Obduction ®

Obduction is the latest game from Cyan, which made Myst and Riven in the 1990s. What's nice about Obduction is that it feels like its own game and isn't necessarily dependent upon the legacy of those 'classics'. There are a lot of subtle nods to the previous games, but nothing about those references makes the game inaccessible to someone who either didn't play or did not like Myst, Riven, etc. Certain sound effects, environmental items and the use of FMVs act as little easter eggs to those who have played the other games. Obduction is a puzzle-adventure game, meaning that the story unfolds as you open up more of the environment and interact with its features. The graphics are unnoticeable, which I guess suggests that they're good, as I felt immersed in the world. The system spec requirements are a bit ridiculous, though. With greater optimisation, I feel that they might have done a better job getting the game to run nicely on more modest setups. The puzzles are logical and not necessarily infuriating in the way that some of the more obtuse puzzles of Riven were. Still, there are a couple of times where there are not enough substantial environmental clues to give you a clear idea how to progress. However, generally speaking, there is a great sense of satisfaction when you actually manage to crack a puzzle. The sense of discovery is pretty immense in this game. The game's biggest problem, and it is one of both design and implementation, is that a few late-game puzzles are heavily reliant on going back and forth between environments and various nodes. I followed the developers' advice and installed the game on my SSD and the incessant loading times when "linking" to different areas was annoying even then, given that I had to do it so frequently. I can't imagine what it would be like to play the game off of an HDD. Anyway, Obduction is totally worth your time and maybe consider picking it up when it's 25% off or something like that.

As much as I looked forward to playing this game, I could not get past the first hour before giving up. I have a European AZERTY keyboard and the key bindings for Obduction are QWERTY. The key bindings cannot be changed. It does allow for using the arrow keys, great! But unfortunately, the run key is still the LEFT shift key only, making it very impractical to run. Also, no strafing - Q&D or left and right arrows rotate the camera, which is something I couldn't get used to. So, I tried the point-and-click movement scheme, but I got tired of that really quickly. Not only because I couldn't get my character to run, but the game puts every spot you can move to at about three to five paces, whether or not there's anything of interest. So on the point-and-click scheme you'll find yourself moving three paces to a new spot, looking around at nothing but rocks, moving three paces to a new spot, look at rocks, etc. ad infinitum. That was not a good method for me so I decided to call it quits right there. Luckily I got the game for free - if I had spent any money on it I would have asked for a refund on the basis of control scheme alone. I'm sorry for not reviewing the game itself (I can't because I didn't really play it) but with this review I just thought to warn other potential players who hate a lack of key rebinding.

The game is incredible. The game is so utterly engrossing and worlds so interesting, the end was bittersweet. I enjoyed my time so much, I was wanting MORE. More worlds to explore. The game is beautiful, well designed, and well written. The graphics are extremely unoptimized, so be warned. The game will run at my refresh rate in certain areas, then tank down to 45-sh in others. Plus there's frequent stuttering. Tested this on two systems with different graphics configurations. That didn't hinder my enjoyment, however. Lovely game.

A horrible game. Just all round miserable experience from start to finish. Boring. Backtracking. Boring. Puzzles. Boring. Slow movement speed. Boring. Loading screen puzzles. Boring. No map. Boring. Shit bugged pciture mechanic that cuts off numbers. Boring. Just a miserable experience all round. It wants to be Myst so bad you can taste the envy when it fails on every front. It barely has characters to interact with. It barely has puzzles it's just the same shit over and over with either math number puzzles or teleportation rotation puzzles. Worst of all though is that near the end of the game there is ONE moment where player death can occur. Yes in this entire game where NOTHING can kill you. Where you have been encouraged to interact and inspect everything they put in a red orb that fucking kills you. In a game with no auto save mechanic. I played this game months ago and recently picked it up. I wasted 4 hours that got erased thanks to this red orb. A failed pathetic game that doesn't even deserve the Myst association.

Again, here we have a dev team that don't care about whether you'll be able to play their game or not. WASD for moving is entirely unplyable on a non qwerty keyboard and this issue could easily be fixed by allowing key rebinds in the option screen. That one just has a wonderful screen with images telling that you need to use WASD to move. This dev even adds insult to injury by supporting all kinds of different gamepads AND VR controls. Oh the humanity. They don't want players to play their game? Fine, I won't.