Observer

 PC
User Score
7.6

Generally favorable reviews- based on 316 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 206 out of 316
  2. Mixed: 68 out of 316
  3. Negative: 42 out of 316

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  1. Aloof
    Sep 19, 2020
    7
    A positive but imperfect experience. Great sound, beautiful atmosphere, cyberpunk-style and that can remember Blade Runner, but also Soma, and the latter in terms of gameplay in certain points seems the reference point. In terms of gameplay, however, the game disappoints, often too full of graphic effects, even annoying, almost forced, and a plot that is actually a bit frayed. I had higherA positive but imperfect experience. Great sound, beautiful atmosphere, cyberpunk-style and that can remember Blade Runner, but also Soma, and the latter in terms of gameplay in certain points seems the reference point. In terms of gameplay, however, the game disappoints, often too full of graphic effects, even annoying, almost forced, and a plot that is actually a bit frayed. I had higher expectations, but I recommend it… Expand
  2. gameking
    Mar 7, 2020
    7
    Graphics are good. But lights and effects disturbing sometimes. And my eyes are tired.Atmosphere is good. It shows the cyberpunk type.Story is not good not terrible. 6/10 ı think maybe 7. I played with gamepad and the controls are not too good.But still this game is a good game.
  3. rodericrinehart
    Dec 10, 2018
    5
    The game had a good premise and looked like something I would enjoy. For example, I thought Soma had a decent story but mediocre gameplay and a slow first half. I thought Outlast 2 had decent horror but still was just a ok/good game. This game has cyberpunk and dystopia, but the gameplay is pretty atrocious. It absolutely definitely feels like a 20-year-old game, warts and all. I gave itThe game had a good premise and looked like something I would enjoy. For example, I thought Soma had a decent story but mediocre gameplay and a slow first half. I thought Outlast 2 had decent horror but still was just a ok/good game. This game has cyberpunk and dystopia, but the gameplay is pretty atrocious. It absolutely definitely feels like a 20-year-old game, warts and all. I gave it enough time to see if I would like it, but it was too much time, honestly. It was simply boring and reading the summary of the story was more than enough to escape the poor gameplay.… Expand
  4. RazorSamurai
    Jan 1, 2019
    5
    визуализация на высшем уровне, ни в какой другой игре вы не встретите эти эффекты

    смысл, лор, геймплей, выбор, диалоги вообще все пустая трата времени, это кинцо но и не кинцо и не игра такой какой она себя позиционирует полный шлак, общага сделана на отъебись, просто бродишь по комнатам и смотришь заскриптованные сценки с артхауосом где тебе в уши срут и происходит какафония эффектов.    визуализация на высшем уровне, ни в какой другой игре вы не встретите эти эффекты

    смысл, лор, геймплей, выбор, диалоги вообще все пустая трата времени, это кинцо но и не кинцо и не игра такой какой она себя позиционирует
    полный шлак, общага сделана на отъебись, просто бродишь по комнатам и смотришь заскриптованные сценки с артхауосом где тебе в уши срут и происходит какафония эффектов.
    типа это не игра и не кинцо чисто тебе даже тут делать нечего, самое обидное то что люди типа вау какая атмосфера какой глубокий смысл смотрите киберпук, типа машины нас захватят аааа 10 из 10, нет, это полный шлак для олигафренов    … Expand
  5. Mandulum
    Jul 30, 2018
    6
    Haiku Review: Track a murderer / Observing makes no sense, random / It is all so dark
    Favorite Thing: The story/investigation kept me going. That and Fire and Sword.
    Least Favorite Thing: Things were a bit too random. It felt like random for the sake of random. Date Completed: 2018-07-25 Playtime: ~ 6.5h Enjoyment: 6/10 Recommendation: I'm a soft 'yes'. Fans of horror or cyberpunk    Haiku Review: Track a murderer / Observing makes no sense, random / It is all so dark
    Favorite Thing: The story/investigation kept me going. That and Fire and Sword.
    Least Favorite Thing: Things were a bit too random. It felt like random for the sake of random.

    Date Completed: 2018-07-25
    Playtime: ~ 6.5h
    Enjoyment: 6/10
    Recommendation: I'm a soft 'yes'. Fans of horror or cyberpunk should find some enjoyment here.    … Expand
  6. Dannystaples
    Jul 14, 2019
    6
    It's alright.
    The controls are pretty annoying. Panning cameras around takes what feels like several lifetimes. Controlling the little bot things is just terrible. It moves around slowly and feel like there is input lag all the time. So you just end up bouncing off the walls everywhere you go.
    The waypoint and navigation system in the game are broken. It will tell you you need to go    It's alright.
    The controls are pretty annoying. Panning cameras around takes what feels like several lifetimes. Controlling the little bot things is just terrible. It moves around slowly and feel like there is input lag all the time. So you just end up bouncing off the walls everywhere you go.

