This game improves over nearly every aspect of the first game. Once again, the hint system is absolutely fantastic in that it reveals a little bit of a clue, then a little more if you're still stuck, and so on. Also, this game has a much more interesting (albeit short) ending, as opposed to the incredibly lame ending of the first game.

The first game took me only about an hour to complete. This one took me about 2 hours.

The biggest thing I didn't like about this installment is a certain tedious puzzle that involves you doing the same thing over about 3 times.

What can I say that hasn't been said many times before? The writing is top tier. The voice acting is great. The choices you make have surprisingly big effects on how the plot plays out. The entire middle act of the game is totally different if you side with Roche instead of Iorveth or vice versa. The art style is interesting even if the graphics haven't aged all that well. The gameplay is passable. Just buy it and play it, ideally before The Witcher 3. But even if you've already played TW3, this game is still definitely worth your time.

- You Don't Know Jack is a fun twist on trivia games. The bad thing is that only 4 people can play.

- Drawful is my personal favorite game in this pack. Nobody is very good at drawing on their phones and tablets with just a finger/stylus, which leads to many hilarious pictures and guesses.

- Word Spud is by far the worst game in this pack. My family and I played it one time and never again. It doesn't have a set goal and is just about adding random words to other random words. No winners or losers and the game itself isn't really interesting.

- Lie Swatter can be pretty fun, but people inevitably end up just tapping randomly on their phones in hopes that they get the correct answer the quickest.

- Fibbage XL is excellent. A Jackbox staple for good reason. Plenty of room to get creative while also being a perfectly challenging trivia game in its own right.

Overall this pack is great and a good way to get into the spirit of Jackbox games. Drawful and Fibbage XL are the best of this pack and are good for livening up just about any casual social gathering.

- Guesspionage is decent fun. It's just about guessing percentages but some of the results are pretty surprising. Honestly I think the population of people that Jackbox surveyed wasn't a good sample size, though. Some of the results are downright unbelievable.

- Tee K.O. is hit or miss. It can be very fun if you are playing with people who can think quickly and draw somewhat creatively on the spot. That's the problem with it - for drawing the pictures and thinking of captions, you are given absolutely no guidance. The game literally just tells you to draw fun pictures and think of random slogans. But the real magic happens when you get to pair a slogan with a picture. It can result in some pretty hilarious moments.

- Trivia Murder Party is fantastic. A relatively straightforward trivia game with a twist that's not as confusing as You Don't Know Jack (for noobs and the elderly - this is from my experience anyway).

- Faking It is very good. As long as your players understand how the game works and you all agree to not say anything out loud until the secret prompt is revealed on the TV screen. It's especially fun if you're a good liar.

- Quiplash 2 is my personal favorite game and is really what sells this pack for me. It provides so much room for creativity and humor with just the right amount of guidance with regards to the prompts it gives you. Not to mention the alternate mode where players can submit their own prompts!

Overall, I would say this is my favorite Jackbox Party Pack. 3 of the games are downright great (Faking It, Trivia Murder Party, and Quiplash 2). The other 2 are pretty good and definitely far from bad (Guesspionage and Tee K.O.).

- Bracketeering is just okay. It only really works if you have more than 4 players in total. It seems like the point of the game is to try to make people argue with each other for votes but none of the prompts are intense or controversial enough to elicit such responses.

- Survive the Internet is fantastic. It provides so many opportunities to take your friends' words out of context and twist them in hilarious ways.

- Monster Seeking Monster is only fun if the players you're with are all decently close friends. Otherwise I'm sure it would just get awkward...

- Civic Doodle is decent fun. I like the concept of players adding on to each other's drawings and eventually getting something abhorrently funny.

- Fibbage 3 is the best version of the game so far. Not that this is a very important factor but the visuals are 10/10. The gameplay itself is the same Fibbage you know and love, but there is another mode called Enough About You where the players make the questions and answer them about themselves. It provides a hugely entertaining twist on an already great formula.

