Obduction PS4 Review – Waiting for the Other Worlds

By Ashley
8 years Ago

With enormous, colorful landscapes and challenging puzzles, Obduction is a strong followup to developer Cyan&&num;8217&semi;s previous games, including Myst and Riven&period; For some reason, we didn&&num;8217&semi;t get our hands on a copy when Obduction launched on Steam last year&period; Nevertheless, I was thrilled when they released a PS4 version a couple weeks ago&period; When I was a kid, I&&num;8217&semi;d stay up late playing Riven on our family PC with my mom&period; Whenever I tell her about a cool new game I&&num;8217&semi;m playing now, she always asks me, &&num;8220&semi;Would I like it&quest; Is it like Riven&quest;&&num;8221&semi; Obduction has big shoes to fill&period;&NewLine;When the game opens, you find yourself plucked from a wooded camp site and placed into a strange, dusty town&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s no notice&period; No reason&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s up to you to figure out what happened and how to get back home&period; You aren&&num;8217&semi;t the first person to be dropped into town though&period; The strange major has prepared for visitors like you by placing half a dozen projection machines around the area&period; His distorted, static-filled FMV messages are reminiscent of those found in Myst&&num;8217&semi;s red and blue books&period; However, these FMV sequences are incorporated into Obduction seamlessly and thoughtfully&period; They don&&num;8217&semi;t feel outdated&period;&NewLine;<figure id="attachment&lowbar;129631" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-129631" style="width&colon; 960px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-129631" src="https&colon;//cdn&period;bagogames&period;com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/13022658/Screenshot&lowbar;09&period;jpg" alt="Obduction, Cyan" width="960" height="540" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-129631" class="wp-caption-text">Obduction, Cyan</figcaption></figure>&NewLine;As another tribute to fans of former Cyan games, Obduction lets you choose your navigation style&period; The Point-and-Click option allows you to play in the same style as Myst&period; You simply face forward and click to move in that direction or turn around&period; However, a Free Roam option lets you wander around in any direction you like&period; I felt those warm fuzzies return when I played the first few minutes in Point-and-Click mode, but I was glad Free Roam was an option&period; I quickly switched over to the faster, smoother mode when my modern lack of patience got the best of me&period;&NewLine;The game feels mysterious and ominous the entire time&period; I could absolutely picture myself alone in the world of Hunrath&period; Composers Robyn Miller and Hannah Gamiel nail the high-tension moments with perfectly-timed music&period; Obduction starts out strong, with challenging puzzles and fascinating places to explore&period; As in previous Cyan games, the detail is immaculate&period; Not only can you listen to eerie voice recordings of other people who had been dropped into the strange town, but you can read through pages of research&period; It all comes together to create a powerful, immersive experience&period;&NewLine;<figure id="attachment&lowbar;129630" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-129630" style="width&colon; 960px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-129630" src="https&colon;//cdn&period;bagogames&period;com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/13022556/Screenshot&lowbar;06&period;jpg" alt="Obduction, Cyan" width="960" height="540" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-129630" class="wp-caption-text">Obduction, Cyan</figcaption></figure>&NewLine;When it comes to controls, the PS4 release of Obduction can be frustrating at times&period; Connect-the-dots puzzles that would be as simple as clicking and dragging on PC do not work as well on a handheld controller&period; When traveling across town by minecart, rail switches must be used to move over to a different set of tracks&period; Because of the way the minecart controls are bound, you have to select these switches with &&num;8220&semi;X&&num;8221&semi; and move them with the right joystick &&num;8211&semi; an action that would be easier with two right thumbs&period; You can avoid the issue by climbing out of the cart, but this adds unnecessary time&period; These puzzles and mechanics seem better fit for the PC version of the game&period;&NewLine;As with other Cyan games, Obduction provides you with the opportunity to teleport to exotic new worlds&period; Unfortunately, any excitement about traveling to these areas is short lived&period; About 75&percnt; of the way through the game, the moderate-but-optimistic pace comes to a halt&period; You must teleport objects to another world, rotate them, then teleport them back&period; This series of puzzles is a wonderful, challenging idea in theory&period; However, the loading time between worlds does not balance with the amount of time you spend between these teleportations&period; At launch, it often took several minutes for the PS4 to load the next area&period; This meant that I would spend 2-3 minutes waiting for the world to load, only a few seconds clicking a button to rotate the object, and then another 2-3 minutes traveling back&period; Having to do this once or twice might have been okay, but one of these teleportation puzzles requires at least eight back-to-back travels in a row&period; And that&&num;8217&semi;s if you get it all right on the first try&period; Since then, the development team has patched the game a couple of times&period; The loading times have improved, but they still significantly slow down this part of the game and make it hard to stay interested in pushing through&period;&NewLine;<figure id="attachment&lowbar;129629" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-129629" style="width&colon; 960px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-129629" src="https&colon;//cdn&period;bagogames&period;com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/13022356/Screenshot&lowbar;04&period;jpg" alt="Obduction, Cyan" width="960" height="540" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-129629" class="wp-caption-text">Obduction, Cyan</figcaption></figure>&NewLine;Obduction is nearly an atmospheric masterpiece, and I wish I could score it 10/10&period; The worlds are stunning, detailed, and believable&period; The soundtrack ties in perfectly and adds just the right amount of pacing and tension&period; Nevertheless, the fact that the game comes to a halt at the teleportation puzzles makes a significant impact on gameplay&period; With my first three days in the Obduction world, you couldn&&num;8217&semi;t pull me away from the game&period; I was captivated and in love with something that was effortlessly pulling me back to the wonder of my childhood&period; Once I started having to wait for the game more than play it, I began to lose interest&period; This is something that may not be as big of an issue on PC, and they may release additional patches to improve loading times&period; If you have the patience to push through the small patch of hiccups, the game is absolutely worth your time&period;&NewLine;Obduction is out now on PS4 and Steam (PC/Mac)&period; You can also explore the game in VR (Oculus Rift/HTC Vive)&period; A PSVR update will be coming soon&period; We had a chance to try Obduction VR for just a few minutes at PAX West and were impressed by how enormous the environments felt&period;&NewLine;A PS4 review copy of Obduction was provided by Cyan for the purpose of this review&NewLine;

Categories: Game Reviews, PS4 Reviews
Tags: HTC Vive Obduction PC PlayStation Top Stories VR

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