    The waypoint and navigation system in the game are broken. It will tell you you need to go through doors that don't open and it doesn't acknowledge vents which you need to go through to bypass the closed doors. So many hours in this game were wasted wandering around wondering how to get to where I needed to be.

    The story leaves a lot to be desired as well. It's basically 2001: A Space Odyssey. Stupid alien obelisk and all.

    And just like 2001, it has a totally and utterly incomprehensible ending. 2001 gets something of a pass for its ending because that film was undoubtedly ahead of its time and it more than made up for it with the cinematography.

    This game's cinematography has been seen many many times before. It doesn't get a pass for being average. Yet it still seems to think it deserves a ridiculous cliffhanger ending.

    No you don't deserve that, you simply didn't finish the game. Why were the timelines crossed over? HOW did they get crossed over? What were they trying to achieve. Why did they select Emma specifically?

    None of the questions were answered but unfortunately the answers were the only thing that mattered in this game because frankly everything else was average.

    Yet we didn't get the answers so alas the game will remain average. I gave it a 6 because it was very pretty and frankly being in orbit around Saturn will always be frigging awesome.

    Also correct me if I am wrong but I don't think you know how momentum works. When the ship is entering Saturn's atmosphere at the end you did a burn to try and get it free again. It doesn't work so decide the jetison the arm modules. This will reduce the mass of the ship sure but you would THEN need to do another burn in order to get yourself back on track. But you didn't. Or at least you didn't tell us you did.

    Yet we are supposed to believe that the remaining ship managed to get itself out of Saturn's atmosphere and all the way back to Earth without a second burn. No. Just no.

    Also how the hell did she end up on the ground outside of the ship? Even being thrown out of the module when it landed would have splattered her on the rocks.

    Then she SOMEHOW merges with an AI and is presumably programmed to start that process all over again for reasons that are never explained.

    Basically just wasted six hours of my life.    … Expand
  7. matgaj
    Dec 21, 2018
    6
    Observer is a walking simulator. Disguised by cool-looking visual effects and opening doors to spooky rooms, but still. The game lasts for about 4-5 hours but in my opinion, it stops being fun to play after maybe 2. From this point, you just want to finish it as quickly as you can to see the ending and get answers to your questions. You stop paying attention to the ambience of spookiness,Observer is a walking simulator. Disguised by cool-looking visual effects and opening doors to spooky rooms, but still. The game lasts for about 4-5 hours but in my opinion, it stops being fun to play after maybe 2. From this point, you just want to finish it as quickly as you can to see the ending and get answers to your questions. You stop paying attention to the ambience of spookiness, flickering textures and countess jump scares.… Expand
  8. Gelaos
    Jul 11, 2021
    6
    I started Observer expecting it to be a dark cyberpunk adventure game. And it was exactly that. Blade Runner-like setting and captivating atmosphere are by far the best thing about this game. Also, Rutger Hauer does an excellent job as the main protagonist. Story-wise the game is okay, but gameplay could be better a bit however. Sometimes it wasn't exactly clear what to do or where to go,I started Observer expecting it to be a dark cyberpunk adventure game. And it was exactly that. Blade Runner-like setting and captivating atmosphere are by far the best thing about this game. Also, Rutger Hauer does an excellent job as the main protagonist. Story-wise the game is okay, but gameplay could be better a bit however. Sometimes it wasn't exactly clear what to do or where to go, which caused me to roam blindly. Observer is overall a decent adventure, although little rough around the edges.… Expand
  9. GoodMorningAss
    Jan 18, 2021
    7
    Great game, great graphics, great cyberpunka climat. I have lot of fun playing observer
  10. AllNewSuperfake
    Feb 26, 2021
    6
    This is not a video game. It's an interactive 9/10 cinematic with all the interactivity of a video recorder.

    It's quite linear. There are no real puzzles to solve except for figuring out where the next PLAY button is. It might be opening a door, or scanning a book that is inside a drawer, you might have to walk a few steps or just turn around, but I never really felt like I'm    This is not a video game. It's an interactive 9/10 cinematic with all the interactivity of a video recorder.

    It's quite linear. There are no real puzzles to solve except for figuring out where the next PLAY button is. It might be opening a door, or scanning a book that is inside a drawer, you might have to walk a few steps or just turn around, but I never really felt like I'm investigating or figuring something out. There is only ever one solution to every problem, and it therefore rewards patience and nothing else.

