Obduction

 PC
User Score
7.6

Generally favorable reviews- based on 161 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 107 out of 161
  2. Mixed: 29 out of 161
  3. Negative: 25 out of 161

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  1. mort346
    Sep 1, 2016
    7
    I'd love to give this game full marks, but there's one or two reasons why I can't. You should definitely consider them before buying too. First - loading screens. Yes, lots of games have long load times but it particularly hurts Obduction because of one of its core game play mechanics. It features several worlds, which you regularly have to teleport between to solve puzzles. In someI'd love to give this game full marks, but there's one or two reasons why I can't. You should definitely consider them before buying too. First - loading screens. Yes, lots of games have long load times but it particularly hurts Obduction because of one of its core game play mechanics. It features several worlds, which you regularly have to teleport between to solve puzzles. In some sections, you'll be teleporting between them several times in a space of about 5 minutes. On a high-end machine, these can be up to a minute long each time. As well as being very frustrating, it makes the game much harder. Games like this encourage you to try everything to solve puzzles. But if you're unwilling to try teleportating (which is the answer quite often) because you don't want to sit on your hands while the game loads, you're going to spend far longer solving puzzles than you might have and you'll feel very frustrated when you do. The second thing is the story. For much of the first half, there's quite a bit to read and learn and the game gives the impression of great depth, in the vein of games like Bioshock and Alien:Isolation. But later on this depth disappears. By the time what you learned at the beginning becomes relevant, you'll already have forgotten it all, leading to an ending that feels abrupt and left many people (judging from the forums) wondering what the hell happened. Whilst many of the puzzles are clever and challenging without being unintuitive, they are spread a bit to thinly between much easier puzzles that mainly involve travelling a great deal (which makes me wonder why on earth they would include a 'point-and-click' control option).

    This isn't to say Obduction isn't worth playing. It has more content and engagement than 90% of puzzle games out there. But I can't help thinking there was some last minute corner cutting that results in a finish product more like vanilla ice-cream with chocolate chips than a full fat, triple chocolate masterpiece; the fun parts are there, but you'll have to dig to find them.    … Expand
  2. strav
    Sep 11, 2016
    7
    As any game from the Myst series, Obduction is a game about exploration, subtle details and environmental puzzle solving. As true successor to Myst, Obduction really delve into those core principles but sadly most of the time it's execution is flawed by some really bad design decisions.

    The exploration part is good, not quite linear yet focused enough and most importantly: the    As any game from the Myst series, Obduction is a game about exploration, subtle details and environmental puzzle solving. As true successor to Myst, Obduction really delve into those core principles but sadly most of the time it's execution is flawed by some really bad design decisions.

    The exploration part is good, not quite linear yet focused enough and most importantly: the environments are diverse, grandiose and sometimes beautiful (other times: awkward and clunky). Where the game fails, as other reviews mentioned is mainly in the puzzles. Most of them really are simplistic and few require some form of lateral thinking. Most of the time, the solution is outright given upon discovering some piece of paper that will connect the dots for you. When puzzles do require a bit of logic, most of the time they are not really complex nor ingenious but rather extremely tedious given the time/loading time required to perform some step of the solution (imagine solving a simple Sudoku problem where you need to take a 15 minutes stroll across the park prior to the writing of any number). As for the subtle details, there are some (some directly copied from the ol' Myst formula) but most of the time, the clues are plain and obvious. To be sure, the Myst series feeling remains but it surely, this is no Riven. (A side note, for puzzle aficionados: the puzzle quality is far below of what can be found in Talos Principle, The Witness, Braid, Tetrobot and Co., Stephen's Sausages Roll, etc. to name a few).

