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Obduction |OT| Explore, uncover, solve, decide in a Mysterious world
- Thread starter guybrushfreeman
- Start date
BarrenMind
Member
PS4 Release 08/29/17
Though it looks like a PSVR patch is "coming soon" after release.
Though it looks like a PSVR patch is "coming soon" after release.
Playstation Blog said:
Playstation Blog said:
More_Badass
Member
Can't wait to play this tomorrow. Had bought it on Steam but my specs weren't good enough to run it well. This is so my kind of game; have tried Myst and Riven on iPad, weren't able to get far but loved everything about them. The Witness was great, but that style, with puzzles naturally integrated into the world more as technology to understand versus distinct "puzzles"...I love that. World-building through level design and exploration, environmental storytelling, tactile diegetic puzzles, a sci-fi narrative
More_Badass
Member
Five minutes in and I'm already intrigued by the story. Eager to see how this all unfolds
D
Deleted member 30609
Unconfirmed Member
i feel like this game flew under the radar, but it's one of my favourites in recent memory. few games have managed that sense of place that prerendered games used to provide, but I really think Obduction nailed it.
Barry Burton
Member
Just downloaded it, will be waiting for me after work. I'm pretty pumped!
I think it's a little sad that the game never got the attention it should have. Maybe it's still a bit early, but I went on the PS blog and Store in my browser and saw nothing about Obduction. I always figured the game would probably sell more on PC than consoles, but I'm worried that the game will be DOA here. Outside of this, I'm glad that those of you who were waiting for a console release get to play the game. There's really not many games like it.
By the way, I've been playing some older games I missed out on, hoping to find some that truly captures the spirit of Myst. Sadly nothing has really hit the mark yet, though some come close. While doing this I remembered that the Myst spinoff Uru had gone back online at some point. What I didn't remember was that it's free!
So if you're looking for something to fill the void after finishing Obduction, you can head over to Uru's website and download the game for free. Plus you can play it with friends. I think I remember them modifying some of the ages so you need at least 2 people to complete them.
As a kid, i played a lot of adventures (my favourite genre back then) but i don't remember ever putting a lot of time in Myst or Riven. And i can't remember why. I was never a fan of those FMV games and iirc, Myst had some of that. Or maybe it was the more "realistic" visuals or the type of puzzles... So i'm a bit conflicted on whether i would like this game or not.
More_Badass
Member
Had like three or four mind blown moments in the first 3-ish hours
First time
changes everything
I like how the puzzles have been very logical so far, very much thinking about what you're trying to do and working backwards.
First time
you realize you can cross through the "wall" to teleport to other sections of Hunrath
I like how the puzzles have been very logical so far, very much thinking about what you're trying to do and working backwards.
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
Something I love about adventure games with traversal is "putting together a mental map". Like, really learning how everything fits together. And Obduction is obscenely fun to do this for, especially once you start to realize how it works. Glad you're enjoying it so far!
I hope the surprise is RealRiven. It won't be. But if I say I hope it is and it comes true, I'll look prescient. Or reaching a deal with Ubisoft to republish Myst 3/4 (yes, they're not fully Cyan games, but still)
The Illiterati
Member
I definitely have to buy this now that its finally on PS4. I'm having too much fun with ReCore though, and I think I'm picking up Mario + Rabbids and a Switch.
Triggerhappytel
Member
This seems like the kind of game I'll really enjoy but £25 is a bit too much for me at the moment so I'm adding it to my wishlist and waiting on a price drop.
Barry Burton
Member
Played a few hours last night and am really loving this so far. After you are directed to the first house, you're pretty much on your own after that and it's been great.
answered a lot of my burning questions about "How the heck am I supposed to get over there?" I left off for the night after my first discovery of that concept, so there's still a lot left there for me to dig into some more tonight.
Yup, that was really cool. To think about how Hunrath kinda
wraps around on itself
nowheretorun
Member
Any word on how this runs on ps4, especially ps4 pro?
I'm about to read the thread but any indications/impressions on how this game plays would be great!
I'm about to read the thread but any indications/impressions on how this game plays would be great!
Barry Burton
Member
I got up to the next main area outside of Hunrath (
), though after an hour of me feeling that classic "I'm stuck, what do I do?" feeling. I felt that I had done pretty much everything that I could do to that point in Hunrath, but became very concerned once I finally decided to
Uh oh! It turns out that I was just an idiot.
Still, crisis averted and in any event, I made a few new discoveries along the way.
Two really cool puzzles stood out from last night (
and
). Both were just really smart puzzle designs that I felt really good about solving. In the case of the former,
. Just an awesome moment, and piecing everything together like that and getting the correct solution in the end was really satisfying.
I solved the latter one a bit out of order, but that was probably a good thing because it exposed how lazy my problem-solving has gotten after playing so many modern games with simple, brain-dead "puzzles".
. Of course. Duh. I knew that. Humbling, for sure, but it was the perfect intersection of "I'm an idiot" and "that's a really neat puzzle." This is probably the first new game I've played since The Witness that has expected anything close to this much out of me as a player. It's now on me to step up my own game.
Obduction is great. So far, it's been everything that I hoped it would be.
Kaptar
go to the bottom of the tree and exit through one of the portals, only to find out that I could not.
I had been through both swapping devices and concluded that I could not progress further into those worlds through these routes, and that I clearly must have missed something in Hunrath. The shame came over me an hour later when I realized that I didn't pay close enough attention to what I could interact with on the side of the first bridge. I had it in my head that the next place I had to go was through one of the portals at the root of the tree, and wasn't meticulous enough during my first swap over to Kaptar. *Surely* I won't make that same mistake again...
