6 Best And Worst Things About Observation | Observation Review (PC)

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  • เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ม.ค. 2025

ความคิดเห็น • 81

  • @thegwolf
    @thegwolf 5 ปีที่แล้ว +50

    I've got what I expected and the interfaces and puzzles were neat, the story flew by and Kubric would be proud.
    It was entertaining for me because it've been exactly the thing I was looking for.
    SPOILER BELOW
    WE are the BORG.
    Or at least thats one way to interpret the ending. Having more than one voice in "our" head, being (wo)man and machine at the same time and "infecting" things with our touch to "bring them". I've had the feeling we've unleashed the Borg on Earth by surviving.
    I really wish we would've had a choice at some key moments, like deciding not to kill the captain, or play an active role with the sphere to land Emma safely and/or keep her at a safe approach speed and trajectory as shes doin' the unaided spacewalk jump of faith.
    I think the game would've benefited from having the ability to collect surviving crew members and "bring them" along to the final part of the story, even if only as observers.

    • @kroposman2302
      @kroposman2302 5 ปีที่แล้ว

      Precisely, an interdimensional assimilator. I mean we already have Daleks as interdimensional exterminator so, why not have interdimensional Borg too?

    • @jmckendry84
      @jmckendry84 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      Yeah, that you become a hive mind tasked with assimilating the whole Earth at the end was how I read the ending.
      One thing that I remember is that they picked up on the signal because they saw many stars/planets orbiting those stars, each sending out the same "signal". I wonder if this is meant to imply that those are other planets that have already been assimilated?

    • @rue49121
      @rue49121 3 ปีที่แล้ว

      It would've been cool if we had more control over life or death situations that emma was involved with and if we failed, we would be taken to another version of the observation with another version of emma.
      Like trial and error, but on a multidimensional scale.

  • @GaryMcKinnonUFO
    @GaryMcKinnonUFO 5 ปีที่แล้ว +77

    I'm getting tired of FPS's being dressed up and re-released with no imagination so this looks interesting at least.

    • @GaryMcKinnonUFO
      @GaryMcKinnonUFO 5 ปีที่แล้ว

      @N.Pepe.C :(

    • @daveeverett3169
      @daveeverett3169 5 ปีที่แล้ว +10

      @N.Pepe.C the mysterious nature adds a nice flavour. I think these kind of games are better to have their story discovered/speculated rather than spoonfed.
      but different people, different tastes.

    • @agostonbazmajer1100
      @agostonbazmajer1100 5 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@daveeverett3169 The ending of the game isn't about having a mysterious story that you can speculate, they flat out refuse to address most points. King himself said it that when you're writing a mystery, the initial idea is extremely easy, the challenging part is to give a satisfying conclusion. In this decade, the general idea seems to be that they don't even try to answer anything anymore, just think of a cool scenario, some eerie and strange events, a vague point to a complex topic here or there and bam, people can speculate as long as they want without the story having any sort of closure. If I want to create the end of the story, why would I play a game? I could think of the entire story myself, the reason why I watch or play stories that other people created is to see what they did with it. If I wanted to do it, I could just make up the whole thing without buying anything..

    • @Staminist-MMF-80
      @Staminist-MMF-80 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      I started this afternoon, some 20-30 minutes and I can't wait to continue!

    • @Mgaak
      @Mgaak 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @N.Pepe.C Just because it doesnt spook feed you its bad. Is having a creative thought such a strain for your mind ? :|

  • @ezeppelin1
    @ezeppelin1 5 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    Honestly i got stuck a couple of times in the game's unclear missions too, and some tiny bug in and there, but i really loved it. Terrific atmosphere, fascinating story, and a true interactive ambient where you have to use you're brain to make thinghs work.

  • @INA_Explorer
    @INA_Explorer 5 ปีที่แล้ว +17

    After ADR1FT, Alien: Isolation, Observer & SOMA comes Observation as one of my favourites in the same line.

    • @mohammedmiah1348
      @mohammedmiah1348 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      ADR1FT was amazing

    • @Cytronik
      @Cytronik 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      What do you mean with "in the same line"? Alien is a survival horror game, this is a psychological thriller.

  • @BladePocok
    @BladePocok 5 ปีที่แล้ว +24

    SPOILER
    The multiverse idea was a good aspect of the game imo.

    • @ayyitskat
      @ayyitskat 5 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      I thought that was really cool too and a unique direction for the game.

