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

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. 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
  2. BenzoSt
    Jul 12, 2022
    8
    An adventure/puzzle game with astounding graphics, strange environments, and an intriguing story. Although you must solve each puzzle to succeed, I found the difficulty fair. My biggest grievance is that I found myself spending more time traveling between puzzles than actually solving puzzles, an issue that could have been remedied by increasing your running speed or allowing you toAn adventure/puzzle game with astounding graphics, strange environments, and an intriguing story. Although you must solve each puzzle to succeed, I found the difficulty fair. My biggest grievance is that I found myself spending more time traveling between puzzles than actually solving puzzles, an issue that could have been remedied by increasing your running speed or allowing you to fast-travel between landmarks. Nevertheless, Obduction is an impressive experience and a worthy successor to the Myst games. Don't feel ashamed to look online for a hint if you must.… Expand
  3. 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
  4. gold
    Sep 5, 2021
    9
    Есть затянутые и нудные моменты, но в целом мне понравилось. Уровень myst 5.
    Итог: 9.666/10
  5. CutlassCoffee
    Jun 11, 2021
    1
    I made an account just to write this - Obduction is awful, obtuse, frustrating, and not worth your time or money. Whoever made the cart puzzle should never design a puzzle game ever again. The game has not redeeming quality that you could find in any other puzzle game today. The visuals are just so-so, plenty of backtracking so you'll get bored fast. Character dialogues are one sided evenI made an account just to write this - Obduction is awful, obtuse, frustrating, and not worth your time or money. Whoever made the cart puzzle should never design a puzzle game ever again. The game has not redeeming quality that you could find in any other puzzle game today. The visuals are just so-so, plenty of backtracking so you'll get bored fast. Character dialogues are one sided even when it's not prerecorded voice. Gameplay is great if you like frustrating, obtuse experience and getting bragging rights to say "I fnished Obduction and it's a masterpiece".

    Please, play Myst (the old one, the 3d one, whatever is better than this), Riven, Outcry perhaps. Anything but this awful excuse of a puzzle game.    … Expand
  6. 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.
  7. bancandrei
    May 20, 2020
    4
    I was never really a fan of the old Myst titles, so I thought maybe I'll get into the genre with this one. Big mistake, it's just boring
  8. 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
  9. 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
  10. 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
  11. Alexsis
    May 21, 2018
    8
    A stunningly beautiful game, especially in VR. The sights and sounds do not disappoint. I enjoyed my experience with the game and the worlds it contains.
    If you like exploring, intriguing stories you piece together yourself, environments that are meticulously crafted for you to enjoy – give Obduction a go.

    Do you own VR? Then this is a MUST!
  12. 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
  13. MrsHjort
    Jul 1, 2017
    8
    I've always enjoyed the Myst games and this was a worthy successor. The environments are varied, detailed and beautiful, just like any Myst game. The exploration is great, with an integrering story to dig into in order to learn what the place is about and what is going on. The puzzles are not too easy, and not too hard, and you feel real satisfaction making your way through them. No storyI've always enjoyed the Myst games and this was a worthy successor. The environments are varied, detailed and beautiful, just like any Myst game. The exploration is great, with an integrering story to dig into in order to learn what the place is about and what is going on. The puzzles are not too easy, and not too hard, and you feel real satisfaction making your way through them. No story related bugs what so ever and the plot progresses in a nice organic way.

    My only complaints are that the teleportation is slow. I realize that they are in place to mask a loading screen, but frankly, I'd prefer that to those flickering spots, especially since you have to teleport a lot at one point of the story. A little something to read - an interesting fact or a little tidbit about the plot - would greatly improve that particular issue. Also, the camera movement "stutters" when the game loads new graphic which can be a bit disorienting at times and I've experienced one or two crashes too many to give this game a higher score. Some improvements stability and efficiency would be welcomed.

    However, despite its issues Obduktion is a great game! if you're a fan of Myst, you'll like it for sure. Go explore :)    … Expand
  14. JohnWitten
    Apr 30, 2017
    8
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Silly old me thought for the longest time that the title of the semi-spiritual successor to Myst/Riven/All-That-Good-Stuff point and click adventure was a mere typo or perhaps creative indifference to the spelling of abduction. As it stands, I think it rather ironically would encapsulate the narrative in either its present spelling or that alternative. Obduction instead refers in no small part to something along the lines of opposite subduction, or rather oceanic lithosphere forcing itself over continental counterparts.

