Everything fits a bit too neatly, while written notes and documents are perhaps a bit too conveniently cryptic. It feels perhaps a bit too smartly designed. It feels like it was made exactly for the player. They are a place a player can visit and, sometimes, if they are really great, become a part of.Р”В«ut ObductionРІР‚в„ўs world, for all its beauty and smartly designed layout, does not feel a place independent of the player. Great video game worlds are made for themselves and for the people than inhabit them.

What happened to the people of Hunrath? Why was the town spirited away into this alien world? Hopefully these will be compelling enough questions for most players, but the way clues are delivered feels a bit off.

So, youРІР‚в„ўre left with a bare bones detective mystery to pull you through as a carrot to work out the puzzles. Overall, though, the puzzle design feels disappointing - a far cry from Myst or RivenРІР‚в„ўs intricate designs. There are some highlights that require you to use some true brainpower figuring out an alien numerical system was a real treat, even if all the tools to do so were conveniently bunched together into a single room. Obduction, in the meantime, presents you with a succession of scavenger hunts for door codes, a handful of spatial puzzles, and a lot of levers to push, pull, and experiment with. The true narrative of that game was your exploration of the gameРІР‚в„ўs mechanics, and your own intellectual growth, climaxing not at any predetermined point, but at the moment you, the player, had an epiphany-like moment where you are able to see beyond the dictates of common logic and into the truth of the game world. The author narrative was secondary, left in most party to be fleshed out by the playerРІР‚в„ўs imagination. But what pulled you to progress in that game, the thing that kept you going, were the beautifully designed puzzles, the way basic rules were progressively melded together to create some truly wicked conundrums. There was, no doubt, a mystery to figure out on that gameРІР‚в„ўs island, but it was a muted thing, hidden away, kept in the background, there if you wanted to look for it. If my description seems a bit cryptic and/or evasive, thatРІР‚в„ўs because there really is not much point in playing Obduction if you come forewarned about the events that transpired in the mining town of Hunrath and its alien outskirts that is the carrot that the game dangles before your eyes: РІР‚СљHereРІР‚в„ўs a mystery, arenРІР‚в„ўt you curious now?РІР‚СњР”В®arlier this year, I was captivated by Jonathan BlowРІР‚в„ўs The Witness. Notes, diaries, and holographic logs presented in delightful FMV cutouts all hint at something having happened, at a life peacefully lived until something upset the balance. The townspeople, in the meantime, are nowhere to be found. Transported into an old mining town oddly peppered by glimpses of advanced technology, itРІР‚в„ўs soon apparent to the player that thereРІР‚в„ўs a weird, alien world surrounding the town, the way to which is blocked by a barrier of seemingly impenetrable energy. It was Kickstarted as a true successor to Myst and Riven, and Cyan Worlds, the developer, delivered - even the game often feels a bit less smart and intricate than its predecessors.

Obduction is, if nothing else, a promise well kept.

Obduction hints through