However, Obduction is unrelenting in its lack of player assistance, and some solutions are more obscure and obtuse than others. Rumbling iron gears and mysteriously high-tech gates make for a wonderful audiovisual reward on top of the gratification that comes from resolving a tricky puzzle. Punching buttons to enter a code or dragging your mouse to pull a lever gives each step in a puzzle’s solution a pleasing, tangible quality. Obduction’s obstacles often involve manipulating physical objects and contraptions. In order to both discover and solve problems, you’re required to scour the meticulously detailed world to find levers, switches, cryptic clues, narrative details, ciphers, and other useful items.Ĭharacteristic of Obduction's roots in the Myst series, it’s the game’s encouragement for discovery that makes puzzles fun-and it’s their complex, mechanical nature that makes them so satisfying to decipher. Key items aren't highlighted by default (the option to turn them on is labeled as a “hint” system) and only reveal themselves as interactive objects when you get close enough. Obduction doesn’t draw attention to its obstacles-there’s no strict order of progression, and its puzzles are hidden in plain sight as part of the environment. Obduction emphasises player discovery, and while you're given some broad direction in the beginning, it quickly falls away. And even though you seem to be alone, the bizarre nature of the environment stops you from feeling in control. Real-world actors portray strange characters in odd hologram messages, and every part of that feels a little out of place.

The occasional waft of tense violins in the soundscape lends the familiar architecture an off-kilter slant.

Distant horizons are lined with enormous purple crystalline formations and floating islands. While this initial sun-drenched area feels invitingly warm on first glance, there’s also an underlying sense of otherworldly menace.

At the start of the game, you’re transported to an area that’s immediately stunning and perplexing-rocky desert mountains smattered with distinct American architecture from throughout history: an Old West frontier town, a 1950s gas station, a graffitied rail yard. By clicking 'enter', you agree to GameSpot'sĬreated by the same developers behind classic adventure games Myst and Riven, Obduction presents a eerie world filled with tough puzzles to solve and intriguing lore to uncover.

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