For any fan of Cyan Worlds' famous Myst series, Obduction is absolutely a must-play.
For anyone who never played those but is also a fan of 3D puzzle games that challenge the player to think critically, explore the environments, and pay close attention to detail, Obduction will probably satisfy.
For anyone else...Obduction will likely do nothing but frustrate.
I am a member of the first group, so naturally I really enjoyed this game despite its inarguable shortcomings and flaws.
Pros:
- The environments are beautifully designed. Even though the graphical quality itself isn't super realistic or state of the art, it still looks great and just realistic enough to be perfectly believable.
- The sense of accomplishment and satisfaction that comes with solving a complex series of related puzzles is immense.
- The game never holds the player's hand. Even when you are given explicit directions by one of the few NPCs, you are still trusted to be able to figure certain things out on your own. This is simultaneously a pro and a con, as I'll explain later.
- The puzzles themselves can be quite intimidating at first glance, but never so much that you can't dive in somewhere and figure out the basics of what needs to happen at the very least. Overall, the puzzle design of the game is quite good, although I wish more of the puzzles had the same complexity as one of the late-game challenges.
Edit: That late-game challenge I refer to is BAD for a variety of reasons not involving its complexity. Just for clarification.
- The story is mainly told through reading books, notes, and journals. These are rarely particularly long and most of them can be safely ignored for players who don't care about the story. The plot is fine and compliments the gameplay, despite not being anything amazing.
- The general vibe of the game is extremely similar to that of the Myst games, which gives the game an extremely nostalgic but also refreshing feeling. It really is the closest thing to a modern day spiritual successor for Myst that we have gotten at this point.
Cons:
- As I stated earlier, the fact that the player's hand is rarely held sometimes works against the quality of the game. For example, the main NPC whom you interact with will occasionally instruct you on what to do next, but conveniently leave out really important details that the player will absolutely not be able to figure out on their own without exploring at random. I'm talking about a certain part of the game where a bunch of immovable equipment is blocking a door, but then inexplicably disappears to allow you passage through that door. Apparently the NPC had moved the equipment out of the way while you were off doing another puzzle, but doesn't think to tell you this when it comes time for you to pass through that door.
- The game's most interesting puzzles are sadly dragged down slightly by frequent loading screens. I personally never found them to be significantly irritating, and the time per loading screen never goes for longer than about 15 seconds, in my experience. But that still adds up to a lot of time just waiting on the game without being able to do anything due to just how frequently these screens appear in certain sections of the game.
- This kind of goes hand in hand with the aforementioned point, but I feel that it warrants its own con. A large portion of the game requires the player to do lots of backtracking. This is made worse by the fact that the player character only has two speeds: walking and running. Thankfully the caps lock button allows you to stay toggled to the running option, but after a while it still feels like you should be able to move even faster. There were too many points in this game where I dreaded the path I'd have to follow because I knew it would take me a long time to physically get to my destination. (Maybe this con could have been alleviated had I played in the optional point-and-click movement mode, but I am not sure.)
For members of the other two groups that I mentioned at the beginning, there is a solid chance that you won't enjoy Obduction at all due to the problems. But being a fan of Cyan Worlds' older games, I was easily able to push through the negatives and have a thoroughly rewarding experience.
2024 Update: Second Wind's Design Delve series claims that the final puzzle of this game is the worst puzzle in any game ever made. Not sure I agree with that, but still...lol.
For anyone who never played those but is also a fan of 3D puzzle games that challenge the player to think critically, explore the environments, and pay close attention to detail, Obduction will probably satisfy.
For anyone else...Obduction will likely do nothing but frustrate.
I am a member of the first group, so naturally I really enjoyed this game despite its inarguable shortcomings and flaws.
Pros:
- The environments are beautifully designed. Even though the graphical quality itself isn't super realistic or state of the art, it still looks great and just realistic enough to be perfectly believable.
- The sense of accomplishment and satisfaction that comes with solving a complex series of related puzzles is immense.
- The game never holds the player's hand. Even when you are given explicit directions by one of the few NPCs, you are still trusted to be able to figure certain things out on your own. This is simultaneously a pro and a con, as I'll explain later.
- The puzzles themselves can be quite intimidating at first glance, but never so much that you can't dive in somewhere and figure out the basics of what needs to happen at the very least. Overall, the puzzle design of the game is quite good, although I wish more of the puzzles had the same complexity as one of the late-game challenges.
Edit: That late-game challenge I refer to is BAD for a variety of reasons not involving its complexity. Just for clarification.
- The story is mainly told through reading books, notes, and journals. These are rarely particularly long and most of them can be safely ignored for players who don't care about the story. The plot is fine and compliments the gameplay, despite not being anything amazing.
- The general vibe of the game is extremely similar to that of the Myst games, which gives the game an extremely nostalgic but also refreshing feeling. It really is the closest thing to a modern day spiritual successor for Myst that we have gotten at this point.
Cons:
- As I stated earlier, the fact that the player's hand is rarely held sometimes works against the quality of the game. For example, the main NPC whom you interact with will occasionally instruct you on what to do next, but conveniently leave out really important details that the player will absolutely not be able to figure out on their own without exploring at random. I'm talking about a certain part of the game where a bunch of immovable equipment is blocking a door, but then inexplicably disappears to allow you passage through that door. Apparently the NPC had moved the equipment out of the way while you were off doing another puzzle, but doesn't think to tell you this when it comes time for you to pass through that door.
- The game's most interesting puzzles are sadly dragged down slightly by frequent loading screens. I personally never found them to be significantly irritating, and the time per loading screen never goes for longer than about 15 seconds, in my experience. But that still adds up to a lot of time just waiting on the game without being able to do anything due to just how frequently these screens appear in certain sections of the game.
- This kind of goes hand in hand with the aforementioned point, but I feel that it warrants its own con. A large portion of the game requires the player to do lots of backtracking. This is made worse by the fact that the player character only has two speeds: walking and running. Thankfully the caps lock button allows you to stay toggled to the running option, but after a while it still feels like you should be able to move even faster. There were too many points in this game where I dreaded the path I'd have to follow because I knew it would take me a long time to physically get to my destination. (Maybe this con could have been alleviated had I played in the optional point-and-click movement mode, but I am not sure.)
For members of the other two groups that I mentioned at the beginning, there is a solid chance that you won't enjoy Obduction at all due to the problems. But being a fan of Cyan Worlds' older games, I was easily able to push through the negatives and have a thoroughly rewarding experience.
2024 Update: Second Wind's Design Delve series claims that the final puzzle of this game is the worst puzzle in any game ever made. Not sure I agree with that, but still...lol.