Review: Obduction

Review Obduction

These days we are more and more used to the release of remakes and remastered games that have marked the past of the videogame world, but what happens if the soul of a 1993 classic is proposed with a new title? In this review we will tell you about the new title Obduction developed by Cyan Worlds.

Called the "spiritual sequel" to Myst (1993), Obduction is a point and click adventure that introduces us to what could happen after being abducted by aliens.

The game is mostly localized in español except for the diaries left in English.

Incontri ravvicinati del terzo tipo

While in the park the protagonist sees strange lights in the sky, one of them approaches him revealing a shape similar to that of a seed whose iridescence immobilizes the character making him faint.

When you wake up, nothing seems to have changed but after a few steps you realize you are a Hunrath, a town that looks like a collage of various earth ages. The whole city is surmounted by a kind of force field that acts as a dome with the surrounding world, a world that is not ours.

Walking around the place looks deserted except for some welcome holograms and for CW the only citizen left. Investigating and speaking with CW we will find that many people between the 20th and 21st centuries were brought there in the same way. Our mission will be to find out how to get home.

The story of the game world and everything that happened before our arrival unfolds through a series of notes, diaries and recordings that we will find scattered throughout our explorations.

The key to the problem

To find our way home we will have to explore the huge game world and discover its secrets. In order to access new areas and unlock the various shortcuts we will have to solve an infinite series of increasingly complicated puzzles.

Having only CW as the only "interaction" we will have to rely on our intuition to find the different clues and solve the puzzles that very often may seem without any logic.

The controls are simple and intuitive since mainly we will only have to run and interact with buttons and handles. Having neither interface nor inventory at our disposal, it is advisable to take lots of screenshots to keep in mind some numerical clues.

Depending on the puzzles we are going to solve and the choices we make, there will be three endings waiting for us at the end of our journey.

Breathtaking scenery

After a long campaign kickstarter started in 2013, it was decided in 2016 to take advantage of the graphics engine technology Unreal Engine also to embrace the hypothesis of a version for Oculus rift.

Arrived in 2017 and solved some motion sickness problems by switching to PlayStation VR  the result is exceptional with an obsessive attention to detail, the film landscapes completely immerse the player in the story just like Myst did in his day.

It goes from western town to shanty town in style Mad Max all the way to exploring alien temples, all with a feeling close to Under the Dome's Stephen King. Another surprising aspect is the use of real actors instead of 3D models, each character we meet will be played by a real person who will make our gaming experience even more realistic.

Despite the flawless graphics you can often run into drastic drops in fps up PS4.

 

In space no one can hear you scream ...

Especially if you are really alone facing a story like Obduction's. The absolute lack of menus, interfaces, tutorials, voiceovers or characters to interact with can be unsettling but allows us to reach a level of realism that we can totally identify with in the protagonist's situation.

On the other hand, however, silence and solitude can be anticlimactic during our exploration based on pressing buttons, pulling levers and opening doors. Every now and then we will be able to hear some music that will give us the hope of meeting something or someone but no, nothing will change and they almost seem to leave by chance as if to fill holes.

Many puzzle over time they will prove tedious, given their little logical relationship with the mission we have to accomplish. Example with half spoiler: to get the key to the Mayor's house you will have to go back to the house where the game begins, find a cryptogram to insert in an alien cash register that will give you the terrestrial correspondent in an abandoned gas pump (which at the market my father bought!).

In conclusion, Obduction is an excellent title especially if you are a lover of the genre but which can hardly find space on the shelf of a neophyte. The influence of its "predecessor" is strongly felt, resulting in an almost identical core game. The presence of more endings does not justify the replayability of this title which can be repetitive even after a few hours of play.