You can tell a deduction game is good if it feels impenetrable at first, but once you know the full story, it's completely trivial.

By never clarifying what your role is as the player, and dropping you into the middle of scenes, it makes everything feel overwhelming, in a good way.

This is especially great when a new character was suddenly introduced and I was like "who's this guy?", but didn't think too much of it because everything felt a little confusing. So when I realized who he really was in the final scene I felt like a genius and an idiot.

it's a shame that every detective game is trying to find a validation mechanic half as good as Obra Dinn's, but hey, it's the greatest for a reason.