Return of the Obra Dinn

One of the best games I played in 20 years. Yes, the 1 bit graphics are a bit of a letdown, but trust me, the gameplay, narrative and thought put into the game make it all worth it. Finished the game in 15 hours then watched a few videos on youtube on the story and further clues for a few more hours, just out of curiosity. It was that good! I haven't felt so excited in a long time. A bit of warning: it may take a few hours to get the hang of it before it becomes really interesting. I'd say after solving the first 6 fates you will be hooked. But don't give up before even if it feels overwhelming

This is a quite original detective game, as such I will avoid spoilers as much as possible. In the early 19th century, a lost ship comes back with all the crew being missing. You are sent to the ship to assess claims on each one of the 60 members of the tripulation. You are also given a key instrument in the form of a dead watch, which gives you the ability to replay very specific moments associated with bodies you find. The core gameplay is basically, you find a new body, you listen to a short dialogue of what was going on and then you are presented with a frozen moment of the person getting killed and its surroundings. From this, sometimes gruesome, shots, you have to identify everyone and specify how they died and by whom if applicable. There are 10 chapters, each one between 2 to 8 scenes. Most of the game is retold backwards, you actually start at the end of the story and bit by bit, see how all the chaos and violence folded down. In a rare case of indie low budget, the stills work much better than if there were actual animations. There's a ton of things going on, and by cutting on the animation you can actually see great expressions, details, etc. The game starts easy enough, with dialogues revealing names or occupations of the involved people, but soon enough it gets hard. You can deduce almost everyone with enough logic and deductions, but near the end there are a couple of crewmen who you just have to make half deductions, join them together, and hope for the best. Identities and fates are validated in sets of three so at least the game is lenient enough, and there's no consequences of wrong assumptions. Unfortunately there are many things that make the game imperfect. The first time you see a new scene, you are forced to stay in the scene for half a minute. You cannot really make any deductions yet, you are just watching the action. Most scenes will present you with the discovery of a new body, so you are forced to go to the next scene and these can be daisy chained a lot. In the end, nothing prevents you from unlocking every scene from the game, and then coming back at the end to fill in the gaps. It's a terrible pacing problem, after you watch all the content, the game will just be a guessing game with no new content for hours. There's a locked mid chapter that only gets unlocked if you 100% the rest of the game. This was a cool idea, but in the end it's just lackluster. The plot is full of typical tropes and even this new ending doesn't add anything fresh. The game has lots of tools and mechanics that are never explained, like how the watch shows the chapter and scene number when you hover it over a body, or that the X on the logs are used to identify the person who gets killed in that scene. Lastly, the visuals are unique and original, but sometimes it's hard to process or understand what's going on. Weird angles, deaths that look like a mess of pixels, there are times that you will have to guess what's going on. It's not a masterpiece nor an excellent game, it's quite a good and a fresh experience that could have been almost perfect if they fixed some of this things. It's still recommended, and for a similar great game of deductions, check Chants of Sennaar.

真的感觉不好玩，这个画风又晕又模糊，人脸都难看清，又很多人长得差不多。那个b粒子球明明能直接飞过去非得转一圈，好像是在说这个故事有多么传奇一样，但每次都是这种手法就非常的腻。每段第一次回溯都要听一大段bgm，好像不听作者就白花钱做这段歌了。整体剧情从故事性上也只能算二流三流，甚至可以说很俗，根本算不上神作，完全没达到我的期望。