  • @nighthasfallen456
    @nighthasfallen456 5 ปีที่แล้ว +10

    Alien: Isolation's graphics and claustrophobic corridors meet Gravity's spacewalks, science and problem-solving layered with Space Odyssey's supernatural sci-fi vibe and several HAL 9000 moments...overall pretty decent.

  • @thatoneguyfaded
    @thatoneguyfaded 4 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Really enjoyed the game, but my God did the glitching animation that occured with every little hit drive me INSANE! Also, play Deliver Us The Moon if y'all haven't yet!

    • @bransturgery1543
      @bransturgery1543 4 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      I totally agree, it got frustrating bumping into something every 7 seconds and feeling like the sphere was about to fry out.

  • @thecastawaydc
    @thecastawaydc 5 ปีที่แล้ว +15

    I'm getting Five nights at Freddy's meets night trap vibes. But in a good way.
    Also it's very much how I approach most IT problems. Say I know what I'm doing, then fumble around clicking all the icons until the thing I want happens

    • @rockpapershot
      @rockpapershot  5 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      I'd have loved to play a more vindictive AI - having to scheme against the humans trying to take you offline.

  • @Zippish
    @Zippish 5 ปีที่แล้ว +13

    The Saturn reveal was fantastic so why, why WHY would you spoil it in the first 0.1 second of a review?

    • @rockpapershot
      @rockpapershot  5 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      I thought it was so taken out of context that it won't mean anything if you haven't played the game. Text passes quickly and we don't dwell on it. We are careful with this stuff, honest.

    • @Scraplaple
      @Scraplaple 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      It's in the trailer of the game as well. You could have seen it coming.

  • @jonbauer99
    @jonbauer99 5 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    Appreciate your pointing out the publisher NoCode. Just that glimpse of " Stories Untold" was enough to entice. Thanks!

    • @rockpapershot
      @rockpapershot  5 ปีที่แล้ว

      Stories Untold is so good! I don't think there's any one device in Observation that's as fun to fiddle with as Stories Untold's microfilm reader.

    • @jonbauer99
      @jonbauer99 5 ปีที่แล้ว

      Highest ranked compliment I've ever made on here. Low bar, I know. Thanks for the Love. Also, I've no idea how to navigate a text-based game? "Walk to backdoor isn't sufficient?" Sadistic f*ck.

  • @19laura76
    @19laura76 5 ปีที่แล้ว +9

    i LOVE this game ! space station wandering is great, story neat, core fiction only, but the end a bit ...too vague

  • @TheShoxter
    @TheShoxter 5 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    Here's my take on the ending
    SPOILERS BELOW
    I think that the raging storm on Saturn represents the great filter, and by successfully reaching it and thus interfacing directly with the hexagon, humanity has successfully evolved and passed the great filter. The evolution of humanity is thus represented as the combination of human and AI. That is the next step in humanity's evolution.
    Now who are the hexagons? I don't know, I guess another species that passed the great filter and is trying to push humanity beyond it as well.

  • @OzgardenTsuge
    @OzgardenTsuge 5 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    Very interesting point of view Matt. There are clearly mixed feelings about this experience but yours intrigued me quiet a bit.

  • @MrLennyShelby
    @MrLennyShelby 5 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    Thanks, Mathew, now I'm paranoid about my kitchen appliances!
    I loved Stories Untold and this game is definitely on my list.

    • @Mgaak
      @Mgaak 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      You should never play Pray then :D

  • @funkymonkey7022
    @funkymonkey7022 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Spoilers:
    I feel like the game would be ended better on entering Saturn, or on something like that. I loved the game, and the slight bits of weird felt right, even the multiverse, right until the Sam Change. I felt it could have been more vauge and more subtle and achieved a better affect. I also got stuck on things sometimes, I felt like the game could have been a little more clear. Other than that, I like this game a lot. It's a unique take that I enjoyed a lot.

  • @moeezS
    @moeezS 5 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    I loved FAR Lone Sails and Inside, so I'm down for this. Thanks!

  • @Catamariner
    @Catamariner 5 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Great fun, except for the final "separation" puzzles, which are ridiculous if you are trying to use WASD keyboard controls. You really need a joystick to end this game! 10 sec countdown with oblique selections required -- not WASD-friendly.

    • @bransturgery1543
      @bransturgery1543 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      I don't know if maybe it is my natural thumb motion, but even motion my joystick was a pain to stick right for those puzzles.

  • @tflameee7560
    @tflameee7560 5 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    I really enjoyed the game. The atmosphere it created I thought was good. A few things it could have done better obviously, but I overall enjoyed playing this game.
    My one complaint is that often I was over complicating things. I assumed there was information I had to gather or something I had to do, rather than Click a button (R on computer) and click somewhere on the screen. I often over complicated the process and lead to me taking a while to complete.

