RETURN OF THE OBRA DINN REVIEW

I don't know who I feel worst for right now: Lucas Pope or other indie devs trying to release their own hit. But you can feel for Lucas Pope, because he's now created Papers Please, Return of the Obra Dinn and both have been a huge success. All eyes now are on him to see his next project. They always say that the third album is the most difficult. Imagine what it would be like to be an independent dev these days. Your pixel sprite platforming hot take won't get you any awards or make you famous. To be successful, you must create a unique mechanism that is both simple and intuitive, but also engages the reader. Next, you will need to create a compelling story that stimulates thought and discussion. Finally, you can add graphics and animations that are unique enough to allow others to recognize the source of the still frames. Even then, you will still be compared to Lucas Pope. It's not too much to ask!

This is a great thing for all of us who enjoy video games. It's less likely than ever that an Indie Game of the year winner will be chosen from among the games desperate to be Limbo (not that Limbo is a bad game, but I do think that making a game like Limbo these days is the equivalent of Oscar bait).

Some deaths are quite graphic.

In case you didn't catch the subtext in the first few paragraphs, Lucas Pope’s Return to the Obra Dinn was absolutely amazing. It's a puzzle game where you play as an insurance assessor (investigator). I don't understand the terminology, but I am trying to find out what happened to the East India Company sailing vessel, the Obra Dinn. It disappeared off the coast Africa, and has returned without crew or passengers. Now it is up to you to find out what happened using a pocket watch that displays the last moments of each crewmember.

This sounds like it would be easy to find out what happened to everyone. However, it is not obvious when someone is being shot or dying from disease. Most of the crew and passengers don't know enough to shout their rank and name in the last 5 seconds of their lives. It is up to you, therefore, to deduce from the many small snippets that you are given who is who and what happened to them.

You will also find a stopwatch and a ledger that contains the drawings of all crew members as well as the complete list of every crew member and passenger who was on the Obra Dinn's last fateful voyage.

The last moments of each crew member are broken up into scenes that play over several chapters. This allows the reader to discover the chapters in a chronological order from the beginning to the end of the trip. This allows you to slowly piece together the story of the ship and each individual.

Some fates are very simple. People are named before they die or the person who killed them. You will find yourself working harder, observing more and making more assumptions as you solve more problems. While you are trying to figure everything out, there are often many different sources. Because of the uniforms shown in the photos, you can identify which crew members they are. You can also determine if there is a relationship between them by their accents and whereabouts (which are listed in the roster).

Also, you will need to have a basic knowledge of the 19 century sailing vessels and the roles that the crew will play. You will need to know the differences between a topman and a seaman, and who the midshipmen are and who the helmsman is.

Some of the observations can be quite difficult to figure out. For example, recognising a person by their tattoo or figuring who the top four Chinese men are between them is one of the most difficult tasks. Some identities fall under the category of being "fed right to you in such a obvious way that you don't even notice" and you are then taunted by the game telling you that it should be easy to identify these people (or what happened).

It is worse because the character portraits will appear when you are supposed to be able determine their identity. This leaves you feeling stupid because YOU KNOW you missed something.

You can use a lot of guesswork and real deductions in the game. Every time you get three fates for your crew right in your ledger (I.e. These three are then typeset into the book to indicate that they are correct. This is actually quite smart mechanically, as it means you can't just cheese the entire thing and guess randomly who everyone is (due to the large number of combinations that are possible for correctly guessing 3 people). If you have two people correct and you know the fate of the third, you can cheese the whole thing a bit to find the last one.

However, this does not mean that solving all characters can be done by brute force. Some characters can only be solved by elimination. Although this is a part of the game's design, it felt a bit cheating to not be able to identify certain individuals outside of the game.

This puzzle game is challenging, but not too difficult. It was difficult enough that I found a way to solve three fates. Watson would be watching me as I strutted around the deck, feeling like Sherlock Holmes. You can also learn small bits of background knowledge that you can use to make it feel smarter when you solve a problem.

Unfortunately, observation isn’t my strong talent. I had to admit that I was stuck after solving half of the crew. I needed some online prompts to help me get back on track. I must admit that I felt like a fraud for as long as Poirot. But your mileage may differ.

However, for average players, it might take more than frustration and alt-tabbing in order to find clues. Although it's difficult to say that this is a fault with the game, it could be that I wasn't careful enough in recognizing some clues the game offers. I'd say that, even with cheating, it was still satisfying enough to overcome the frustration.

The game's graphics are in 3D, but most of what you see is still images that you can explore. There is very little animation. Everything is in stark black and white, which I actually liked. Having said that, the graphics look much more appealing when they are in motion. It is possible to zoom in on tiny details for a while, but it can feel overwhelming when the black and white becomes too stark. Despite its visual appearance, the majority of the characters and features of the ship are easily recognisable, so it can do what you ask.

This design is quite unique, although it might be the most beautiful I have ever seen.

It also makes a strange design choice. After you enter each scene, it requires you to look around for at least a minute before you can make progress. You are expected to be careful, but it is strange that every time you enter a scene, there is an inexplicable part where you must keep looking until it allows you to move on. This is especially noticeable in smaller scenes, where you may have seen everything within a few seconds.

Another problem with Obra Dinn, is its Portal-like quality. Once you beat it, you have seen all it has to offer. It has almost no replay value. Worse, you can't recommend it to anyone. You have to help them solve the problems for themselves. They will just ignore what you know.

It's difficult to talk about the game beyond this, since that's really all you can say. Although it's small and compact, the game is so clever that it is an absolute joy to try to solve. It's simple and elegant in how it organizes information. Although it seems contrary to most people's instincts about what games should be, it is a great game.

If that wasn't enough, the entire story of the ship, its crew, and the whole experience is quite compelling. Because it is presented in pieces, you will be forced to make some deductions and guesses as to what actually happened.

You don't have to hold your hand and it's an extremely challenging game. This makes it more difficult and more rewarding when you succeed in solving a problem.

You will experience different results depending on how patient and thorough you are with your observations. Obra Dinn is a game I highly recommend to almost everyone. However, I also feel that it is more niche than other games that I often give glowing praise to.