    In terms of graphical quality, to be honest, given Myst's legacy, my expectations were also a bit higher. For some reason I spent a lot of time adjusting my gamma settings for it never felt quite right (below some threshold, some places looked just perfect, others were too dark, and vice versa). In some worlds the meshes/models resolution felt quite poor giving an overall impression of 2010 era graphics. As for the textures and lightning, it's mostly good and if you have a machine powerful enough: do crank the resolution scale up to 200 - it's really worth it on the texture side (otherwise, the whole game might look blurry). One good point: the game seems performs quite well and because of the resolution scale mechanism, it seems it can fairly accommodate a wide range of hardware specs. Overall, I was expecting something on par with The Vanishing of Ethan Carter but got something quite below.

    As for the sound ambiance, this is one of the highest points of the game. The music itself is bland, nothing to fall for but the sound effects are very well done.

    Overall, it took me 13 hours to finish the game and found most of it to be a somewhat tedious experience. I appreciate the effort cyan has put into this and in itself, the game surely is a nice technical achievement but it would surely have benefited of more though into it's puzzle design (not to say it's an easy thing).    … Expand
  3. andrey1990
    Dec 16, 2019
    7
    Постараюсь оставить справедливый отзыв, возможно кому-то пригодится.
    Я поставил игре 7, в моем понимании эта оценка значит что игра неплоха, но к сожалению ничем не запомнится и если пройти мимо нее жалеть не будете. Поначалу красивый и затягивающий мир вскоре понемногу начал вызывать напряжение и усталось которые к концу игры значительно усилились. Проблема в том что разработчики не    Постараюсь оставить справедливый отзыв, возможно кому-то пригодится.
    Я поставил игре 7, в моем понимании эта оценка значит что игра неплоха, но к сожалению ничем не запомнится и если пройти мимо нее жалеть не будете. Поначалу красивый и затягивающий мир вскоре понемногу начал вызывать напряжение и усталось которые к концу игры значительно усилились. Проблема в том что разработчики не снабдили головоломки самодостаточной логикой. Как должна выглядеть идеальная головоломка (привет Портал) - игрок видит перед собой цель, игроку объясняют или подсказывают как что работает и он с помощью имеющихся инструментов прокладывает себе дорогу к цели. В это игре эта цепочка сломана, цели которые нам часто ставят не дает ни малейшего намека на то куда идти и что делать. И большинство загадок скатывается к тому что нужно идти и взаимодействовать со всем что видишь пока наконец-то ты не найдешь то что нужно. Как правильно писали на другой форуме - задачки и принцип их работы очень часто становится очевиден и понятен только после того как тебе случайно удалось их решить. С эти можно было бы жить так как интересные головоломки все еще встречаются, но здесь порадовал новый аспект - переход между мирами занимает просто до хренища времени и мои нервы были просто окончательно убиты в ходе лабиринта где чтобы совершить одно действие нужно было терять 3 минуты времени и одна головоломка которую можно было бы пройти за 10 минут заняла 1 час просто потому что разработчики не ценят мое время.
    Имейте это в виду    … Expand
  4. MaxmilianKohler
    Jul 18, 2019
    6
    I found it way too tedious to walk around for minutes at a time to get from one piece of the puzzle to the next. If there was a way to speed up the travel I would have kept playing. Also, unless you have a really good memory you're going to really struggle with this game. There is so much you have to remember, such as different paths you did or didn't explore, which path leads to where andI found it way too tedious to walk around for minutes at a time to get from one piece of the puzzle to the next. If there was a way to speed up the travel I would have kept playing. Also, unless you have a really good memory you're going to really struggle with this game. There is so much you have to remember, such as different paths you did or didn't explore, which path leads to where and what were at those locations. There is no built in navigational map to track where you have and haven't gone. That may be fine if it would at least allow you some way to draw your own map to keep track of stuff. The only thing it allows is taking pictures, which is nowhere near adequate.

