Boquafious' Music Thoughts

October 21st, 2022

Rating: 8.5/10

One of my friends has been talking about this game for literal years now. All I heard from him at times was: “have you heard of a little game called ‘Return of the Obra Dinn’?”. All I knew about it was that it was made by the same dude who made “Papers Please” (For Arstotzka).

I beat this game in one sitting, and took around 6 hours. Apparently I played it faster than average, but that did not retract from my enjoyment of the it.

“Return of the Obra Dinn” is a murder mystery strategy (BIG BRAIN THINKING TIME) game, and it is safe to say that it is the quintessential murder mystery game. Game devs need to learn this game, pick it apart. This is a masterclass in game design in the genre.

I don’t mean to dickride this game, but it is legit one of the most compelling and interesting games I have ever played. I used to think the Sherlock Holmes games and L.A. Noire were pinnacle mystery games but this game just blows it out of the water.

There were time where I had to pause the game to think, and there were sooooo many mental hoops that I had to jump through.

The gameplay was extremely fun, and at times it did become repetitive but overall I was not “bored by the game”. Legitimately, one of the only grievances I had with the game was the giant orb I had to follow to uncover dead bodies. Not because it was difficult to find the dead bodies (they’re outlined in white), but because the orbs took the most convoluted twists and turns around the ship.

One thing I was nervous about was how the hell was I going to be traversing a ship that small to figure out how a crew of 60 people perished. But you know what? The ship actually felt a lot bigger the more I explored it.

Some of the murders were solved by brute force or sheer luck, but there was a lot of thinking involved before I could even attempt to brute force anything. There are very, and i mean VERY, few hints, and the subtly of a few of them are really hard to pick up on first listen. Some of the hints revolve around the fucking accents that some people have (and do you know how close some accents sound??).

This game is incredible, and it is a masterclass in mystery game design. There are a few flaws, but it’s an enjoyable experience that I think everybody needs to play.