    All that scientific banter aside, Obduction really is a fitting title for this game and since I’m seeking to avoid spoiling the majority of the narrative, I’ll say little more than that. At first glance it seems like just another adventure seeking to cash in on this newfangled idea of nuevo-retro. What I mean by this is that it takes an old gaming concept and places it into a new gaming era and melds the best of both worlds, or in this case multiple realms. The narrative and lore behind Obduction is certainly one of its strongest points and like the Myst saga, I really enjoyed how it was fleshed out and how things are rarely as they initially seem.

    Even with Cyan Worlds having developed the game with the thought in mind for it to be a spiritual successor to Myst/Riven, the only ways in which it is truly similar stem from the gameplay and some of the ideas of travel and various worlds and time displacements and similarly intriguing alien technology. If you know anything about the Myst series- whether it be lore or gameplay or overall narrative, then you may find this particular title engaging as well. The most interesting of all the narrative elements and potential in Obduction is definitely the meshing of several worlds and several time periods. For example, there is an advanced alien subculture lying dormant right alongside a displaced wild western town straight out of the late eighteen hundreds.

    Perhaps another of the unintended and yet awesomely interesting elements of the game is the ambiguity surrounding narrative and character choice. Certainly, some things will undoubtedly seem and in fact be very linear throughout the adventure. However there are also particular points littered throughout the story where your character’s journey or the concurrent adventures of the few other beings you encounter may come to an abrupt and even brutally twisted end. I won’t say much more for fear of ruining some of the finer endgame moments, but suffice it to say few things are as they seem.

    Obduction, if it aspires to be anything else or anything other, is certainly a game revolving around unintended consequences and brilliance of simple design. I think that is probably one of its other admirable traits, and it is definitely something we don’t see as much nowadays or perhaps ever. I thoroughly enjoyed the adventure itself for the feelings it elicited, the narrative tropes it trod, and the lore it hid slightly beneath the surface. It is always invigorating to experience something along the lines of a thrill ride in such a seemingly archaic and simple adventure game revolving around core mechanics such as light puzzle solving and information gathering. Yes, it can inevitably have its boring or even low points, but if you stick by it then the payoff is totally worth it.

    For what it’s worth, I have only good things to say about this particular title as a whole and I would probably give it somewhere between an 8.0 and 8.5 out of ten. That’s high praise coming from me and something I believe it is entirely deserving of as well. I implore you to give it a whirl if you’re into old school adventures, an interesting story, or simply want to branch out into a new genre of gaming.    … Expand
  15. Pilot_Odysseus
    Apr 14, 2017
    10
    A fine piece of art, for connoisseurs.
    Obduction pushes players forward solely based on a sense of shrouded mystery that will have you guessing from the very moments you first begin your adventure. There are no underlying themes, no agendas or heavy plots that Cyan Worlds is pushing, at least none that immediately jumped out at me, just pure unadulterated science fiction. To put it    A fine piece of art, for connoisseurs.
    Obduction pushes players forward solely based on a sense of shrouded mystery that will have you guessing from the very moments you first begin your adventure. There are no underlying themes, no agendas or heavy plots that Cyan Worlds is pushing, at least none that immediately jumped out at me, just pure unadulterated science fiction. To put it lightly, Obduction is an uninhabited, glorious game (as has been written.brashgames).    … Expand
  16. 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
  17. ExpertPL
    Nov 11, 2016
    8
    This game has very good lore, but in order to discover it, you have to be a fan of slow and steady exploring. If you like puzzles, you will also find them here. The teleport mechanic seems very creative with it's sphere teleportation, it was a lot of fun discovering how it actually works.
  18. shtomer
    Nov 1, 2016
    10
    A certain treat for Myst fans. I've played roughly 10hrs and I feel like I've only just started, the atmosphere is mesmerizing and the puzzles are intriguing.
  19. JackMcB
    Oct 31, 2016
    8
    Although by no means the same the echoes from Myst are all over, travelling between alien realms with their own, sometimes esoteric, rules while piecing together what's happened to you and those who came before you, trapped and departed denizens offering brief snippets of motivation. You will routinely be confronted with locked doors that frustrate until you scour the land to find theirAlthough by no means the same the echoes from Myst are all over, travelling between alien realms with their own, sometimes esoteric, rules while piecing together what's happened to you and those who came before you, trapped and departed denizens offering brief snippets of motivation. You will routinely be confronted with locked doors that frustrate until you scour the land to find their obtusely hidden codes/keys, this can be maddening yet it's quite satisfying once you finally start popping them open and discovering what they hide.

    I can understand some people hitting a wall and giving up or looking up a walkthrough to get past the odd section, sometimes the path to progress is in another world and will take several jaunts back and forth to get everything 'right'. The loading screens during those times can become tedious even if your PC is up to snuff.

