Observation is a sci-fi thriller uncovering what happened to Dr. Emma Fisher, and the crew of her mission, through the lens of the station’s artificial intelligence S.A.M. Players assume the role of S.A.M. by operating the station’s control systems, cameras, and tools to assist Emma in discovering w...
Observation is a sci-fi thriller uncovering what happened to Dr. Emma Fisher, and the crew of her mission, through the lens of the station’s artificial intelligence S.A.M. Players assume the role of S.A.M. by operating the station’s control systems, cameras, and tools to assist Emma in discovering what is happening to the station, the vanished crew, and S.A.M. himself.
You're not on the station, you are the station
Blending narrative adventure, puzzles, exploration, and cosmic existential horror, uncover the true nature of yourself, your crew, and the mysterious always-present hexagon on Saturn...
It is an awesome game and it's worth the price.
I did encounter a bug, where one astronaut was showing in the wrong place, but after restarting it was all good.
For me it was very nice game, I know the dev from their other title "Stories Untold" and personally I love their approach/storytelling.
Overall I think it's a really cool and engaging game and I loved playing it.
I would give this game 5/5 stars, but considering that there are so many bugs (both gameplay and ''visual'') I simply cannot bring myself to give it a full score.
It is by far my favourite ''cosmic horror'' game ever, with a story and soundtrack, and voice acting that is just top notch.
However, there are bugs that stop your gameplay that still haven't been fixed, probably because the devs abandoned the game 5 years ago.
The final sequence is also left unfixed with buggy pathing that will have the character walk straight through objects, the camera glitch under ground and pop into position which completely pulls you out of the moment.
It's great, but it desperately needs a polish. Please devs.
Playing the game as a station AI is incredible. The sound design is supurb and the CCTV/VHS style camera effects and UI elements are executed perfectly. Like most adventure games, a few puzzles can seem a bit obtuse, and I personally found the spacewalk missions difficult as it can be hard to know where you need to be. It's interesting playing an AI that can take forever to respond to its humans' questions because you the player are trying to solve a puzzle. But it scripted well and the voice acting is great, so the story keeps playing along despite human faults.
There simply arent enough games like this! Games where you don't know why or what or how. I made plenty of assumptions throughout but never had a handle on things and that's the kind of game which stands out for me. Leaves a little question mark open in your mind rather than 'done and dusted'.
Definitely going to keep an eye out for more from this Dev too.
I played this two times in a row, and there wasn't a dull minute to it. The main selling point is definitely the atmosphere, especially Omar Khan's audio and music and Kezia Burrows's up close and nuanced voice portrayal of Dr Emma Fisher. Great visuals too.
The gameplay is good in that it doesn't get in your way too much (one non-retriable timed puzzle early on, little 3D pixel hunting). The puzzles, which have you interface with various electronic systems and devices, highlight the story's human moments and vice versa, so you get that feeling of partaking in something real and epic sometimes. Alternating between the methodical pan-and-zoom of the station cameras and the more immersive first-person view from the microgravity guidance spheres (floating balls with a flashlight and navigational thrusters) makes for a nicely varied experience.
Exploration is rewarded in that collecting enough data nodes on a topic allows you to literally draw connections - this felt very satisfying, not least in the way it's displayed. Unless you plan on 100%ing that aspect, the replay value is that of watching the same film twice (which is not necessarily zero). I felt like I encountered one very minor bug in 1.17 where you can't progress in the story if you choose that moment to collect a particular audio log, but it's a matter of minutes replaying that passage- but that was it.
If you like sci-fi thrillers and enjoy story-based games even when they have no player choice, these are six hours you won't regret.