Two really cool puzzles stood out from last night (
Base-4/Villein number conversion
license plate/rotary dial
I had come across the "15" on the wall at Farley's home earlier and wondered when that would come into play. I made the connection when I discovered the keypad-locked door to the tower, and I estimated that I was pretty much in the location that was circled on the map in Farley's place, so I assumed the "15" had something to do with the passcode. But after getting nowhere with the Villein numbering device in the garage, I decided to go back to Farley's to see if I missed another digit somewhere. That's when I realized that the 15 on the wall wasn't really a 15
I solved the latter one a bit out of order, but that was probably a good thing because it exposed how lazy my problem-solving has gotten after playing so many modern games with simple, brain-dead "puzzles".
Before really examining much else in the Mayor's office, I found "Minnesota" written under the compass. I remembered having seen the license plates in the garage earlier, so I went straight back there and sure enough, there's a Minnesota plate. It ends with four digits, and I'm like "Yup, that's a passcode for something." I go back to the office and examine everything else to learn that "Minnesota" was a hint for the upper tower lock, and with a boatload of swagger I go up to the upper lock. "Rotary dial? Ha, no sweat!" I confidently enter the four digits only to discover I need six. Whoops! What are the other two digits? Sure, the license plate has six characters but one is a letter. Because of the rotary dial input to the lock, I decided to go back to the phone booth to see if I missed a clue there. I began to laugh thinking, "Haha, they probably only put this in the game so kids that never used a rotary phone would know how to enter that passcode! Ha ha ha! Ho ho ho!" That's the exact moment when I realized that, yes, digits are also used to represent letters
Obduction is great. So far, it's been everything that I hoped it would be.
The frame rate is all over the place on PS4 Pro. It's not a game where that really negatively impacts the gameplay in any meaningful way, but it's definitely not what I would consider "smooth". I probably would have preferred a stable 30 for this type of game as opposed to all of the fluctuations. But I'm probably not the best person to ask because a frame rate has to be really dreadful to bother me. As far as GAF goes, I'm probably one of forgiving people when it comes to performance (i.e. I played through Prey on the Pro and thought it was fine when it was being described by most as "broken".) But yeah, if you were hoping for a locked 60 on the Pro, it's not that.
Barry Burton
Member
Beat the game last night. I enjoyed it overall, though I must say it peaked early and got noticeably worse as it went along. Like with Rime, there are clear signs of budget/scope limitations, where each subsequent area feels less and less fleshed out, more linear and unfinished. It goes from great, to good, to okay, to essentially incomplete, which was disappointing. The last area
Also, performance on PS4 Pro becomes dreadful in one of the later areas. In
, lock-ups for a second or more are commonplace, especially if you run at all. I had the game crash on me twice because I ran back through an area too quickly, I guess. Another serious problem are the load times. As the game progresses, a certain game mechanic that leads to significant load times becomes used much more frequently in puzzles. Between the poor performance, long load times and overall decrease in quality of the puzzles and level design, very little about the game's final third was fun to play at all. I would say play on PC if you have the option.
So, yeah...first half or so of the game I thought was awesome and definitely scratched that Myst/Riven itch for me, but just remember to keep your expectations in check because as a crowd-funded AA game, the total experience just isn't nearly as "full" as the games that inspired it.
might as well have been cut from the game. It was reminiscent of the obviously-missing third dungeon in Zelda: Wind Waker.
Also, performance on PS4 Pro becomes dreadful in one of the later areas. In
Maray
So, yeah...first half or so of the game I thought was awesome and definitely scratched that Myst/Riven itch for me, but just remember to keep your expectations in check because as a crowd-funded AA game, the total experience just isn't nearly as "full" as the games that inspired it.
Chairmanchuck
Member
Playing it in VR and the VR implementation is imo really poor.
-The teleportation system doesnt work like how it works in most other VR games. You can only teleport where the character could walk in 4m or so. So if you are on a slope and want to teleport down, you have to teleport the long way.
-Touch-controls are.... not that good. They feel more like a pointer with accelerometers than really touch. Also at least with Oculus Touch, the grip and pointing (for the telephone e.g.) happens automatically.
-Engine doesnt really work in VR. The engine seems to load the textures as you walk along, similar to Metroid Prime. The problem is that you are teleporting far too fast for the textures to load so it will stutter a lot if you teleport over long distances quite fast.
-Some stuff like driving the minecart is a chore in VR. The seat moves as you look somewhere, so if you look behind, it might be that the back of the seat is now in front of the whole minecart so its blocking the controls.
The game itself: Feels good, but imo harder than Myst, Riven etc. Needed to use a guide quite some time, because I didnt know what to do. Besides that its fun, but even with the shortcuts, the "walking" or "teleporting" to the different areas feels tiresome.
-The teleportation system doesnt work like how it works in most other VR games. You can only teleport where the character could walk in 4m or so. So if you are on a slope and want to teleport down, you have to teleport the long way.
-Touch-controls are.... not that good. They feel more like a pointer with accelerometers than really touch. Also at least with Oculus Touch, the grip and pointing (for the telephone e.g.) happens automatically.
-Engine doesnt really work in VR. The engine seems to load the textures as you walk along, similar to Metroid Prime. The problem is that you are teleporting far too fast for the textures to load so it will stutter a lot if you teleport over long distances quite fast.
-Some stuff like driving the minecart is a chore in VR. The seat moves as you look somewhere, so if you look behind, it might be that the back of the seat is now in front of the whole minecart so its blocking the controls.
The game itself: Feels good, but imo harder than Myst, Riven etc. Needed to use a guide quite some time, because I didnt know what to do. Besides that its fun, but even with the shortcuts, the "walking" or "teleporting" to the different areas feels tiresome.