    It's certainly worth a look all the same, it's very pretty in places and the desire to see the various contraptions come to life becomes quite compelling pipe-dream early on. I'd recommend playing it until it stumps you then coming back a week later, that way you can appreciate the slow-burn rather than uninstalling it in a fit of pique as I nearly did and would have regretted.    … Expand
  20. AuldWolf
    Sep 20, 2016
    0
    Let me paint you a picture of why this is a bad game. One 'puzzle' in this game is remedial, it's essentially just an average board of Pipe-Mania, nothing special. This puzzle, if you had all the tools in front of you to solve it, would be completed in ten minutes. Instead, they purposefully obfuscated it and separated the controls by loading screens. They also separated how you could viewLet me paint you a picture of why this is a bad game. One 'puzzle' in this game is remedial, it's essentially just an average board of Pipe-Mania, nothing special. This puzzle, if you had all the tools in front of you to solve it, would be completed in ten minutes. Instead, they purposefully obfuscated it and separated the controls by loading screens. They also separated how you could view the puzzle by more loading screens. On top of that, you're forced to take pointlessly long walks (for minutes at a time) and endure more loading screens just to reach more 'pieces' used to solve the same puzzle.

    Whereas a good puzzle game will give you everything you need in the same area, this is more like a point & click. Except that imagine you had to walk for a few minutes to go get multiple objects because your inventory could only hold one at a time, now imagine that this point & click adventure had loading screens that could last for up to ten minutes for every time you had to trek back. That's what it's like.

    So, instead of being able to solve this puzzle in ten minutes (because it really is a remedial puzzle), it'll take you hours of trekking along, going through loading screens, more loading screens, more trekking, more loading screens, more loading screens, more trekking, more loading screens, more trekking, and then it glitches out! Yes, this is a puzzle that's so bad it can glitch out and become unsolvable, and that's lead to some... fiery threads on the forums, that's for sure. You can actually end up in an infinite loop of loading screens and long walks.

    Essentially, they managed to create a first person Skinner box puzzle. It's going to addict people to it to solve it and see what's past it. It's almost Candy Crush Saga but in first person. It's truly remarkable, but also horrifying. If you like grinding, feel free. And the game, in general, is just broken, uninspired, and has many more Skinner box elements to trick the weak minded. I'm not weak minded, so I just let it rest. I have better games to play. I don't appreciate Skinner boxes.    … Expand
  21. 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
  22. matthornb
    Sep 4, 2016
    9
    Obduction is a difficult challenge to finish, and will prove a divisive game like Myst was, but for me it makes up for its minor flaws in many ways.

    Yes, the loading screens are a bit long, and yes, the FMV is a little retro, and yes, there are some bugs at present time. My feeling is that as the devs patch the game this will improve, but for now these minor flaws are enough to hold me    Obduction is a difficult challenge to finish, and will prove a divisive game like Myst was, but for me it makes up for its minor flaws in many ways.

    Yes, the loading screens are a bit long, and yes, the FMV is a little retro, and yes, there are some bugs at present time. My feeling is that as the devs patch the game this will improve, but for now these minor flaws are enough to hold me back from a 10.

    The game is a niche game, aimed at a niche audience that appreciates this style of game. If you hate puzzles and have a short attention span, this game is not meant for you. If, however, you like puzzles and have some patience for putting everything together, you will love Obduction and find many things to enjoy here.

    The graphics are beautiful - detailed and imaginative, with superb art direction. On a higher-end PC or in VR, you will frequently find yourself in awe of the spectacular design work here.
    The sound design is likewise compelling, especially the beautiful and eerie ambient music score.
    Even the puzzles - they're hard, yes, but mostly they're very logically constructed and definitely solvable if you think things through. I appreciate also the fact that as with Riven, the puzzles aren't tacked on. They seem to be a large part of the world and make sense within it. Sometimes they're clever, and the realization of how these worlds operate (in several ways) is going to give you a sense of wonder or at least a bit of surprise. It's also key to solving these puzzles and moving forward.
    The story is a fragmented thing told through exploration and observation of the gameworld, audio recordings, documents on paper, holographic recordings and other FMV. It actually adds up fairly well if you pause to put the different details together, but it is at times hokey and at others absorbing and surprising. But definitely you're left to connect the dots on your own at times and it won't add up if you didn't put it together on your own by reading and filling in the blanks.

    There are also a lot of details and easter eggs scattered in the game which are clearly meant for Myst fans (or for backers of the game who requested this or that object on a shelf somewhere) - and this can be both entertaining and slightly confusing as these items do add slightly more visual clutter to the game, and make it that much harder to parse what objects matter for a puzzle and which are just red herrings. Easter Eggs and hidden items vary - my reaction was sometimes 'this is goofy and mildly distracting as far as immersion goes' and other times 'that's cool'.