[h2]Sinopsis[/h2] Return of the Obra Dinn, sin lugar a dudas una obra maestra el género detectivesco, un rompecabezas narrativo donde tendremos que investigar y desentrañar el trágico destino del buen navío Obra Dinn. En 1802, el mercante Obra Dinn zarpa de Londres rumbo a Oriente, con 60 personas a bordo y toneladas de mercancía. En 1803, tras no llegar a su escala en el Cabo de Buena Esperanza, es declarado desaparecido. La sorpresa llega cuando el barco aparece 4 años después en el puerto de Falmouth (Inglaterra), abandonado y sin supervivientes. Nosotros asumiremos el papel de un inspector de la Compañía Británica de las Indias Orientales, encargado de llevar a cabo una profunda investigación del suceso para tratar de esclarecer el destino de cada persona del barco y elaborar un informe oficial. [h2]Jugabilidad / Apartado técnico[/h2] La jugabilidad es uno de los pilares que le han granjeado la fama a este fantástico título, sumado a la originalidad y profundidad de su historia y a un apartado gráfico excelente que apuesta por el estilo punteado monocromático. Al inspeccionar el barco iremos encontrando cadáveres, restos y señales de una terrible tragedia. Nuestro trabajo consiste en reconstruir, escena a escena, todos los acontecimientos que tuvieron lugar en el barco, así como la identidad de cada persona, el motivo de su muerte y, cuando proceda, el responsable. Para llevar a cabo esta complicada tarea dispondremos de algunas herramientas. Por un lado, el libro de registro del barco nos dará acceso al listado de pasajeros (nombre, nacionalidad y profesión), así como algunas ilustraciones. En el libro se irán recreando todos los eventos importantes que ocurrieron en el Obra Dinn y será ahí donde tendremos que identificar correctamente a cada persona. Por otro lado, tendremos el “Memento Mortem”, un reloj de bolsillo sobrenatural que nos permite revivir de forma fidedigna el momento exacto de la muerte de una persona a través de su cadáver. Poco a poco, a base de escuchar breves diálogos, observar hasta el más mínimo detalle de cada escena, descartar personajes y hacer nuestras propias interpretaciones, iremos revelando el sino de cada persona. Cada vez que apuntemos correctamente el nombre y la muerte de 5 personajes, el juego los confirmará y bloqueará a esos personajes, acotando más y más el trabajo que tenemos entre manos hasta el final de la historia. [h2]Valoración[/h2] Lucas Pope ya se coronó con Papers, Please, pero con este juego se la ha terminado de sacar. Me encantan los juegos de investigación en 1ª persona y he de decir que nunca había probado uno con tanto amor por el detalle como Return of the Obra Dinn. La mayoría de títulos de este género nos obligan a seguir un guion estrictamente marcado y una serie de acontecimientos prestablecidos donde los desarrolladores nos llevan de la mano y a su ritmo. Pero este juego es diferente, aquí sentiremos un mayor control de la historia, podremos elegir la ruta que más nos convenga, prestar atención a cada detalle, hacer nuestras propias deducciones y conjeturas en base a los hechos que vayamos revelando. Todo esto sumado una excelente trama, ya que lo que parecía un simple accidente marítimo acaba convirtiéndose en una vorágine de motines, asesinatos, accidentes, traiciones y sucesos sobrenaturales dignos de una fantástica novela. Un juego tranquilo, de desarrollo lento y con unas mecánicas algo complicadas de entender en un principio, pero que una vez arranca te atrapa de principio a fin en su historia y sus personajes. Uno de los indies imprescindibles que hay que probar antes de irse al otro barrio. ✔️ [b]Positivo[/b]:[list] [*]Probablemente, uno de los juegos de investigación más complejos y entretenidos que podemos encontrarnos. Un juego que apuesta por la observación, la deducción y atención al detalle a un nivel extraordinario. [*]La trama va ganando interés a medida que progresa, presentando personajes y eventos sorprendentes que le dan un toque sobrenatural muy atractivo. [*]Apuesta por un diseño innovador y diferente que le dan mucha personalidad, apostando por un diseño punteado monocromático, cuya tonalidad podremos modificar desde el menú de opciones. [/list] ❌ [b]Negativo[/b]:[list] [*]El principio del juego puede sentirse algo lento y abrumador, dando la sensación de ser imposible de resolver. Paciencia, la idea es revelar todos los eventos primero y una vez tengamos todas las piezas podremos empezar a deshacer el entuerto. [*]Por lo general, es un juego que apuesta por un ritmo tranquilo, donde la lectura, la revisión de cada escena y las pausas para pensar son imprescindibles. Si no eres fan de los juegos lentos, es probable que no te agrade. [*]La identidad de algunos personajes puede resultar bastante complicada y frustrante de encontrar. De hecho, cada personaje muestra en el libro de notas un “nivel de dificultad” asociado. [/list] 📢 [b]Idioma[/b]: Interfaz y subtítulos en español. ⌛ [b]Duración[/b]: 8-10 horas juego base/ 12-14 horas para 100%. 🎮 [b]Steam Deck[/b]: Verificado, funciona perfectamente. Lo salvaría de las llamas! 👨‍🚒👍🔥 [h1]9’5/10[/h1] [quote]🚨 Si te ha gustado la reseña y quieres descubrir buenos juegos, sígueme en mi página de Mentor: [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45092978/] Indies ON FIRE [/url]🚨[/quote]

I just stayed up till 5am playing this all in one go. Genuinely one of the greatest games I've every played without any question about it. Such a unique story, style, gameplay, ost, and premise. This is a MUST play, I put this right next to playing Outer Wilds for the first time in the HIGHEST echelon of story games. 100/10 I will never forget this game, I would need a book to actually explain everything I loved about it. (edit for grammar and detail)

This is a brilliant game that has a fantastic artstyle and makes me horribly seasick, I will be playing as much of this game as possible in 10 minute incriments because even though it makes me horribly seasick its so good I will play it

非常好游戏，使我脑瓜转动。 不开玩笑了，建议玩的朋友们准备好i最开始4张图的打印件或者把它们放到iPad里，然后做一些预习。 我原来玩了两个半小时玩不下去了，准备iPad之后突飞猛进。 一些角色在照片变清晰之前其实就能推导出来，不用害怕。

Honestly, I think this is the most unique game I've ever played in my entire life, both aesthetically and in terms of gameplay. As someone who usually plays FPS games, I was genuinely surprised by the direction this game took. Everything unfolds at its own pace, and everything makes sense if you're willing to pay attention to even the smallest details. The story immediately sparks your curiosity about what really happened there. It may not be the most incredible story you'll ever experience, but it's still an excellent narrative with a clear beginning, middle, and end that keeps you engaged until the very last moment. I'm really glad I managed to avoid spoilers and resisted the temptation to look up who each character was. For anyone planning to play this game, my advice is simple: enjoy the journey, pay attention, and take in every detail. Even if it takes a long time to understand who everyone is and what's really going on, it's absolutely worth it in the end. This game is a 10/10.

Puzzle perfection. A tight mystery with a wonderfully exciting gameplay hook and gorgeous aesthetics. Completely unable to put it down, I unraveled the entire thing in one sitting with absolute focus. Every time I made a deduction and it landed a confirmation I clapped with delight. It's like doing a crossword puzzle but you're investigating a maritime disaster. Even disconnected from the way you piece it together the story is really fun, and I particularly love how many other mysteries are contained within it that go unanswered because they are simply beyond the scope of what you are here to do. Excellent voice performances all around add a ton of character as well, and I truly can't mention enough how gorgeous the entire game looks. Such a treat to experience. I am so glad I stopped putting it off.

👍