Return of the Obra Dinn

[bertram_tung]

i bought this game and binged the whole thing last night. it was fucking awesome. there should be more discussion about it here at the Kodecks

 

[Wunderbar]

It's just an adventure game that you can beat in one night. It's really great, but there's nothing to discuss.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

It’s also much better if you go in blind. That moment when you first see what’s going on when the Captain’s wife dies is fucking awesome when you don’t know it’s coming.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Interesting. On my first playthrough of the game the protagonist was a man. As I recently got my friend playing this game, I re-installed it... and this time the protagonist is a woman.

I think the game randomly determines this each time a new game is started.

Addendum: Apparently there's also a third options for an 'it'.

 

[Jenkem]

I finally played this. The only thing bad about this is that it ends.

 

[Tigranes]

Finally played it. Really atmospheric, simple and sweet, tight design, worth a play for everybody - zero replayability though but that's OK.

Definitely felt like there were logical ways to figure out every single person. I'm usually not a fan of this kind of story but I wasn't even worrying about the 'truth' behind the macguffins, just focusing on the process of how playing detective on the death images tells you so much about the characters and their interactions with each other.

 

[Nutria]

For me, identifying the individual Chinese & Russians was extremely difficult and I cheated on a couple of them. But on the other hand, I think he was trying to bring back the best of the old adventure game days where if there was a difficult puzzle that you would sleep overnight and dream about it and talk to your whole family and hope to solve it together. He's much closer to achieving the experience that the old Sierra games were supposed to than what Sierra ever did.

 

[bertram_tung]

It’s also much better if you go in blind. That moment when you first see what’s going on when the Captain’s wife dies is fucking awesome when you don’t know it’s coming.

that's true, but i think if people knew this was a very

Spoiler

Lovecraft

heavy story they would take a look at it. in fact i would argue it's probably the best

Spoiler

Lovecraft

inspired game in a long time, and people don't even realize it

 

[Tigranes]

For me, identifying the individual Chinese & Russians was extremely difficult and I cheated on a couple of them. But on the other hand, I think he was trying to bring back the best of the old adventure game days where if there was a difficult puzzle that you would sleep overnight and dream about it and talk to your whole family and hope to solve it together. He's much closer to achieving the experience that the old Sierra games were supposed to than what Sierra ever did.

In my case they were easier than the English because they are such a clearly defined group, identifiable by name, language, accent, visuals - and they often acted together, and sometimes to a very distinct motive in unfolding events. For me it was significant to be able to

Spoiler

see the Russians playing cards and the Chinese gathered around each other in an 'early' (chronological) scene, where you can also use the # IDs on bunks to narrow things down

.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

As I mentioned in an earlier post, a friend of mine is currently playing Return of the Obra Dinn. He's had to pause his playthrough because of eye problems, to the point he's due for eye surgery at the end of the month. Yes, it's that bad.

But up until that point, I'll say this: His background is ideal for this game. He was at sea for close to 30 years and has been meddling with computers alongside that time. He's also had to suffer personal tragedies that I will not go into, except to say that he's Seen Things and Been There, Done That. I gifted him this game as an early birthday present (his birthday is in late November, and he's in his early 60s) and he loves every minute of this game. I wish I could be there with him, but he's living abroad and somewhat left to his own devices... but as I said, he's loving this. This challenges his noodle, in a good way. I'll post an update once he has the capabilites to finish this game.

 

[Nutria]

In my case they were easier than the English because they are such a clearly defined group, identifiable by name, language, accent, visuals - and they often acted together

I knew right away what nationality they were, but it was really hard for me to figure out which name matched which guy. I think the fact that they spent so much time together made it hard for me to pick out the differences between them.

I gifted him this game as an early birthday present (his birthday is in late November, and he's in his early 60s) and he loves every minute of this game.

Now that you mention it, I think my dad might get a kick out of this. Maybe I'll finally have an idea for at least one gift this Christmas.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Now that you mention it, I think my dad might get a kick out of this. Maybe I'll finally have an idea for at least one gift this Christmas.

One of the biggest reasons I gave him this game is because there is no need for reflexes, it can be played at one's pace and leisure. My friend is simply too old to play any game that revolves around reflexes.