Overall, I would say this is my second favorite Jackbox Party Pack (behind the 3rd one). Definitely worth buying.

As a newcomer to this style of isometric, turn-based RPGs, I was a huge fan of D:OS1. I am an even bigger fan of this sequel.

The story, characters, side quests, personal quests - all of these come together in an absolutely beautiful way from start to finish. The overarching plot is phenomenal with so many twists and turns that it would be very difficult for any individual player to predict all of them. (You don't need to have played the previous game to understand what's going on, but it will certainly boost your experience to notice all the fun callbacks. It's humorously ironic that in the first game, the main characters were Source hunters, and in this one they are Sourcerors!)

But what sets this game apart from all other RPGs is its tactical combat. I played through the whole game on Classic (the second highest difficulty) and for me, someone who had played the first game twice, I found it incredibly challenging in certain points, especially in the final act. It honestly drove me to frustration at several enemy encounters. I unashamedly used cheesing guides and walkthroughs to know what I had to do to succeed and you will probably need to do this as well. This is basically part of the Larian experience! If this sounds like a turnoff to you, consider playing on the second lowest difficulty (Explorer). In my opinion, this is the ideal way to experience the game for the first time as it still requires you to use a certain degree of tactical thinking but it will never feel overwhelmingly difficult for the most part. Despite my personal frustrations, I found the entire game to be a deeply rewarding experience.

Basically every other aspect is flawless, from the writing, voice acting, and general polish. Ultimately this game is not for everyone, but to anyone who is seeking a great story with a decent challenge that will never hold your hand, this game is exactly what you're looking for. Just play it and back Original Sin 3 when it inevitably goes on Kickstarter!

This game is definitely worth checking out. The dated gameplay makes it a little difficult to wholeheartedly recommend, but the story is interesting. Although I would argue even that aspect is dated to some degree for reasons that would spoil the experience. It's better to view this game in the context of when it was released - 2012, at an enormous high point for other shooters such as CoD and Battlefield in their skyrocketing popularity, when it was still tons of fun to shoot through hordes of mindless NPCs in service of progressing the "help the good guys, stop the bad guys" plotlines. You do the exact same thing in this game, but this time the game makes it clear that your comrades really don't want to be doing it, which gives the story a layer of self-awareness that was sorely lacking in the AAA shooters of its time.

I understand this game has a somewhat small yet very dedicated fanbase who love this game for what it is, and that's great, but I do believe it was a tad overhyped for me as a result. As I said, it's still worth playing even if only because it won't demand much of your time. (On the lowest difficulty, it took me only 4.7 hours.) Overall, despite its dated factors, it is still an interesting case of a mid-budget game with some creative and risky choices in an oversaturated genre. I wish we got more like it.

As others have said in more eloquent reviews, I think this is a decent game that I cannot recommend to anyone aside from the most die-hard fans of puzzle games, i.e. people who are happy to solve puzzles for the sake of solving puzzles and nothing more. My thoughts on the game align perfectly with Joseph Anderson's, so I would highly suggest you watch his review if you are considering playing this game. You can listen to it instead to avoid puzzle spoilers. Having the endings of the game spoiled makes no difference since none of the endings are worth the time it takes to play through the whole thing.

For my first couple of play sessions, I ended up cheating and just looking up the answers to puzzles whenever I got confused or tired of them after a while. My third and final play session with this game resulted in me defaulting to looking at guides before even trying to solve the puzzles on my own. Obviously this is mainly my fault as an impatient player, but I have played through many other 3D puzzle games (Portal, Talos Principle, etc.) in which I felt shameful for looking at online guides, and did so sparingly. With The Witness, I felt nothing.

To sum up my thoughts: I feel like this game has glimmers of brilliance, but overall is just a giant missed opportunity.

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.

This game had been on my wishlist ever since it was released, and I only just got around to playing it within the past few days. I knew it was supposed to be good, but...I'm shocked at just how much I enjoyed this.

