A GAME (POSSIBLY) INSPIRED BY THE J. GEILS BAND SONG “FREEZE FRAME.”
Lucas Pope is back with his follow up to Papers Please, and it is something else. The game centers around the ship Obra Dinn and the mystery surrounding the fate of its passengers. As a member of the East India Company it is my job to identify each person and what happened to them.
Gameplay is done in first person, exploring the ship to find corpses. When at a corpse I can use my pocket watch to go back to the exact moment the person died and see that moment as a 3D diorama. I can move around while everything is frozen to help determine who the person is, what events are occurring, and more importantly see where other people are and what they are doing as well. Every piece of information is extremely important in solving the mystery.
PLATFORMS: PC, MAC
MSRP: $19.99
PRICE I PAID: $19.99
As I figured out who people are and what happened to them I would get confirmation of their identities, but only in groups of three. This means at times I may have thought I had my information right, but would need to return to the book to figure out where I went wrong.
It’s important to address the graphic style in Obra Dinn, because it looks like an old Apple PC game with its monochrome, dithered pixel art filter. Be assured the game lacks no detail from this design choice. This game is a joy visually and sonically. The voice acting and music is superb, despite being very little of each.
The gameplay is essentially one big logic puzzle and if that doesn’t sound appealing, skip this game. However fans of games that require some logic (Ace Attorney, Danganronpa, point and click adventures) will find a lot of joy here.
The only downside to Return of the Obra Dinn is that I foresee someone attempting to copy this game’s formula, and it will fail. There is not a single piece of this game that can’t be deduced from the information the game presents. I feel copycats will understand the general concept but not succeed in tying up every loose end like Pope did here. All four years of development are on display.
Return of the Obra Dinn is a unique experience worth every penny. I can’t recommend this game enough. There is nothing quite like it.
