Released to critical acclaim last October, Papers, Please creator Lucas Pope’s Return of The Obra Dinn finally arrives on consoles with quite the fanfare. After finding a dedicated audience willing to get on board with a game that on paper, probably shouldn’t ever have been as popular as it was, Pope’s narrative-based detective story feels right at home in your hands.
With the majority of the console world still awaiting Papers, Please (bar the PS Vita), its follow up is perhaps the first time those with controllers instead of keyboards have experienced the wonderful work of Pope, and Return of the Obra Dinn is perhaps even more impressive than its forerunner. It’s bizarre, at times excruciatingly difficult and feverishly rewarding; beating the game felt like winning gold in an Olympic marathon.
There’s a reason why it was up for so many Game of the Year awards at the turn of 2019, though. It’s probably unlike anything you’ve ever played before and, as such, is somewhat difficult to get your head around to begin with. Like most games of its ilk though, when it begins to click you’re already sucked into the mystery and wanting to eagerly crack on to close this fascinating case.
Return of the Obra Dinn is set in the 1800s, and your shipping agent character is tasked with setting sail to the Obra Dinn, a ship stranded in the middle of the ocean whose crew have mysteriously disappeared. The ship contains enormous amounts of cargo, so naturally, the powers that be are very concerned as to what happened to the ship and those contained within. It’s up to you to figure out what became of these unfortunate souls, and what follows is perhaps the most captivating and original detective game you’ve ever played.
There’s very little hand-holding in Return Of The Obra Dinn, if any at all. There are moments in the game where you wish it would intervene and just slightly nudge you in the appropriate direction, but all it offers is a magical pocket watch, a variety of corpses strewn across the ship and a book to keep everything you discover in order. The latter is your most prized possession, as it becomes integral to your detective work. Inside its pages, it features a list of the crew and passengers, a layout of the ship and drawings that you can refer to at any time. The moment you come across a corpse, your bewitched watch will allow you to turn back time, giving you the chance to see how this poor soul died. Once you work out what happened, you’re able to jot down in your book the fate of each individual crew member and move on to the next, solving the macabre mystery of the Obra Dinn one death at a time.
Sounds simple, right? Not quite. As you come across the first corpse and its story, you’ll notice in the book that it’s been placed under the section labelled ‘The End’. Return Of The Obra Dinn starts the investigation at the very end of the tragedy, and working your way backwards will allow you to answer questions you had about the very first case. You’ll never immediately know everything, and using the pocket watch's powers to explore the exact moments the deaths take place will raise more questions than you’re unable to answer – until, that is, you’re able to identify those involved.
Pulling apart the mystery will involve paying more attention to a video game than you’ve done in quite a while, we'll wager. All of the answers are in front of you; you just have to find them and use them to piece the puzzle together, one corpse at a time. Exploring the flashbacks could answer a question you had an hour or two before. What was the name of the passenger who was captured by the Kraken? Which one is the brother of the Captain’s wife? Return Of The Obra Dinn persistently asks questions of you, like you’re walking through the pages of a novella that hasn’t been written yet. The persistent challenge is tying things back to past events, and this is what keeps you going; as the story unravels before you, you'll want to know everything. Patience is a virtue in Return Of The Obra Dinn, but it’s rewarded handsomely.
As the story unfolds, the horrendous fates of the crew members and passengers come to light, and the emotional attachment between those on board rises to the surface – and this is where the game truly shines. You’re learning the story backwards so making sense of it all can take time and emotional effort, as things get quite grim at points. Still, it feels like the suffering these people went through has the faintest aspect of light shining through, which makes their sacrifice all the more poignant. It’s a powerful, at times horribly vivid and always surprising.
Then there are the visuals which, as you’ve probably already noticed, set Return Of The Obra Dinn apart from its peers. Everything is presented in a faux-retro monochrome art style which can be altered to look like an IBM monitor or a Zenith ZVM, for example. These filters are purely available to give the game a little splash of colour should you want it, but they do serve a more obvious purpose – we found it was handly to scroll through the available options to see certain moments with a little more detail.
The art style is beautiful, suiting the setting of Return Of The Obra Dinn perfectly. It's as if the game is presented as an artist's impression of the fateful ship; scribbled drawings used to recall fading memories. There are plenty of moments where it can look a little crowded with only two colours on screen at any given time, but this is a minor complaint. The screenshots certainly don’t do it justice; when walking around a still frame of art to deduce its meaning – particularly during the Kraken attack – it takes your breath away.
Conclusion
Return of the Obra Dinn lives up to the hype, and then some. It’s a beautifully crafted and intricately constructed detective mystery unlike anything you’ve played before with a harrowing narrative at its centre. Unravelling its secrets takes time and requires patience, but you’ll be glad you allowed the story to play out at its own pace. What we have here is a thoroughly unique experience that will stay with you, and is among best this genre has ever had to offer.