    All in all, I am quite happy with how Obduction turned out. I can't help but wonder what worlds and stories Cyan will pursue next.    … Expand
  23. Herewegomez
    Sep 4, 2016
    10
    Obduction is an incredibly, incredibly cool game. 23 years out from Myst and almost 20 years from Riven, and Cyan Inc still shows that they can make evocative and bizarre worlds.

    It's remarkable that there are not many modern examples of Myst "clones", considering that it was the best selling PC game for almost a decade until The Sims came out. There are however two recent examples    Obduction is an incredibly, incredibly cool game. 23 years out from Myst and almost 20 years from Riven, and Cyan Inc still shows that they can make evocative and bizarre worlds.

    It's remarkable that there are not many modern examples of Myst "clones", considering that it was the best selling PC game for almost a decade until The Sims came out. There are however two recent examples that, while interesting games on their own, never really captured the wondrous nature of Miller brother's games. The Talos Principle and The Witness both tried to represent the legacy, and while both have incredible attributes, I like Obduction better. It has a far more compelling and interesting lore than either, and less brain-aneurysm causing puzzles than The Witness.

    The thing that those games didn't get, and what Cyan does - even after 20 odd years - is that to make an engaging world full of wonder, the puzzles and the history of the world have to be intrinsically tied. If you took every puzzle in The Witness and stripped it away from the context of the world, you would you would be left with a fun set of puzzles on one hand, and a quiet world to explore on the other. This would be impossible in Obduction or Myst or Riven because the puzzles are the world. The feeling of wonder and mystery you get from these worlds comes from trying to understand how the strange technology and logic works around you. There is a moment early on in Obduction where you have to learn an alien numbering system to solve puzzles later in the game. This doesn't feel "gamey" or contrived because there is a reason for it to exist in the logic and lore of the game.

    So yeah, check it out if you're looking for that kind of experience.    … Expand
  24. laughingpinny
    Sep 3, 2016
    10
    This game is unbelievably good. Forget “if you liked Myst play this” - if only for the fact that if you liked Myst and can feasibly play it, you’re probably playing it already. Cyan's offer is not as unique in today's landscape as it was in '93, but they're still the only ones who can weave puzzles and exploration and imbue them with a story that you put together organically, on your ownThis game is unbelievably good. Forget “if you liked Myst play this” - if only for the fact that if you liked Myst and can feasibly play it, you’re probably playing it already. Cyan's offer is not as unique in today's landscape as it was in '93, but they're still the only ones who can weave puzzles and exploration and imbue them with a story that you put together organically, on your own terms.
    Try this instead: if you’ve ever considered giving puzzle-solving adventure games a try (and your computer can run it), please do so by playing Obduction. It’s sleek, it’s modern, it’s decades of self-taught lessons on game design coming to fruition. It’s so dense and organic that you never run out of stuff to try out, and it all meshes and intersects in such fun ways, one “a-ha!” moment after the other, separated only by jaw-dropping strolls through magnificent environments.    … Expand
  25. husdoktorn
    Sep 3, 2016
    9
    A lot of games coming out of the Kickstarter-fueled "adventure game renaissance" have been disappointments. By trying to cater to the attention span of a modern audience, the puzzles and obfuscation that make up the gameplay of a classic adventure game get compromised.

    Obduction is very much an exception. (Actual puzzles, in 2016?!) Cyan manages to capture the difficulty and atmosphere    A lot of games coming out of the Kickstarter-fueled "adventure game renaissance" have been disappointments. By trying to cater to the attention span of a modern audience, the puzzles and obfuscation that make up the gameplay of a classic adventure game get compromised.

    Obduction is very much an exception. (Actual puzzles, in 2016?!) Cyan manages to capture the difficulty and atmosphere of their classic 90's titles Myst and Riven, while still creating a game that contains new, ingenious ideas, and feels technically modern. Obduction looks and sounds beautiful, in the same way Myst and Riven looked and sounded beautiful back in 1994 and 1997, respectively.

    I'm delighted to say that I actually got stuck a couple of times in this game. This might sound weird to some younger people, but getting stuck is actually what makes up gameplay in an adventure game. The feeling of satisfaction you get from finally figuring out a difficult puzzle after traversing the same area over and over in search of missed clues, is unparalleled. In this area, Obduction delivers. More so than most entries in the adventure game genre as of late, that hold your hand way too much in the name of keeping unfamiliar players interested. Make no mistake, this is a game for adventure game fans.