    However, as far as video-recorder-mechanics go, "Observer" has quite a few, just like it has some very pretty aesthetics and sound.

    Having played this after Cyberpunk I'd even go as far as saying that they understood way better what a dystopia looks like, and made it lot more inhospitable, messy and dark. Observer's cyberpunk is not stylish and cool, it's poverty is crushing and ugly, and it's technology has become a prison for it's citizens. It's claustrophic, hostile and outright depressing (and I recommend it for that) and has excellent voice-acting and sound design on top of that.

    It would however do much better as an actual film or animation that let's those qualities shine.

    The plot doesn't gain anything by being permanently on pause while you stumble through it's dark, glitching setpieces looking for the next scene to play. Dialogue choices, while seemingly plenty, don't really change anything, and there is no replayability. While the actual cinematic you are "playing" shames the likes of David Cage by being engaging, better paced and way better narrated, it's still that.
    So if you like this kind of "game" this is borderline a must-buy; even with some nitpicks about the controls it would be easily a 9.

    To me it still felt like watching a let's play where I had to do all the work, and I'd rather see the movie, so it's only a 6.    … Expand
  11. Matii888
    Sep 17, 2019
    7
    Basically Blade Runner: The Game! Well realized cyberpunk world with great atmosphere, story and mystery. The only thing I dislike about the game is the "dream" sequences... They feel really cheap to me and not on par with the regular gameplay.
  12. skamz
    Nov 13, 2020
    7
    I'm a big fan of Bloober games, having just finished the Layers of Fear series and then moving on to Observer. This game definitely feels like a "level up" compared to those. Graphics in this game are incredible and, in Bloober fashion, there's a big focus on cinematography and hyperrealism. Suffice to say, it's very gratifying eye candy, for the most part. The problem is that some of theI'm a big fan of Bloober games, having just finished the Layers of Fear series and then moving on to Observer. This game definitely feels like a "level up" compared to those. Graphics in this game are incredible and, in Bloober fashion, there's a big focus on cinematography and hyperrealism. Suffice to say, it's very gratifying eye candy, for the most part. The problem is that some of the mindhacking sequences are really difficult on the eyes, and frustrating. I don't really want to spend the time to solve a puzzle in a dimly lit room with flashing strobe lights, thanks. Also, while this is a "walking simulator", it's more difficult than the Layers of Fear series, and I had to look at the walkthrough instructions at multiple points in the game. The game has extremely dense visual effects (on the level of Control, without all the explosions), and it's a litle funny how at times I'm not sure if it's my playstation being slow, or my character needs a fix of his cyborg-juce to replenish his senses.

    That being said, the visuals in this game are really top-notch, and if you're into walking sims, I would definitely play this one.    … Expand
  13. ErayTellezi
    Nov 17, 2020
    7
    Bir apartmanda geçen, cyberpunk temalı, korku türünde dedektiflik oyunu. Birçok açıdan Blade Runner filmine benziyor. Hatta karakterimizi seslendiren kişi filmin efsanesi Rutger Hauer. Ana hikayesi fena değil, yan hikayeler güzel. İnsanların beynini hacklediğimizde oyun çok başarılı bir korku oyununa dönüşüyor. Buralardaki ses efektleri ve bilerek koyulan glitchlerle sağlanan birbirindenBir apartmanda geçen, cyberpunk temalı, korku türünde dedektiflik oyunu. Birçok açıdan Blade Runner filmine benziyor. Hatta karakterimizi seslendiren kişi filmin efsanesi Rutger Hauer. Ana hikayesi fena değil, yan hikayeler güzel. İnsanların beynini hacklediğimizde oyun çok başarılı bir korku oyununa dönüşüyor. Buralardaki ses efektleri ve bilerek koyulan glitchlerle sağlanan birbirinden farklı atmosfer epey etkili. Dedektiflik kısımları da fena değil.… Expand

Awards & Rankings

99
#99 Best PC Game of 2017
50
#50 Most Discussed PC Game of 2017
15
#15 Most Shared PC Game of 2017

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
78

Generally favorable reviews - based on 43 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 32 out of 43
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 43
  3. Negative: 1 out of 43
  1. RPG Fan
    Nov 12, 2018
    79
    A brilliantly unique experience later soddened with unusual game design decisions.
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  2. Adventure Gamers
    Nov 20, 2017
    80
    Bloober Team’s >observer_ marries cyberpunk and body horror tropes into an intense, disturbing sensory feast, for the most part successfully.
    Read full review
  3. CD-Action
    Oct 30, 2017
    80
    During 8 hours I spent with Observer I never felt that the developers’ creativity is waning. [10/2017, p.45]
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