BTW I forgot to mention one thing he said which made me laugh: "This game is amazing, hasn't anyone taken this formula and remade it into something cool and modern?" I had to ask him how old he thought the game was, and he said it was "about 30-35 years ago, from the Apple Macintosh."

I told him we'd talk more about it after he's finished it...

EDIT: Missing word

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Now that you mention it, I think my dad might get a kick out of this. Maybe I'll finally have an idea for at least one gift this Christmas.

One of the biggest reasons I gave him this game is because there is no need for reflexes, it can be played at one's pace and leisure. My friend is simply too old to play any game that revolves around reflexes.

BTW I forgot to mention one thing he said which made me laugh: "This game is amazing, hasn't anyone taken this formula and remade it into something cool and modern?" I had to ask him how old he thought the game was, and he said it was "about 30-35 years ago, from the Apple Macintosh."

I told him we'd talk more about it after he's finished it...

EDIT: Missing word

I'm tempted to have the family sit around and play this like we did LA noire. Is there a lot of text in this?

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Is there a lot of text in this?

Actually not. There is a written journal which keeps track of everything, and solving the deaths of the crew involves using text prompts (selected from a menu), but otherwise it's mostly observation of the environment with some (transcribed) audio thrown in.

 

[Nutria]

It would be a great game to play as a family. You walk around these 3D snapshots of a moment in time and try to figure out what's going on. Having one person at the controls and a few more calling out suggestions for where to go and what to look at would be great. I was limited to my own imagination and got frustrated at times, but I think having more people participate would have made it an even better experience.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

It would be a great game to play as a family. You walk around these 3D snapshots of a moment in time and try to figure out what's going on. Having one person at the controls and a few more calling out suggestions for where to go and what to look at would be great. I was limited to my own imagination and got frustrated at times, but I think having more people participate would have made it an even better experience.

Yeah, my only concern is that my parents might have trouble getting used to the visual style, in terms of being able to distinguish objects and such.
The LA noire was a partial success, I had to shelf the thing in the vice department cases though.

 

[Alphons]

Both me and my dad loved the Obra Dinn (I still don't know how he got the remaining 3 Chinese).

Anyway, I recently picked up Unheard- pretty cool game slightly inspired by Obra Dinn (but still adds enough on it's own).

https://youtu.be/fsaC6lsVhF8

Did a couple of cases and they don't seem to be connected. Game is also pretty cheap right now. It also appears to be supported with free DLC.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/942970/Unheard/

Hopefully it means more games like Obra Dinn.

 

[Jenkem]

Yeah I bought Unheard a month or so ago because I had a coupon on Steam... Still haven't played it yet, there's also FREE DLC if you are interested.. (There's 2 iirc, but the 2nd one isnt translated yet and only in Chinese)

 

[HoboForEternity]

It’s also much better if you go in blind. That moment when you first see what’s going on when the Captain’s wife dies is fucking awesome when you don’t know it’s coming.

"it's better if you go blind"

proceeds spoiling the game ( i havent played it yet) without spoiler tag.

asshole

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

That’s not a spoiler. It’s the first 5 minutes of the game where the premise of the game is “What happened on this ship that caused everyone to die?”

 

[HoboForEternity]

That’s not a spoiler. It’s the first 5 minutes of the game where the premise of the game is “What happened on this ship that caused everyone to die?”

Ok then i thought that was a spoiler lol. My bad

 

[ERYFKRAD]

That’s not a spoiler. It’s the first 5 minutes of the game where the premise of the game is “What happened on this ship that caused everyone to die?”

Ok then i thought that was a spoiler lol. My bad

See, if he told you they died to mermaids, that would be the spoiler.

 

[Nutria]

Mermaids! God, that would have been such a weird direction for him to have taken the story in.

 

[Tramboi]

Lol, why not king crabs ?

 

[Rivmusique]

Doing the thing where we say we really enjoyed the game, but don't want to say much more because it's all mystery and knowing anything fucks it for a potential new player, here I go:

Played and it really liked it. Only tiny issue I had was the cheery music for the "Well done!" bits, real atmosphere killer for some great moments.