Comments 29
10/10 then, good.
My favourite game of the last few years. Just a beautifully crafted real piece of art. Dunno how it runs on Switch but if it's anything like it is on PC, it's a solid 10/10 alongside The Witness as the best puzzle-adventure games in recent years.
Finished it yesterday. It's a fun game though it did cause me some headache at times. The good kind of headache from trying to solve the mystery and the bad kind from navigating the book and the ship.
Was going to get it on PC but waited for the inevitable Switch release! Great game, can we please have a port of Papers Please?
Love the dot drawing design of this, reminds me of a picture of the moon over some water I dotted in art class my senior year of high school
@DockEllisD 10 hours or so.
I really want to try it, but the visual style in the trailer made me ill for some reason...
Sounds legitimately cool, like you're ACTUALLY doing detective work (if of the supernatural variety) as opposed to being walked through a mystery by the narrative. Gameplay and narrative married to create one organic experience. It sounds lovely. And Papers, Please is one of the better and more unique indie games I've played over the years.
Super game; it took me about 8 hours, I'd estimate. Little to no incentive to return though, so I'd recommend waiting for a sale.
Not surprising, it does look really good. I haven't bought it yet but it's certainly on my list. Good to hear that it's not super long, means I can actually play it rather than just leaving it in the backlog forever.
@nessisonett I honestly wish I could just forget everything about this game and play it for the first time again.
@VoodooTrumpet So true. It was far and away my game of the year last year and one I think about and recommend to others a lot, but it has absolutely no replay value Hopefully I get amnesia soon and can enjoy this game again!
Sorry I read the review because I now know a damn kraken was involved. I know it’s hard to avoid spoilers in a review but it can be done. I’m not mad, just disappointed
If only physical....
@JRJalapeno
You learn about it very early, but yeah, this is the type of game where reviews should spoil as little as possible. Not knowing about it was definitely a WTF moment.
Thanks for plot spoilers... sheesh.
Detective work? Check.
Intriguing, brain-wrenching mystery? Check.
Supernatural elements? Check.
Same guy who worked on Papers, Please? Double check.
My wallet contributing money to this game? Check.
@JRJalapeno I picked this up last week. You learn about the kraken almost immediately after the game starts. This is no more a spoiler to the story than describing the setting would be. I promise, the intrigue is all still quite hidden!
@VoodooTrumpet Do you ever go to the cinema, buy some snacks and maybe have dinner after? Because that experience will surely set you back more than this game, as will many others we rarely question the value of.
I don't mean to have a go, and I know what it feels like to worry about money, but I find it disheartening to read here, and elsewhere, how little value some 'gamers' actually place on great games.
@Deanster101 On Nintendolife.com comments - ‘scores are high’
Also on Nintendolife.com comments - ‘scores are low’
People score reviews. People have opinions. It’s not a maths equation.
@rosskeniston how about the controls in the game, not too finicky (as it was developed with mouse/keyboard in my mind) ?
And the text, easy to read on this small screen ?
Thanks a lot !
@peekaboo Hi there peekaboo. The text is clear and simple to read in handheld, I found no issue throughout in that regard. The controls are also well mapped onto controllers. You're right it's designed for mouse and keyboard - evident in sequences where the book is in heavy use - but as with most ported games you soon get used to it, particularly as you're using the book constantly throughout. Soon enough it becomes second nature. Hope that helps!
@RossKeniston It sure sure does help, thanks a lot
I'm playing it right now and this is the most detective-y game I ever played. And actually, I think the game teaches you just right, striking the perfect balance between what you should be told and what you should figure out for yourself.
I'm really surprised no one has linked the monochrome art style back to the early Apple Macintosh computers of the mid to late 1980s. We had tons of games back then that looked a lot like this. How old is the average NintendoLife writer and reader, anyway?
I enjoyed 'What Remains of Edith Finch'. It was a story-experience. Now I'm looking forward to Obra Dinn.
Would it be a good idea to add SPOILER ALERT at the top of this review. Kind of put me off the game a bit finding out some stuff about the plot in this review.
Actually just noticed the review only suggests the kraken is a little event not the ultimate conclusion. And as other comments here say it is early on so hopefully it seems it’s not ruined it
The art direction and animation style on this look like a terrible monochrome 4 color Apple ][ basic programmed game. The pixelated style makes me want to pour J&J No Tears in my eyes because it is so horrid. It looks and feels worse than when I was playing disk jockey with 5.25" disks while waiting for the next part of my Zork adventure to load.
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