Ambiance, gameplay, overall theme are all great. The puzzles, however, go from engaging and fun to just mystifying and frustrating. I got fairly far along, but after running through some inscrutable puzzles, looking up their solutions on YouTube and determining "I would *never* have figured that one out" I lose interest. I may not be a puzzles savant, but I'm a reasonably intelligent and analytical guy. Some of this game's puzzles are just badly done.
I don't regret the money spent. The first (probably more than half) of the game I got through was great. And if you don't begrudge using walkthroughs for the really tough parts maybe the whole thing is great for you. Just not for me.
I would strongly recommend this game.
By modern standards, Obduction is a fairly short game with about 12 to 20 hours of playtime, depending on how much you get stumped by the logic and math puzzles. Also, the replayability is not great. Once you finish the game, a full replay will take you only a few hours and offer mostly the same experience. This was the case for earlier Cyan games as well, and any other puzzle game for that matter. Once you figure out the puzzles, most of the challenge is simply gone.
However, I found the 15-16 hours of my first playthrough to be an absolutely top notch experience, providing all the awe and amazement I remember from earlier Cyan titles. The puzzles are enjoyable, but not terribly difficult and, in my opinion, never frustrating. Obduction was not as difficult as I remember Myst and its descendants, but that might just be a side effect of me having a lot more gaming experience than what I had back then. In any case, I didn't need any hints for this game, but it was still difficult enough to be a nice challenge.
Towards the end of the game, the loading times can become frustrating as you need to swap between levels quite a lot. If you don't install the game to an SSD, you might need quite a bit of patience during the last few hours. It's generally worth the wait, though.
The attention to detail and the incredible amount of work that went into the level design is impressive, and it shows best if you have a beefy GPU. Even though this is a slow-paced puzzle game where all the focus is on exploration and taking in the great views, it's made in a first person 3D engine, and the graphics rendering requires quite a lot of horsepower. With all the sliders at maximum, it's a breathtakingly beautiful game, but it's not bad looking even if you bring the sliders down a notch or two.
The game is ok, the gameplay is really stretched because of walking and all transportation "riddles". If you try to explore possibilities you are in for lots of walking from A to B with nothing in between. "riddles" are really simple, the biggest challenge is to actually find an object or a place that you had no idea that exists to progress. If you miss that one thing, you can walk next to it 100x and be no wiser. Visuals 10/10.
I never thought I'd get the same feelings I had playing MYST and the rest of the MYST series. That feeling of being lost, 'stuck'...what game makes you feel 'stuck' and 'lost' anymore. Well, this game managed to do it! Simply put, if you love MYST, you will love this game and I'd jump right in and not read more.
What makes these kinds of games special to me?
Well thought out puzzles, riddles, etc.
There is nothing more fun than being lost in a world and having no idea what to do. This kind of gaming experience simply does not exist in other genres and few game makers know how to do these kinds of games just right.
It's not just merely a walking simulator.
A lot of 'puzzle' games in the 2010s era have incredibly simple puzzles and you're just walking through the story. Not here.
It's an escape from your own world into a breath-taking fantasy. I can play a game like this for hours and just be engrossed in it, left to roam the landscape in search of solving whatever puzzle I am stuck on.
The puzzles are completely fair and well-made.
I play a lot of puzzle games and want something challenging. It is clear immerse thought, testing, and design went into everything you need to do in the game. But I will note, I determine fair in the sense that if you make logical decisions and use good problem solving skills, you should be able to solve the puzzle. There is hint support in-game but I did not use any hints from anywhere. I'd really caution you to avoid hints; it ruins games like this too easily. Ask friends for small nudges after you've been stuck for days. I think most people could handle this game though.
If you're the kind of person who opens hint books 5 minutes into a game, you probably won't enjoy this; you likely didn't enjoy MYST either.
Overall I am beyond impressed with what they made here and I am glad I had the opportunity to play it finally! Games are simply just not made like this often and I would recommend picking this up!
I haven't finished the game but I'm loving it so far.
The game in a nutshell: you roam around in a strange alien world, gathering clues and solving puzzles by interacting with the environment and various machines and crazy alien contraptions. Why are you here doing this? What is "here"? And where is everyone else? No idea! Experimentation and exploration and piecing the story together are what the game is about.
The game is totally chill. There's no tutorial and you really don't need one because the controls are ultra basic, there's no inventory management and there's zero pressure to do anything, so you can just poke around at your own pace.
It is also absolutely gorgeous. Often I just have to stop and admire the scenery because it's just fantastic. The audio is also beautiful. It's quite an awe-inspiring experience if you allow yourself to be immersed.
The puzzles so far have been fine, but kind on the easy side. They are more laborious than difficult (require a lot of setup or travel). So far, there hasn't been any dumb "find the pixel" or "guess what the developers were thinking" puzzle, which is nice.
The game does have two flaws which don't ruin it, but make it a bit frustrating:
1. You have to walk/run/drive A LOT. Like, several minutes to go from A to B sometimes. There really should be some kind of "fast travel" mechanic;
2. There are some puzzles which involve you teleporting around a bunch of times to solve a puzzle. Every time you do that, the game has to load for like 10 seconds (on my modest hardware). This is super annoying. I shudder to think what that feels like with less powerful hardware.
Without those 2 flaws, it would be an easy 5 stars. This way, I have to ding one star because those issues just cause needless frustration (not enough to quit, but enough to be slightly miffed).
But in the grand scheme of things, the flaws are minor. This is a fine adventure game and it is breathtakingly beautiful. I recommend it.