    I'm rating it as high as I am because I enjoy that the game is based around discovery and exploration in an alien world.    … Expand
  5. Krzych
    Feb 1, 2017
    6
    I had high hopes for this game based on good opinions going around about it, but the game disappointing. It has some moments, but overall it is ridiculous, the world is ridiculous, story is ridiculous, gameplay is annoying, I didn't really see any point in finishing this game after like 6-7 hours of playing through. Performance is rather messy even on GTX 1080, while game is not reallyI had high hopes for this game based on good opinions going around about it, but the game disappointing. It has some moments, but overall it is ridiculous, the world is ridiculous, story is ridiculous, gameplay is annoying, I didn't really see any point in finishing this game after like 6-7 hours of playing through. Performance is rather messy even on GTX 1080, while game is not really offering anything special from visual side and it definitely isn't justified for this game to run worse than the best looking games up there. I pick my games very carefully and usually if I start something I finish it, but not this time.… Expand
  6. Renovatia
    Mar 10, 2023
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. It's all not that bad, but the extreme walking distances are ridiculous. At the near end I had a bridge aligned to its default position again, after I have finished a puzzle. Bad mistake as I had to back track my entire steps just to pull a lever and put the bridge back in an open position. And then I had to go back to where I need to be, but now things were reset and I had to do stuff again. All in in all I was busy for an hour until I could go one with the actual game.

    Solved puzzles should provide shortcuts to travel back. But it doesn't. Going back often has consequences for no other reason than to make it more complex than it should be. Then, at 90% of the game, my game froze up but I could give a darn anymore and I just installed it. Like 5 minutes ago.

    It's my only complaint, but it's a big one: navigating and moving around is messy and confusing. Also, the game has many useless information. You'd think they are hints which will be important later, but turn out to be duds. There's even a very difficult puzzle with a Russian machine which is purely implemented to troll the user. Ridiculous things like that.    … Expand
  7. LymanBruce
    Dec 11, 2017
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Better wear your favorite hiking boots and pack a lunch, kiddies, ‘cause you're going to be doing some walking! Seriously, the maps are huge and you’ll be retracing your steps quite a bit. The game does provide a setting for line-of-sight, instant travel, but I found it to be disorienting; it’s better to just run everywhere.

    The maps are visually stunning; with vast vistas, fog, mystery and alien architecture. (You’ll lose your fear of falling once you realize that you can’t fall!) Top marks on the environment!

    I loved the “Yankee engineering” aspect of the game. The human inhabitants of Hunrath used whatever materials they had available to build some amazing stuff.

    Remember, you CAN get everywhere you need to go – eventually. The adventure will take you to other worlds and back again as you search for the solutions to puzzles and to where the heck did everybody go?

    Puzzles are not too difficult, although you may have to do some math! Mostly it’s about looking all around and reading everything; and of course, remembering. I suggest you keep “hint glint” turned ON in the settings. Otherwise, they may find your bleached bones lying next to the control you were supposed to have used before you got stuck. This happened to me, I mean La Brea Tar Pits stuck, before I found the thing I was supposed to manipulate.

    The most difficult puzzles use world swapping, where you travel from one map to another. Unfortunately, each swap takes time to load the world, so the faster your computer the better. Some players report waits measured in minutes – my experience was about half a minute per swap; which adds up! Yeah, this is a flaw in the gameplay, but if you’ve got the time it’s worth the wait.

    PROS:

    Beautiful, awe-inspiring maps. Immersive environments.

    Original, intriguing story-line.

    CONS:

    Sub-par music. One of the best features of the Myst franchise was the immersive music. This game's music is occasionally epic but is, for the most part, uninspired. Most of the time you'll just wander around to the sound of your own footsteps.

    At less than the highest graphics settings the textures tend to be blurry.

    Map loading times: Boo! Not cool! Sorry, Cyan, I’d like to be generous here – but it’s too much.

