Obduction ®

Beautiful game that throws back to Riven. There are other NPCs in the game, but their actions are more felt than seen. Some of the puzzles have a wired approach to logic that's sometimes difficult to figure out. The game world is huge with varied locations that seem very weird but that fit in the story. The story is pretty interesting and there are good and bad endings, depending on what you choose.

I want to preface the review with I got the game for free with the GOG giveaway. While I have only given the game an hour before I got completely bored, I can't really see the fun in it. With a large open map, and limited things to interact with, most of the time I spent was clicking on anything that you could possibly touch, just to find out most of the game cannot be interacted with. The game is beautiful, and there are lot of things to catch your eye, but that's were the problem is nothing leads you in one direction. I only worked out where I was meant to go after I had been around the map twice, followed the flying bug to a dead end, messed with every bit of the fire truck, the lasers, used all the track switchers, open the waterfall. To find out I had not interacted with the flood gate correctly after wasting an hour. This is all down to the problem with poor movement controls when interacting with objects, sometimes things just didn't work and took multiple attempts to get working. At that point I was done, when you are making such little progress that it becomes a guessing game of trail and error. I can only say this game is not for me.

Obduction is a beautiful audiovisual experience, and it has many clever puzzles in the tradition of the Myst series. However, the game itself is buggy and was never properly finished, and those clever puzzles depend on a lot of backtracking and an incredibly aggravating game mechanic. BELIEVE THE OTHER BAD REVIEWS. I eventually gave up and used a walkthrough to complete the game, because I wanted to enjoy as much of the experience as I could without smashing something -- my computer, my forehead, whatever -- in aggravation.

For the good points, the game is beautiful and we want to discover all its universe. But ... it miss some background, and some puzzles are just painful, with looooonnng backtracks, even if not difficult.

How can I even begin this review? This game is, in a few words, a work of art. For a long time I've been one of those who dismissed Adventure Games as shallow or uninteresting. Oh how I was wrong, how was I stupid. The world building, atmosphere, art style, everything in this game is perfectly crafted to immerse us, the player in this creative and challengind new world. I can't say if it was the perspective, the music or the storytelling that transported me to this weird and unique land. What I can say is that each of these elements alone could be considered perfect, but just like any good song or food, every note and instrument, every ingredient and spice, makes the whole much better than the sum of its parts. After playing Obduction, my entire view of Adventure Games changed. What was once boring became intriguing and stimulating. What was simple became fascinating. Such was the power that Obduction exerted over my, over my being. In the end, I closed the game a new person. As I write this, with tears of in my eyes, all I can say is that I got Obducted. And I'm happy for this.