I got around to playing the previous horror project of the developer, Layers of Fear, about a year and a half late, so I guess it’s only fair the same happened with >observer_. I was somewhat curious about this one, however, since I’ve not seen many horror titles of any genre in cyberpunk setting before, and since the developers somehow managed to get Rutger Hauer voice the main character of the game. Did they manage to make an actually good game this time around, or is it still all about cool visuals?
To start replying this question, I must say that the gameplay is quite a bit more involved this time around. It is still an Amnesia/Penumbra and PT influenced story exploration game (or walking sim) for the most part, with few stupid stealth sections, but the game has more going on this time around. The exploration aspect is more developed, with optional sequences and, for all intents and purposes, “side quests”, for example. The events of the game take place in a rundown apartment building, with a lot of its areas open almost from the start of the game. So you can walk around, talk to different tenants and encounter some mini-stories tied to that.
Which is probably the absolute best thing the game has. Especially at the start, the game goes for all the classic key themes and topics of cyberpunk, and does it well. It’s paranoia inducing, it’s ugly, it’s occasionally hopeful, but ultimately hopeless. As you dive into the memories of dead and dying people to figure out the events and start to lose the hang on reality, the game throws you in some amazing looking and visually creative scenes, even more inventive and unexpected than those in Layers of Fear, and further exploring the main themes of the setting.
But the further you go, the more the game starts to lose its impact. Scenes seem to be more and more about being cool looking, without any regard to making them well paced or well put together. You encounter more and more locations that are confusing to navigate or figure out what the game even wants you to do because they were built for visual impact, not subtle player guidance. And the main plot, by the end of the game, completely loses any kind of nuance it originally had and becomes silly and boring. Not helped by more and more predictable “scary” moments and terrible stealth sections. Oh and the fact that the game’s performance is all over the place on PC doesn’t help either.
Ultimately, while >observer_ is a much more interesting game than Layers of Fear, it still feels like a project made by a team of visual designers with little knowledge on how to make games fun to play. Unlike the previous game, I would recommend checking this one out on a discount or in a bundle just because of some really nice great and bad examples of scene and level design in games, and because the cyberpunk Poland setting was pretty interesting. But otherwise, I just hope that this team will eventually figure out how to make good games, not just cool looking interactive visuals.
Oh and please be aware that if you get sick of too many post-effect screen effects, this might not be a nice experience for you. I loved Kane & Lynch 2 visuals, but this one is a bit too much.