  • @CIIZARmusic
    @CIIZARmusic 5 ปีที่แล้ว

    I actually loved the ending, just because it was so vague... rarely a game has left me as intrigued to think and discuss about it after I have seen it (unfortunately I didn't play it, I've just finished a complete walk-through-video, but it was still great :D)...

  • @JoshuaKane.
    @JoshuaKane. 5 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    the ending seems very interesting though so vague no one really knows what it meant or what was happening the whole time , only assumptions! Hope we get closure with a sequel.

  • @RachEspinosa
    @RachEspinosa 5 ปีที่แล้ว

    I loved every bit of it, even the frustrating moments and the overall slow pace of the game.

  • @NecroMoz
    @NecroMoz 5 ปีที่แล้ว +13

    Well, I found the ending (and really, the entire thing) to be a whole lot of nothing. The final puzzles are the same as the first puzzles - the game gives you the answer and you simply tap it in via an irritating interface. There's an ending sequence which had some technical issues for me (unintended clipping through the environment for a lot of it which left the screen flickering and me seeing outside of the level) and concluded with some done-to-death sci-fi stuff that was even less surprising than I'd expected. The sparse dialogue hints that you went through some kind of arc but there wasn't one present while playing, in the storytelling or the mechanics.

    Ultimately it's the kind of thing I would probably have overvalued and oversold to people when I was younger, mistaking vagueness for intelligence and forgiving the numerous annoyances as an uncompromised vision. If the story or gameplay were compelling I could easily forgive the other, but neither really worked for me.

    If you're after beautiful retro-future interiors and a scary atmosphere, play Alien Isolation. If you're after a great puzzle game with some rumination on the nature of AI and the soul, play the Talos Principle (or the Turing Test, or The Swapper). If you want to pipe hot existential dread straight into your consciousness, play Soma. If you want 2001, just watch 2001. I can't recommend this above any of those, even for the £7 I paid in the EGS sale. I'd be a bit bummed out if I'd paid £20 for this. The 9/10s I'm seeing dotted around are totally mystifying, the metro review (which I hadn't seen until a moment ago, after writing all of the above!) has a more accurate take on it from my perspective:

    It’s upsetting to play a game that has clearly had so much effort expended on it; as you realise that all its obvious potential is slowly being drained away, like oxygen out of a leaky spaceship. The fact that you’re an AI rather than a human has almost no bearing on the story or your interactions, and the denouement is entirely underwhelming. It’s a rare video game that has both good storytelling and a good gameplay, but either on their own can still be perfectly compelling. Observation has neither.

    In Short: 2001 is hardly the most obvious movie to use as inspiration for a video game and perhaps predictably the end result suffers from slow-pacing and a lack of meaningful interaction.
    Pros: Fantastic visuals and a stunning, and impressively realistic, portrayal of space travel. Great music and atmosphere.
    Cons: Extremely dull and simplistic gameplay that goes out of its way to be as slow-paced as possible. Predictable and unsatisfying story that lacks originality and narrative depth.
    Score: 3/10

    The gameinformer review is especially weird, "I ripped through Observation in one six-hour sitting, propelled forward by the novel blend of challenging puzzles and gripping storytelling.". The game's three hours long even with a good bit of getting lost, the puzzles have zero challenge (the answer is literally printed on the screen next to where you input the answer half the time) and the storytelling is increasingly uninteresting as it progresses. Their suggestion that the replay value is "moderately high", and that "navigating the station is easy thanks to a snappy interface and simple controls" makes it sound like they played something else entirely. Ah well, I'm glad to see that some people are enjoying/buying stuff from a small UK developer at least. I picked up stories untold when it was free too, I'll give it a go.

    • @rockpapershot
      @rockpapershot  5 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Given a bit more time I think I probably sit between somewhere between you and the 9/10s (which I don't really get, either). I enjoyed my time in the game, but that's mostly due to the place. And having played through twice now, I also think it does a pretty great job of shifting gears, giving each section of the game some unique mechanic or tonal shift. I think I prefer Stories Untold (just about), because I liked the machinery you interact with, and the fact that it explores them in greater detail. But I think your list of other recommendations are spot on for the all the reasons you outline. Thanks for such a thorough comment!

