Obsidian

I was happily surprised at how well this classic but now pretty outdated game has been ported to Win 10, no tinkering required to run whatsoever. Wish all revived pre-millenium titles could start this painlessly! It's just as entertaining and absorbing as I remember, having played it at its initial release, though you definitely do have to get your head into the right Retro space and be open to the limitations of the time to appreciate how amazing this game truly is. This may be challenging to younger gamers who don't have any experience playing adventure games from this era, but I totally recommend giving it a try anyway. It starts a bit slow, there's a bunch of exposition at the beginning (in the form of a laptop you find in your tent and a number of text and video files to watch on it) that may feel tempting to skip, but it delivers quite a bit of plot and context that makes everything that happens next make more sense. The interface, especially early on, can feel a bit arbitrary and clunky, but that's to be expected in a game from this era - you get used to it quickly. Obsidian broke a lot of ground at the time of its release, and the story and gameplay are well worth any time spent learning the interface. It's instructive to play it now and see how far things have come since then - I can imagine a full remake of this game with fully rendered environments and modern controls could be really incredible! Maybe soon we'll see other forgotten titles from the time be resurrected to live again, such as '9: The Last Resort' and 'The Dark Eye'.

One of the best Myst clones, in my opinion. The various "realms" you explore are pretty imaginative, and the puzzles are usually just the right level of challenge. You'll often feel pretty smart for figuring something out all by yourself if you stick to it, and there are only a few puzzles that I think are obscure or complicated enough to require looking up a hint or solution for. There's also a bit of humor sprinkled here and there without going overboard. Top it all off with a story that surprisingly feels like it actually had a lot of thought put into it, and you have a game that almost any fan of Myst-likes should enjoy.

Obsidian is clearly a Myst clone. There is even a reference early in the game made to Myst. But what sets Obsidian apart from Myst is its weirdness. Obsidian is engulfed in weirdness. For example, at one moment you are standing in front of a computer making a selection in a menu. Then after selecting a menu number the computer opens up and you go down into a corridor after which you suddenly stand in a meadow where you can grab the clouds that are floating in the sky. Or another example is when you stand next to a sandcastle that is tiny. Then you click on the entrance of the sandcastle and you suddenly become smaller and you enter the sandcastle. Or a third example is when you are confronted with a giant mechanical spider that has a burning furnace where its mouth is. You get eaten by the mechanical spider and instead of dying in the burning furnace you enter a whole different world. Everything about the surroundings in this game is weird. Somewhere between all this weirdness is a story, but I did not quite get it. I think it is this weirdness why this game was not as successful and well-known as Myst. It is understandable that this oddness does not appeal to such a wide audience. But the most important part of this puzzle game are the puzzles. And on this part the game delivers. The game has got good decent puzzles which are all logical and fun to solve. You will often find yourself feeling clever for solving a puzzle and not once you will encounter a puzzle that is illogical or unfair. I read in another review that the game runs smoothly on a modern operating system so I was expecting no technical problems. Well, I wasn’t so lucky. The game crashed or froze multiple times. I had to use many manual saves to prevent losing progress. Graphically the game does not look good today. But the game is from 1997. It was a good looking game at that time with state of the art graphics. This was for me the first time playing Obsidian, I never played the game in its early years. I was not bothered by the dated graphics, I was well entertained playing this game.

This is the best game CYAN WORLDS never made. It is dismissive to think of it as simply a MYST clone. They were inspired by MYST and wear it proudly. There is a fun reference in game! But this game is so much more. The puzzles and environments all work together for the characters and themes. A lot of heart and thought went into this game! I LOVE CYAN's games, this is not a competition this is a wonderful addition to Adventure Games that would not exist but for CYAN. But I have to admit that this may be my favorite. I highly recommend tracking down the strategy guide because it is far more than a guide it includes art of things that are hard to see in game (the Church of the Machine angels ie.) and philosophy behind the game as well as pretty much a developer's diary that gives real insight. It isn't perfect. But it all works! I really wish this had been supported better because a remaster would be great. I can't help wondering what this would look like in VR! And I really wish we had the missing realm (Incubator) and puzzle(s) as well as at least 1 sequel. I don't usually mention other games in my reviews but please support this game and companies that work really hard to create remaster remakes like CYAN's RIVEN remake. Also I invite you to take the journey of the Let's Play by Orylen on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1hGniugl-KLaWI5oKdvUCDjP-cmpGXeY

I haven't gotten far into the game yet, but less than an hour in I entered a small room with a book, opened the book, and watched as a little live-action mariachi guy walked out from behind the book and proceeded to play his guitar for me as I flipped through the pages of the book. This alone was worth the price of entry.

I came across this re-issue by accident...thank you for giving me the opportunity to replay one of my favorite games from the 90s! Although obviously dated, it still holds its own today. This game is like being immersed in a Magritte painting. Some of the puzzles are quite difficult and not intuitive, but that adds to the dream-like atmosphere (and there are still walkthroughs available online for when you become stuck). I highly recommend this game to anyone who is a fan of surrealistic concepts.

I first played this game as a small child in 1997, and it left such an indelible mark on my imagination & sense of aesthetics. Being able to return and revisit the hallucinatory machine fever-dreams of its realms is really special. To this day I still haven't seen anything like it. It's truly a masterpiece of the 90's point n' click era.