    Cyan has a way of telling stories backwards in a way. When you start the game, most important events in the storyline have already taken place. The only way to understand any of what is going on is by paying a lot of attention to your surroundings and by reading documents and journals scattered throughout the game world(s), left behind by characters that are no longer anywhere to be found. This is very much optional. You could complete the game without taking in almost anything of the story, but that would probably leave you very unsatisfied by the ending. A penchant for detective-work is almost a requirement for having a glimmer of a chance of understanding even some parts of this rather complex (but certainly very interesting) universe. This is, in my opinion, the only potentially negative aspect of this game, that is a wonderful return to form for the genre.    … Expand
  26. thelley
    Sep 2, 2016
    10
    This game is incredible. If you want a game that is going to make you actually think and work out puzzles this is the game. The story is interwoven perfectly with the tasks required to progress.
  27. JohnMalcolm
    Sep 2, 2016
    1
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I remember Myst, etc, and Obduction is no Myst. The graphics and movement system are much better, but the puzzles are too hard for most of us. You could spend the next year, full-time, moving randomly through this gigantic maze and never find the way out. It comes down to using a cookbook for a fine-print recipe 8 pages long written by somebody on the Internet who's not proficient in English to get through the game. The story is engaging but the puzzle-making is inept. Puzzles should be soluble logically, not through random variation. An example of one of the easier puzzles: There's a locked door with a rotary phone dial and an LED display. Nearby is a hodgepodge room that serves as the mayor's office, but nobody's home. On the mayor's desk is a compass. If you pick it up, it looks just like what I had in Boy Scouts. If you think to turn it over, the name of a US state is inscribed on the back. Suppose it says 'Maine'. You may recall that in the abandoned service station a few blocks away are some license plates nailed to the wall. That's if you've already managed to find your way inside, which is not trivial. You may have 'photographed' that wall, but the game's photo album is buggy so you can't see the one you want. So you go back to the service station and copy down the license plate 'number' -- let's say it's YOU FUL. OK, now it's time to think of the rotary telephone dial you saw yesterday in a distant location. Translate the letters from the license plate into numbers as you would in dialing one of those memorable 800 numbers like 1-800-CALL_TODAY. The door opens and you're ready to figure out what to do next, which will be a random exploration of a puzzling environment. And that was a relatively easy and logical puzzle compared to most in this chaotic maze of old and new technology and unfamiliar cultural references. It was a noble effort but I think you'll find there are better ways to waste your time.… Expand
  28. Rialeon
    Sep 1, 2016
    10
    Graphic's are phenomenal! The music is by Robyn Miller who is a genius of Mystian proportions...:). The game play is enticing...a wonderful, immersive exploration/puzzle game. Worth every penny! Rand Miller and his exemplary crew have gone above and beyond expectation once again! My favorite thing...The rust...LOL
  29. 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
  30. isobellefox
    Aug 30, 2016
    10
    I have been an avid fan of the Myst games for a very long time, and I consider Riven to be one of the greatest gaming experiences and one of the most amazing works of art that I have ever had the pleasure to experience. I also love Uru. So, it was with great expectation that I awaited Obduction - the first Cyan game in years and a departure from the Myst series. Happily, I can say that myI have been an avid fan of the Myst games for a very long time, and I consider Riven to be one of the greatest gaming experiences and one of the most amazing works of art that I have ever had the pleasure to experience. I also love Uru. So, it was with great expectation that I awaited Obduction - the first Cyan game in years and a departure from the Myst series. Happily, I can say that my expectations were not only met but wildly exceeded.

    Graphically, this game is absolutely beautiful. Its not just the high quality of the unreal 4 engine rendering, either - its the attention to detail in every little thing - the art and the art direction. The worlds of Obduction are breathtaking.

    The puzzles are typical Cyan masterpieces, too. No one else has this kind of cleverness and finesse. In Obduction there is what I would call an "ecosystem" of puzzles - everything is logical and organic. None of the puzzles feel like or look like puzzles, because they are fully and rationally integrated with the environment and story. Some of them are very challenging; some of them are easy but rewarding. Every step forward feels like a discovery and an accomplishment.

    The story is intriguing, and the voice acting is wonderful.

    The music is, as always, perfect.

    Really, I could not ask for more, and if it continues to be this good right through to the end, this game could easily rival Riven for me as an experience - something I never thought I would say of a game again.

    Whether or not you have played any of the Myst games, if you like games like The Vanishing of Ethan Carter or The Talos Principle, high qaulity, contemplative, thinker's games, then you really must play Obduction.    … Expand
prev
Page:

Awards & Rankings

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

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
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 »