    • @AdamFlook
      @AdamFlook 5 ปีที่แล้ว

      I agree with a lot of what you're saying. The 2001 inspired plot is far too generic and just not very interesting. I felt they missed a trick here in not making a straight space-survival game where you, as an AI, have to make tough decisions regarding multiple survivors - prioritising system repairs and making choices about who lives and dies with a branching story-line and multiple endings. They just didn't need to put any supernatural elements in there.
      The linear path the plot follows goes nowhere really and you have no choices to make in the game - controls and objects can only be interacted with when they become relevant and then never again after - the puzzles were not so much puzzles as just a bit of trail and error to see what the interface wants you to do or memorising 3-4 distinct patterns (a complete waste of time since its so easy). A lot of the information you gather is quite useless as well, you never need to use half of the patterns you find for locking or unlocking doors and when you do use them, its just a case of repeating the same pattern on multiple interfaces. I understand why they added logs and notes written by the crew to give some backstory but by never (or barely) coming in to contact with most of them I didn't really care about their relationships.
      As the reviewer mentioned doing, I wasted a lot of time trying to figure out why I couldn't access a system before realising I had to communicate something to Emma first. The controls are pretty sluggish and I get that its deliberate to show the limitations of the in-universe tech but it just makes it a pain to move around as a sphere. I also found the end of the game difficult to navigate and got lost on several occasions - trying to find vents in the dark with no flashlight is not fun.
      In terms of atmosphere, I felt they did a good job in making it claustrophobic and disorientating but its hard to create a brooding or creepy atmosphere when you are playing the role of a computer because you never feel under threat from anything or anyone. It just doesn't compare to something like Alien: Isolation, where you are vulnerable and almost always on-edge. I know its not a horror game but they do bring in some of those horror elements, so I would just question why they bothered.
      The graphics, setting and voice-acting were all good but everything else was a bit underdeveloped.
      5 out of 10.

  • @xanthiara
    @xanthiara 5 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    I did enjoy this game a great deal. The ending was... Well... Unsatisfying to say the least.
    The only think I can really be upset about is the replayability. There is no reason to play it again once you have finished, and that can be a disappointment.

  • @beartackle
    @beartackle 3 ปีที่แล้ว

    OMG! That part at 10:32 made me so angry. I won't spoil it, but when I found out what to do, I'm like... You had to do that?

  • @darkshadows6328
    @darkshadows6328 4 ปีที่แล้ว

    I’m thinking of buying this game are the puzzles easy or hard

  • @bransturgery1543
    @bransturgery1543 4 ปีที่แล้ว

    This game was great but MY GOD was the sphere control motion-sickness inducing.

  • @jaejunsa
    @jaejunsa 5 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Just refunded the game after running into game-breaking bugs. For one, I was able to use an inside control panel while I was outside and ended up glitching through the wall of a part of the station I was definitely not supposed to be in yet and couldn't get back out. I also don't understand why they didn't add volume settings in their game, not to mention the beginning issues with the language settings or the lack of them to be exact. Could've been good but unfortunately, it just isn't, at least for me.

    • @nickitori
      @nickitori 5 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      It's a shame you weren't able to play it properly. The plot is pretty good. You should watch a playthrough if you're still interested. I watched jacksepticeye's, though he frequently took too long to figure out the way forward.

    • @jaejunsa
      @jaejunsa 5 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@nickitori Yeah, it does suck cause I was actually looking forward to playing it. That's probably what I'm going to do at some point. Just waiting to see if the guy I usually watch will pick it up or not.

  • @mattwilliams6500
    @mattwilliams6500 5 ปีที่แล้ว +11

    The story is great but oh boy is this not fun to play. May just look up the ending so I don't have to deal with this gameplay

  • @Scraplaple
    @Scraplaple 4 ปีที่แล้ว

    I really liked the game, and I liked the sci-fi/fantasy elements as well, but with the concepts they teased I was prepared to be disappointed by the story. I really enjoy sci-fi mysteries like in Observation, so overall the ending didn't fall as flat as I'd thought it would. Worth playing

  • @BS-zc4zo
    @BS-zc4zo 5 ปีที่แล้ว

    Overall, I was very happy with the game. I found the story line immersive, despite the simplistic tasks needed to progress the story line. I would have like to seen more complex puzzles. The details of the station are superb and the UI for the puzzles very well thought out. For the cost I'd give it a solid 7/10 and hope to see more from this dev.
    SPOILERS:
    It was fun to use my imagination to translate the symbols from the hexagon puzzles. At the end I almost expected there to be an "Adam & Eve" type scenario as some of the documents found on the station pointed to earth nearing crisis, and this event was a "reset". Or was it an Adam & Eve ending after all?
    I would have liked to have seen a few different endings based on decisions made around morality and when you're in front of the Hexagon on Saturn you'd be judged and get a suitable ending.