    SPOILER ALERT:
    I played through the game in a fairly linear manner, I mean there were no “Lady or the Tiger” decision points, but I still ended up with the “Bad Ending”. Maybe a few months from now I’ll start all over again to try to see what I overlooked. There must be something – I mean, what kind of game would put you through the wringer without giving the opportunity to have a happy ending? (Other than SOMA, I mean.)    … Expand
  8. Class_A
    Sep 22, 2018
    7
    Obduction could have been great. It seems like the developers just didn't have the funding to create a fully rounded experience. Some aspects/parts of Obduction are top notch, but the whole experience is marred by several rough edges. Most puzzles are rather easy and some "hurdles" do not require the player to make an effort as the solution can be brute-forced in less than a minute. In oneObduction could have been great. It seems like the developers just didn't have the funding to create a fully rounded experience. Some aspects/parts of Obduction are top notch, but the whole experience is marred by several rough edges. Most puzzles are rather easy and some "hurdles" do not require the player to make an effort as the solution can be brute-forced in less than a minute. In one instance, my attempted solution was much more involved (decoding and then encoding based on an unknown system) than what was required (which turned out to be very simple).

    On the flip side, there was one really hard puzzle which I could have solved (I played through Myst and Riven and a lot of other adventure games) if only Obduction's prior puzzle level had prepared me for it and if the story would have drawn me in more.

    The game also ends abruptly and an important player choice is not introduced properly.

    I feel Obduction is tragic as it could have been absolutely superb but falls so short of a satisfying experience in a number of ways that all the good parts somehow are devalued more than they deserve, having left me feel a bit empty. Too bad.

    While "Quern - Undying Thoughts" has its own issues, overall it feels much, much more like a spiritual successor to Myst than Obduction does. The sense of the creators striving for perfection and quality of the atmosphere created, and hence the player involvement for me personally was much better with Quern than it was with Obduction. Hopefully Cyan can show their worth another time with a more rounded effort.    … Expand
  9. hoanns
    Feb 21, 2021
    5
    Great looking and athmosperic world with some nice mystery. But bad story, the puzzles are kind of lame and there is a lot of boring backtracking. Often the basics for solving the puzzle are not made clear to the player. Also often it's unclear how to progress, sometimes "random" things just change in the gameworld that the player wouldn't even know, but needs to find to progress.
  10. JustinForgueims
    Mar 10, 2022
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. A really good puzzle game.
    The atmosphere and the lore are fantastic. Really polished with a lot of details.
    The puzzles are challenging but not impossible to beat. There are really few that involve super hidden things or a no sense resolution, that's the most annoying thing in a puzzle game.

    Maybe there are two big drawbacks, related to the loss of effort in the end game:
    1) There's a lot of walking, back and forth from opposite sides of the map or from other regions to solve puzzles. And happens every time more as long as your progress through the game. Instead of maintaining the puzzles difficulty it just takes more time because the solution is far away

    --SPOILER ALERT!!!--
    2) The game is so rich in details and things to do early but becomes more and more empty as soon as you progress. With the major disappointment that was finding the last planet completely empty, no buildings, no NPCs, no puzzles, nothing!
    --END OF SPOILER--

    This two things makes me think that the devs lost motivation by the end of game or most probably they had an strict limit date and the game is nearly incomplete.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

65
#65 Most Discussed PC Game of 2016
83
#83 Most Shared PC Game of 2016

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
76

Generally favorable reviews - based on 31 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 22 out of 31
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 31
  3. Negative: 2 out of 31
  1. Road to VR
    Jul 29, 2017
    85
    Obduction revives the overall feeling of its predecessors 'Myst' and 'Riven' by recreating the familiar brand of visually stunning environments mixed with cerebral puzzles. [Tested with Oculus Touch, HTC Vive]
    Read full review
  2. CD-Action
    Nov 18, 2016
    65
    Obduction is scant storywise and in contrast to The Witness failed to gradually teach me how to deal with its puzzles, instead forcing me to use the trial and error method. Myst fans, however, should enjoy it. [11/2016, p.46]
  3. Pelit (Finland)
    Nov 9, 2016
    84
    An otherwise excellent successor to the Myst series that is somewhat marred by the frequency of long loading times and some less stellar puzzle design, like the annoying rotating maze. [Oct 2016]
See all critic reviews »