyan and blue scheme) soothes my eyes.

[Spoilers in the review, play Obra Dinn first, seriously the game is fantastic] Return of the Obra Dinn is brilliant. I'm sure I'm not the only one that's looked at a photo and said something like 'I wish I could go inside here for a better look', this game more than satisfies that urge. The mystery solving is top-notch, and it's actually quite difficult, but it's the fair kind of difficult (most of the time). The artstyle is one-of-a-kind and I enjoyed toying with the different colour-schemes, it was clear who was who and what the things were supposed to be, all while looking minimalisticly simple. The main gameplay hook is so abstract and unorthordox, yet I understood it all without even thinking about it because the tutorial was so well done. I did have some gripes, but for the most part this game was incredible. If I had to state some issues (and I'm trying hard to find them), then it's probably how unclear some things can be. I don't mean the 'check the crew's shoes' type of unclear, but the 'does the book mean "speared by a beast" or "spiked by a beast"?' type of unclear, it wasn't very frequent though, but it was kind of annoying, throw in the fact that one chapter is missing for the entire game and I found myself asking 'am I even able to figure this out now or not?'. Don't get me wrong though, I still think this game is fantastic and worth your time. And by the way, the book prefers 'spiked by a beast' ;).

It's not that often that a conceptual game hits the mark so well as this one. Mechanics are like a huge cluedo game, nice and challenging but not enough to need a walk through. Atmosphere is awesome and the style is, well you've probably already seen it.

Boarding a ghost ship, you are given the chance to see and hear the scenes where most of the crew died, and you must figure out who perished by whose hand. Every time you get three right, the game tells you, and if you're a puzzle person you'll keep going back to revisit the ones you got wrong till you get 100%. Though, to state the obvious, with its scary monsters and many deaths, it's not suitable for children.