Return of the Obra Dinn

I have been playing video games since 1989, and let me tell you, Return of the Obra Dinn is an experience that I will probably never forget. This is made by one very talented man, whose previous game was also fantastic. This is a puzzle/mystery game with a narrative that pretty much gripped me right from the start. Honestly, I am trying to figure out how I can do this game justice, as it is the kind of thing that you just have to experience in order to appreciate how great it is. I will say that I highly, highly recommend that you read as little about the story as possible before you play.

Setting Sail For Adventure

The setup for the story in Return of the Obra Dinn is great. The Obra Dinn is a fancy ship that is setting sail with a total of 60 people on board, including the captain, his crew, and a few notable other passengers. However, despite everything seeming ok when it left, the ship, once it left India, never made its first checkpoint, and it was deemed that the ship had become shipwrecked and that all of the people on board had perished due to whatever the heck incident had occurred.

Five Years Later

Five years later, in 1807, bizarrely, the ship washes ashore at a port in England! This is where the real mystery of Return of the Obra Dinn begins! We play the role of an insurance investigator, and we are tasked with finding out how the people on board died or where those who survived are located. The twist here is that we have a fancy watch called a Momento Mortem, and this watch allows us to visit a corpse or the remains of one and see how they died, thus allowing us to find out what really happened. Honestly, this story was fantastic from start to end, and I was super entertained, and I never saw the twist of what caused the chaos onboard coming at all!

The Truth Is Out There

The gameplay here is all done in the first person. Return of the Obra Dinn sees you on board the ship with your logbook and your Momento Mortem watch to try and find out who everyone is and how they met their demise. When you use the watch and are taken to the moment of death, time stops still, and you are able to move around the ship, find out where everyone is, and piece together, bit by bit, what really went down here. It is the kind of thing that is very, very hard to describe. However, it is one of the most engrossing experiences I have had in a game in a very long time. It is really a puzzle game as you need to gather the evidence and then try to come to a conclusion as to what happened. It is way more challenging than you may think.

1-Bit, But 100 Percent Engrossing!

The first thing that captures your attention with Return of the Obra Dinn is the visuals. The game is designed to look like those old computer games from back in the day, with their monochromatic style, and it is probably the best use of this visual style that I have ever seen in a game! It is staggering what they were able to do here, and I found myself exploring every nook and cranny, wanting to know everything that I possibly could! Then we have the sound design, the sound design in this game is phenomenal, and there were many times where I legit felt like I was onboard this ship as all hell was breaking loose.

Pros:

• The way the story grips you and never lets go is amazing
• I felt like I truly got to know these characters
• The visuals are amazing, the best of this style
• This is one of the best games of the last decade!

Cons:

• The physical versions need a second printing, as they are expensive now
• I am not sure a second playthrough could have that same wow factor