  • @Daimo83
    @Daimo83 4 ปีที่แล้ว

    Why can't graphics be sharp anymore? Bloom, blur, chromatic aberration and CRT effect make this look so muddy.

    • @rockpapershot
      @rockpapershot  4 ปีที่แล้ว

      It's the concept of the game, in this case.

    • @bondedblade9611
      @bondedblade9611 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@rockpapershot It's surprising that you're still responding to messages a year after this video had released.

    • @rockpapershot
      @rockpapershot  4 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@bondedblade9611 If people engage with theh videos, we engage with them. It's polite!

  • @liofalba
    @liofalba 5 ปีที่แล้ว

    It’s a shame this wasn’t coop, I loved the video you made on that game with an annoying raven and a watch

  • @maroonroon
    @maroonroon 5 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Yea, too many times i had to reset my game that i thought i have encountered a game breaking bug, but turns out i just missed a step because the objectives being too unclear. And i agree. This game is UI porn..

  • @jacktan1468
    @jacktan1468 5 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Nice vid

  • @Adam_Ch739
    @Adam_Ch739 5 ปีที่แล้ว

    never played a refreshing game like this in years , it has alien isolation vibe too , the only negative thing is that the game sometimes treats u like ur actually an astronaut like how tf am i suppose to know that smh

  • @chrisunderwater4490
    @chrisunderwater4490 5 ปีที่แล้ว

    I Loved Stories Untold and observer do a great work with tyr stoy telling elements🙌

  • @jackfhlash
    @jackfhlash 5 ปีที่แล้ว

    I'll watch a walkthrough video by others for future games by this developer, as while I enjoyed the art, the gameplay interaction - the variety of mundane mini-puzzles and memorization hidden behind clever interfaces - I found tedious and an unwelcome interruption to the story. I can see where others might find the puzzle bits more engaging/immersive to the story, but my experience was just suffering through them to move the story along. A similar review for Stories Untold, except the ending for that one felt like more of an annoying PSA. The ending for this one was appropriately vague for the themes covered.

  • @IntegralBif
    @IntegralBif 5 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Um....spoilers?

    • @rockpapershot
      @rockpapershot  5 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      Not really - most of this taken from first hour of the game, and a lot of the footage isn't actually showing the stuff I'm talking about. I was careful with this one, honest.

    • @floxersadd4952
      @floxersadd4952 5 ปีที่แล้ว

      Also if you watch stuff like this I would assume spoilers

  • @anthonyrichardson8970
    @anthonyrichardson8970 4 ปีที่แล้ว

    i liked the gameplay but i honestly thought the story was really bad. so much shit was introduced but not explained

  • @robertsides3626
    @robertsides3626 5 ปีที่แล้ว

    Spoiler
    It was all a simulation. Wait... Wrong game.

  • @Hiznogood
    @Hiznogood 5 ปีที่แล้ว

    This is another automatic pass due to being a Epic exclusive. Might get it on a Steam sale in the future, if I remember it’s existence, so not that likely.

  • @Dragonnox
    @Dragonnox 5 ปีที่แล้ว

    It should also be said that if you want to play it on PC, it's only on the Epic Games store, which I have been hesitant to start using, especially as some developers have been a little unhappy with them lately. At the same time, there's currently 10 euros off any purchase on their store atm, and (thanks to this video) I really want to play this game, so I just took the plunge and picked it up for about 9 euros.

    • @rockpapershot
      @rockpapershot  5 ปีที่แล้ว

      Oh, it's a bargain for nine Euros. Yeah, forgot to mention the Epic thing. To be honest it's quite easy to forget when you're launching from desktop and have automatic login on Epic launcher. I never see the latter.

  • @atlas8827
    @atlas8827 5 ปีที่แล้ว

    This game is a bit too hard for me tbh

  • @pliskinn0089
    @pliskinn0089 5 ปีที่แล้ว

    Almost a verbatim ripp off of Space odissey. Lame.

  • @idum01
    @idum01 5 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    One of the worst games I ever came across. Game design and gameplay is awful. Today's game developer don't know how to make good games.

    • @rockpapershot
      @rockpapershot  5 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      If this is the worst you've come across then count yourself very lucky indeed.

    • @idum01
      @idum01 5 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@rockpapershot I said one of the worst games ;-)

  • @jacktan1468
    @jacktan1468 5 ปีที่แล้ว

    Second :)