Apr 11, 2023 - Day 101 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 108
Game: Obduction
Platform: Steam PC
Release Date: Aug 25, 2016
Library Date: Mar 22, 2018
Unplayed: 1846d (5y20d)
Playtime: 47m
As Obduction loaded up, it seemed like the kind of game I'd like. Kind of the polar opposite of yesterday's game, Kingdom; it's really pretty... and I found it deeply frustrating.
At its core, it's a first-person 3D puzzle game. I like puzzle games. Right off the bat, the interactions with the in-game characters annoyed me. You activate these projected pre-recorded video bites, and something about them just set my teeth on edge.
When you interact directly with an "in-game" character though, that really broke my concentration. The character appears pre-recorded & pre-rendered, and it's almost impossible to make out the critical info they're saying.
On top of this, interacting with the various devices in the world momentarily locks your view on the object you're interacting with. Consequently, with one of the early puzzles, I gave up in frustration, only to find that I was *so* close to solving it, and it would have been obvious, had cause & effect not been disconnected by the locked view.
There might be a reasonable puzzle game underneath the frustration, but I'm not sure I want to spend the time finding out.
Obduction also works in VR, so I'm reserving a final rating until after I try VR, but right now, it's:
2: Meh
Greg Cocks 
