Obduction (2016)

Obduction sets out to strike that perfect balance between exploration, puzzles, and storytelling that made Myst such a class without becoming as stubbornly obtuse as sequels like Riven. Adopting modern visuals and bringing back the Cyan style we know and love has made one of my new favorite adventure games.

A strange alien device has transported the player to a familiar setting stranded in an alien world. From a first person perspective the player must discover remaining inhabitants and find a way back from these alien world(s). To say more would be a spoiler but the gameplay mainly consists of solving puzzles, decoding keycodes, getting machinery to work, and looking at notes. The game is modernized so that players have the option to either fully free roam around an environment or opt for a more controlled point and click interface to better control waypoints of interest. The game allows both a photo system and additional UI to show interactables so that the player won't be needlessly confused by what to do with an object.

This doesn't mean that the game is too easy, though. While I was surprised by how intuitive the solutions were, it took a bit of pondering to figure out some things (see: an alien number system, dimensional travel, etc) and the UI isn't totally consistent with what it shows, the game isn't needlessly frustrating and successfully integrates its puzzlework with exploration of the world around you. The pacing of the game is largely relaxing - although there's a main game framework objective with mysterious trees and up to two endings, the game is pretty much what you make of it. Explore, take note of everything you find, and take in some rich vistas.

And what rich vistas they are! While people fondly remember the pre-rendered mechanical fantasy worlds of the Myst series this opts for a distinctly alien world approach, with foggy mountaintops littered with wind-powered gears to a dusty Arizona mining town to high-tech devices adorning a lush forest - the photo function isn't just for remembering notes/clues as there'll be plenty of chances to enjoy the top-notch colorful environmental design and particle work that this game has to offer. Music is also sparse but cleverly placed, with a mysterious and inquisitive tone to the ambient pieces that pop in from time to time.

There's only so much that can be said about the story to avoid spoilers, but the game has a very entrancing plot that gets rewarded with further exploration and understanding. The ending might be a little tricky to parse but things fall just into place enough to make this a timeless adventure that remains challenging without becoming too aggressively confusing.

It's all not that bad, but the extreme walking distances are ridiculous. At the near end I had a bridge aligned to its default position again, after I have finished a puzzle. Bad mistake as I had to back track my entire steps just to pull a lever and put the bridge back in an open position. And then I had to go back to where I need to be, but now things were rest and I had to do stuff again. All in in all I was busy for an hour until I could go one with the actual game.

Basically it boils down to, when a puzzle has been solved, it should provide shortcuts to travel back. But it doesn't. Going back often has consequences for no other reason than to make it more complex than it should be. The game has many useless information. You'd think they are hints which will be important later, but turn out to be duds. There's even a very difficult puzzle with a Russian machine which is purely implemented to troll the user. Ridiculous things like that..

Riven is my favourite game of all time; so Obduction (by the same developer) has big shoes to fill. Spoiler: it doesn't fill them. :/

PROS:
- Fascinating, creative, engaging story. It would make a great film or a book; and it also has an important message underneath.
- Great variety of puzzles, all kinds of puzzles. Many of them are very creative and inventive, with interesting mechanics.
- Gorgeous visuals. It's cool to see these worlds in full 3D, to roam around and explore.
- Classic Cyan world-building. Intricate environments, notes, little details everywhere. A joy to explore and become lost in.
- Addictive to play. You want to know what's around the next corner, or what happens next.
- Possibly the best VR game made so far?

CONS:
- The puzzles were mostly too easy. On a scale from 1 to 10, if Riven is 10 then Obduction would be about 3 or 4. Most of them are very simple.
- The soundtrack is hit or miss. Some tracks are excellent, atmospheric and fit the surroundings. Other tracks seem really out-of-place and distracting, irritating at times. Usually Cyan games have incredible music, so this was disappointing.
- The game was kind of short, and it ended so abruptly. I thought I was around halfway through, and suddenly it was over.
- Loading times were often really long, which becomes irritating in certain areas (where you have to move back-and-forth between load screens over and over to solve a puzzle).
- Some ugly Kickstarter backer rewards strewn throughout certain areas, breaks immersion.

SUMMARY:

It's hard for me to judge this game, because I think my expectations are too high. I feel like Obduction is a game where the focus is on the narrative, the story and the world-building, but the puzzles have been inserted as an afterthought. Cyan's previous games, the puzzles were cohesive, they tied in with the worlds and with each other, and there was a "grand superpuzzle" at the end where you'd use all the knowledge you had gained. In Obduction, while the story was really fascinating and satisfying, I felt like there were so many missed opportunities, lots of beautiful scenery but you can't interact with any of it.

In some ways, Obduction is closer to Firewatch. It's a beautiful, vibrant place with an excellent story, but the puzzles are secondary. Perhaps this is all part of the intentional design, given that it's also a VR game. Maybe if I played it in VR I would be blown away. I guess I wanted another Riven, another Myst, but the devs wanted to take it in a new direction.

Despite all my whinging, I will say that I definitely enjoyed Obduction, even if some parts were unsatisfying. There are some impressive sights to behold, the world is often jaw-dropping and the story is riveting and well-told. Quite often I found myself just exploring the game, forgetting about the puzzles and just enjoying the beauty of these strange surroundings. Other times I would just stop and stare with wonder; I think my head would explode if I saw this in VR.

CONCLUSION:

This is a really cool game, but don't go into it with the mindset of Myst or Riven, this is a different kind of game: a walking simulator with beautiful environments, an excellent story and light puzzle solving elements. Highly atmospheric and immersive, beautifully-crafted, exciting to play. But if you like head-scratching puzzles or solid gameplay, there are better examples from the last couple years. Recommended if you like a good story, or you enjoy Cyan's world-building; looking forward to trying it in VR at some point.