Total abgefahren und komplett nervtötend. Ich liebe es :)

[h1] 夢を再現するレトロフューチャー、今一度 [/h1] 1996年発売されたPCレトロゲーム。お懐かしや。 Windows／Macintoshいずれでも発売されていたゲームで、当時から60以上年先を想像して作られたパズルありのADV。 難易度はそこそこ。目的やパズルの構造はシンプルなものの、やや解決が難しいといったところ。 レトロパズルゲームが好きな方々、当時楽しんでいてまたこの世界に足を付きたいと思った方々へお勧めです。 [h2]注意[/h2] ゲームプレイほとんどにおいて手持ちアイテムはどうでもいいんですが、色のカードをもらったら枚数をちゃんと確認しましょう。 4:3ゲームを16:9にしているので、アイテム欄が見えないようになっているので枚数管理を手元でやらないといけなくなっています。 ●初見やレトロゲーム初心者方々向けのレビュー [h3] このゲームは1996年の作品そっくりそのまま [/h3] 近日VRサポートでリメイクされている[b] 前の [/b][url=store.steampowered.com/app/63660/Myst_Masterpiece_Edition/] MYST [/url]が93年、続編[url=store.steampowered.com/app/63610/Riven_1997/] RIVEN [/url]が97年作。 モニターなどは半分とか1/4ぐらいの解像度(1024x768以下)の時代の作品です。 mp4/h265とかみたいに圧縮する技術も、データを展開しつつ再生するとかいうGPUパワーもないので、色を落としたり、ブロックノイズになってしまうがデータを削ったりなど必死に努力してCD5枚にまで圧縮していたんです。 今からすればCGにリアルが混ざっていたりどこかボケている映像、シンプルでエフェクトもほとんどないBGM、深みがないちょっとざらざらとした音声…と思うかもしれませんが、そういった時代であったということを踏まえていただければ。 [h3] Save と Restore を忘れずに！ [/h3] Save asとなっているが要はセーブ。自動セーブ機能はあるにはあるけど随所でセーブをしておきましょう。 散歩したいときに行こうと思っても戻れなくなってたりとかします、随所でね。 ゲームを始めたらどんなに進めていても、森の中の荒野に投げ出されるでしょう。 データが消えたと思う前に メニュー > Restore(=ロード) を選んで、記憶も一緒に呼び起こしてください。 久しぶりに開いたりすると、あなたの脳からデータが吹っ飛んで何をすればいいかもわからなくなったりするからこれだけは注意。 [h3] レトロADVの楽しみ方をお忘れなく [/h3] 操作は以下の通り。 [list] [*][マウス操作]9割9分。いじれるところはカーソルが変わる。 [*]クリックアンドドラッグできるときは、あちこちに離してみましょう。 [*][ESCキー]メニュー [*][スペースキー]動画省略(移動ムービーとかだけ) [/list] 「ちょっと遊んではやめる」が合いません。 1プレイ１時間もしくそれ以上遊ぶつもりで時間を取っておいてください。 ゲーム中では「重要な人物の」お話をちゃんと聞いていないと、目的を見失うこともあります。 お話を聞く相手がいなかったりとかしても、とりあえずクリックして反応のあるところを探してみるつもりで歩いてみてはいかがでしょうか。 大丈夫です、「パズルに失敗したからいろいろやり直す…」なんてことはありません。 いじって失敗してみましょう。失敗したらまた試行。トライアルアンドエラーの後の達成が楽しいゲームです。 もし森と岩山の間をうろうろすることしかできないと文句を言いたくなった時は、[spoiler] テントにある端末から見れるメールやジャーナルなどは、全部目を通してからテントを離れてみてください [/spoiler]。 ●当時プレイヤーへ [h3] 日本語の音声・テキスト そ の ま ま です [/h3] 当時発売されていたテキストそっくりそのまま。 「は～い、みんな元気～？」 などなど、映像もそのままです。（暴言などを含む全てかどうかは分かりませんが…） [spoiler] 風船ガムいっぱいあげよう。 「また風船ガムくれるの？ありがっと～」 [/spoiler] 翻訳が雑いとかフォントが中国語文字が混ざっていたり字幕くっついてるだけ…なんてことを想像していましたが、日本で発売されたCD5枚組の内容のまま。 フォントもそのままのカックカクな文字のまま。角が丸められているとかそういうこともありませんでした。 [h3] 解像度が上がったため、色々と見えるようになった [/h3] テントの端末から見れるスケッチの文字やアンケート用紙の英文など、潰れて読みづらかったんですがある程度見やすくなっています。 （初プレイは英語も文字もわからない子供だったんですが） [h2] MIDIです、MIDIなんですよ [/h2] ソフトウェアMIDIでもちゃんと切り替えて再生してくれます。 ちょっと贅沢ですが、MIDI音源をアタッチして違う音源ではどう聞こえるのか、とか楽しむのもありじゃないでしょうか。 8bit音源をアタッチして楽しむとかビアノ音源のアタッチとかして楽しんでいます。 "Obsidian™ is a dream come true. Make sure it dosn't become a nightmare." [spoiler] ぐちゃぐちゃな用紙を渡した時の（くしゃくしゃくしゃ…ぽいっ）のモーションが大好きです。 [/spoiler]

its amazing, i do wish for a fan game or a remake or A.M.B.E.R. the ghost game to come up.