Return of the Obra Dinn

A friend once said she didn't like to watch the mini series "The Night-Manager", because the main actor Tom Hiddleston is just too good, too good an actor, to smart, too good looking. This about sums up what I think about Lucas Pope, for one man to be such an impressive 3D shader programmer, artist, narrator and composer in one ... it's just unfair to us mere humans for one person to be so talented!

I strongly enjoyed the core gameplay of Return of the Obra Dinn. The puzzle solving is cleverly set up and implemented, and very original. The story is also inventive and does a great job in revealing its world through the very short vignettes. Sadly, I felt there were a few small detractions, so the game did not quite live up to its reputation. The biggest problem is visual. I don't usually care about graphics, but the one-colour imagery began to hurt my eyes after a while. More damningly, it made some important things difficult to properly see and identify. Also, for a story that started so powerfully, I felt it left a little too much unanswered by the end. Still, don't take this as a recommendation against this game. I certainly don't regret buying and experiencing it.

I'll start by saying that I was completely hooked by this game from start to finish. I have some complaints about the ending, but when reflecting on it while writing this review I didn't feel it was enough to drop the game to 4 stars. It's quite simply a well put together game and I wholeheartedly recommend it. Lucas Pope has made a puzzle-game with some superb mechanics that keeps the game from devolving into a trial and error-affair (though admittedly I did get away with doing this once or twice). By only showing the correct answers once you've correctly identified people and their fates in batches of three, guesswork is made hard enough for you to want to go about things the proper way; and after having to look up some hints on how to progress I was surprised with just how many hints are sprinkled throughout the scenes. As a jaded gamer that has gotten too used with lazy world building and attention to detail from too many games I caught myself dismissing things that turned out to be vital clues, so I recommend keeping an eye out! The presentation is excellent, the simple graphics go a long way to help you focus on important clues, which is a common complaint I have with modern games that add too much detail compared to interactivity (a good example of what I mean is the modern Deus Ex games that need item highlighting to show you what is actually manipulable in the environment) As for my complaint about the lackluster ending, I won't deny that it's possible I am missing something, but it felt like the story never really wrapped up in a satisfying way. It's hard to hint at what I mean without spoilers, so I'll leave it at that.

This is my favorite kind of game: short, clever and packed with ideas. It's a wholly unique gameplay mechanism paired with a wholly unique rendering engine, all combined to make about 5-8 hours of absorbing game. The basic idea is that a ship, long thought to be lost, shows up again in Falmouth harbor, and you need to figure out what happened to the 60 crew and passengers. To that end, you have a mysterious stopwatch that will allow you to see the moment of each crew members' deaths in frozen time, while you can walk around the scene and examine things from various angles, look for clues, etc. The game strikes a great balance with the difficulty: it doesn't hold your hand, and some of the deductions are pretty hard, but with perseverance essentially anyone should be able to complete the game. If you end up guessing a bit, you're in good company. Every answer can be figured out from the clues given, but a few of the clues are very obscure, so in some cases eliminating some of the possibilities and then making some educated guesses may be your best option. Definitely a milestone in gaming, and really a game that is not to be missed.

Return of the Obra Dinn is a petty damn solid game but more importantly its a memorable experience that everyone should at least try. The story is not amazing and I was a little let down by the ending but I was never bored, it was gripping right from the start and will surprise you with some very carefully placed "oh shit" moments. The audio quality in general is amazing, music has great timing and is tailored to the mood of the situation(for the most part). The ques for when you go back in time are great as well, does a good job of building anticipation. Gameplay boils down to looking at a corpse and opening the watch or "memento morium" to see the exact point of death. At that point you can observe details that help determine who the victim was, if they died or escaped, and who/what killed them. Its a game of deduction and process of elimination(especially at the end) that is elevated by the stellar voice acting and character designs. The art style works for what the story is going for, its simple but charming in a rugged sort of way that gives the Obra Dinn a very distinct atmosphere of unsettling intrigue. While it may not have the replayability factor that Papers Please did it goes above and beyond when it comes to presentation and story, its one of those games where you want to erase your memories of it just to experience it for the first time again.