After being pretty impressed with No Code's first title Stories Untold and then learning their one of the poor souls picked by Konami to make one of the new Silent Hill games I felt like it was my obligation as a concerned parent fan to see if these devs truly have what it takes to make a Silent Hill game, and from what I've seen of this team's game (all two of them); I'd say they're a better pick then Bloober Team.
While I personally feel like Observation falls a little bit short with its overall mystery and narrative with a lot of the actual meat of the story being very backloaded, it makes up for it with some amazing atmospheric dread with the station itself. Since you play as the station’s onboard AI a lot of the game can only be viewed through the cameras throughout the ship and combine the severe lack of visibility; along with the station looking like a very realistic depictions of modern space stations so everything looks like a mess of wires it really adds to a intense feeling of unease, and as the story does get going and more characters start popping up the mystery just gets thicker and thicker until you get to that ending where I just grinning from ear to ear; no joke the ending almost made up for the more frustrating bits.
The biggest complaint I personally have with the game overall is the bits whereas the onboard AI your tasked to go do objectives around the station to make sure the few remaining crew mates don’t meet with a terrible fate like accidentally getting jettison the space, or having to go outside the station to make sure the station has enough oxygen so nobody suffocates. And while I feel as though the writers did a good enough job in incorporating the more gamey moments into the narrative very well, actually trying to move around the station is a challenge in frustration. Remember how I said the station looked like a very realistic depiction of a modern space station, well a part of me thinks they did too much of a good job because almost every part of the station looks pretty much the same. To add insult to injury the UI isn’t very user friendly when it comes to actually relaying information to the player, it adds to the immersive elements of you playing as a sugar-free HAL 9000 but a part of me feels like they still could’ve had their cake and eat it too if they’d went in a different direction in terms of presenting how an onboard AI would see the ship.
While I do have a shit ton of issues with the general gameplay this isn’t really one of those games where you play it for its gameplay. It’s a game way more focused on telling a sci-fi horror mystery and letting the player go thought the game at their own pace and while I do appreciate it’s story and the voice actors do a really great job I really wished the narrative didn’t feel so backloaded, because for the majority of the early hours of the game it feels like you're mostly just waiting for the plot to start rather then getting engrossed in the story from the get-go.
I know it sounds like I really don’t like this game from how much I’m complaining but I assure you once the game gets going and once you get a…..fairly good grasp on the stations layout the game just takes off like a rocket and gets pretty great. But idk as a whole I just wish more time was put into areas that needed some attention the most rather than making the whole experience feel very lopsided.
While I personally feel like Observation falls a little bit short with its overall mystery and narrative with a lot of the actual meat of the story being very backloaded, it makes up for it with some amazing atmospheric dread with the station itself. Since you play as the station’s onboard AI a lot of the game can only be viewed through the cameras throughout the ship and combine the severe lack of visibility; along with the station looking like a very realistic depictions of modern space stations so everything looks like a mess of wires it really adds to a intense feeling of unease, and as the story does get going and more characters start popping up the mystery just gets thicker and thicker until you get to that ending where I just grinning from ear to ear; no joke the ending almost made up for the more frustrating bits.
The biggest complaint I personally have with the game overall is the bits whereas the onboard AI your tasked to go do objectives around the station to make sure the few remaining crew mates don’t meet with a terrible fate like accidentally getting jettison the space, or having to go outside the station to make sure the station has enough oxygen so nobody suffocates. And while I feel as though the writers did a good enough job in incorporating the more gamey moments into the narrative very well, actually trying to move around the station is a challenge in frustration. Remember how I said the station looked like a very realistic depiction of a modern space station, well a part of me thinks they did too much of a good job because almost every part of the station looks pretty much the same. To add insult to injury the UI isn’t very user friendly when it comes to actually relaying information to the player, it adds to the immersive elements of you playing as a sugar-free HAL 9000 but a part of me feels like they still could’ve had their cake and eat it too if they’d went in a different direction in terms of presenting how an onboard AI would see the ship.
While I do have a shit ton of issues with the general gameplay this isn’t really one of those games where you play it for its gameplay. It’s a game way more focused on telling a sci-fi horror mystery and letting the player go thought the game at their own pace and while I do appreciate it’s story and the voice actors do a really great job I really wished the narrative didn’t feel so backloaded, because for the majority of the early hours of the game it feels like you're mostly just waiting for the plot to start rather then getting engrossed in the story from the get-go.
I know it sounds like I really don’t like this game from how much I’m complaining but I assure you once the game gets going and once you get a…..fairly good grasp on the stations layout the game just takes off like a rocket and gets pretty great. But idk as a whole I just wish more time was put into areas that needed some attention the most rather than making the whole experience feel very lopsided.