Set your expectations accordingly - it's basically a movie with the odd bit of combat here and there, as well as some walking sim sections that rely on solving basic puzzles. The gameplay isn't anything outstanding, but the storytelling definitely is. The sound design and visual presentation of this game are genuinely incredible. I was absolutely blown away at many points throughout the game, often just having to sit back for a bit after a cutscene ended to collect my thoughts and say "...that was so good." The ending is also very powerful. It isn't a perfect story, but it's phenomenal at depicting a deeply troubled person's introspective journey and for that reason I was easily able to overlook the flaws. Also, there's the fact that there are so many aspects to this experience that were downright necessary to get correct such as the sound design, the main character's performance, the visuals, and the informed/careful examination of what it's like to have psychosis. Simply put: I believe Ninja Theory nailed all of those things.

Overall, it's easy to tell that the devs put all of their creative energy and imagination into this. I almost wish it were a movie so that certain friends and family members of mine who don't play games would be able to experience it. It's definitely not for everyone, but it deserves a chance in my opinion. Go into it as blind as you can, sit back, and enjoy the experience.

This one will stick with me for a long time.

(Played on both PS5 and PC.)

Pros:
- Amazing soundtrack. Mick Gordon gets a ton of well-deserved credit for his compositions, but don't downplay David Levy and Andrew Hulshult's tracks for the DLCs, either. They did a stellar job.
- The level design is solid and the environments are beautifully designed. They enhance the scale of the game by a huge margin.
- The combat loop is demanding to learn, but addicting to master. It gives the entire game a level of replayability that few games have these days. The skill ceiling is insanely high - just check out any montage on YouTube. This point alone makes the game worth the asking price.
- Basically every aspect is highly polished. You can tell the devs put a huge amount of care and effort into everything. There are bugs, but the devs pay attention to community feedback and communicate a lot about what they're working on and the reasoning behind it. (Shout out to Hugo Martin.)

Cons:
- Multiplayer (Battlemode) is....kind of weird. I don't really know how to feel about it. Sometimes it's a ton of fun but sometimes it's frustrating. Maybe I'm just bad.
- No snapmap, but that was never really my speed anyway. Feels like I should point it out for those who liked it in Doom 2016.
- Storytelling and presentation aren't as memorable or special as they were in Doom 2016. I still think Eternal is the vastly superior game, though.

Four more points in conclusion:

1. This game is insanely fun if you actively pay attention to what it tries to teach you. Many people were turned off by it because, unlike Doom 2016, you can't just spam the super shotgun at everything and win. You have to think about the best approach for every combat encounter.

2. The DLCs (The Ancient Gods Part 1 and 2) are mandatory to play if you want the best content the game has to offer, and if you want the conclusion of the story. This could be considered a con for some, but the content is so dope that I don't care about spending more money for it.

3. This game is way better than The Last of Us Part 2.

4. Come join us and enter the fun zone.

This could easily be a 5/5 if you view the base game and both DLCs as a whole cohesive package.

Incredibly fun and addicting space dwarf action. Props to the devs not only for making such a great game, but also for keeping the paid content to a minimum with only the cosmetic bundles on the Steam store page. Aside from those, all other cosmetic items and upgrades must be earned by actually playing, which is a huge breath of fresh air in today's landscape.

Update: 200 hours later, I can confidently say this is one of the best live service-style games on the market. The ONLY thing that could possibly make it better in its current state is if it were free-to-play, but it's more than worth its affordable price. With the newly released Season 1 "Rival Incursion," the amount of content is higher than it has ever been, and the battle pass is not only free, but also does not rely on FOMO tactics. Yes, everything in the pass will continue to be available after the season ends. What game does that better? I'll wait for an answer. The core gameplay loop itself is also just fun as hell. I'm greatly enjoying playing on higher difficulties with random teammates online. It's one of the very few multiplayer games where having a bad experience with randoms is the exception, not the rule.