Release Date: 24/08/2016
Played On: Win
Available On: Mac / PS4 / Win
Time Played: 5h 45m
Progress: Completed
Developer: Cyan Worlds
Publisher: Cyan Worlds
It's been a long time since I've been as obsessed with a game as I was with the original Myst series. I played the games multiples times to get all the endings, I even ended up reading the novels based in the games' world. Not only was it a compelling science-fiction concept, but Myst was a game unlike any I'd ever seen before, which fascinated me to no end.
NB: in the interest of avoiding spoilers, the screenshots I’ve included in this post only show scenes from the first part of the game. It’s note-worthy because I talk a lot about the game as a whole, which means a lot of the screenshots will not be representative of the content.
If you're unaware, the original Myst was a point-and-click puzzle/exploration game. The player navigated through a 3D rendered world by clicking on the screen and moving through a series of static images. Everything was pre-rendered because computers at the time were not up to running such an in-depth 3D environment real-time. Hence, while the interface and controls were a little rudimentary, the game was graphically stunning in every way.
Add to that an intriguing story about a father and his two sons, each of which have been banished and are found pleading for your help to escape. Quickly we learned of different worlds created by this strange family, all connected with linking books.
What followed was essentially a series of three dimensional puzzles to solve in order to reclaim the lost pages of the two son's books. This took the player on a fantastical journey of incredible worlds and creative structures. Progression was difficult, as many solutions were to be found in across worlds and required taking notes and a lot of reading.
Eventually we were treated to Myst's sequel Riven, which was an even more challenging take on the original concept. This was a larger world with more puzzles and contraptions to interact with. Not to mention an entire to race to learn more about (unless you'd read the books that is).
While more sequels were made, these two games stood as pinnacles in my personal gaming history. I remember spending hours on certain puzzles and the surprise and elation that came with their solutions. These games really nailed the balance between difficulty and complexity. Everything was detailed enough to make you think, but I never found myself stuck for very long.
Later on we were treated to a new version of the original game in "realMyst", which was the exact same game, running on modern hardware. It seemed that computers had managed to catch up with the original concept and the game was no longer limited to pre-rendered scenes and canned animations. realMyst featured the full mouse and keyboard movement we have all become used to, and the original worlds were open to explore in a fresh way.
Although, I wasn't very impressed with realMyst in the way I had hoped. After all, I had spent so many hours clicking through scenes that I could remember every frame and available action. While playing realMyst I found myself framing each scene as it had been in the original, because the parts in between seemed out of place and wrong. It's funny how nostalgia and memory can influence how we approach and enjoy something new, but I remember thinking that a new game entirely would have been much better than the Frankenstein's Monster of realMyst.
Fast forward a few more years and along comes Obduction; a fresh game from the creators of Myst. The press called it a new Myst for the modern age, and I didn't need any further convincing. I happily threw down the asking price and fired it up to be drawn into another fantastical world.
I would consider myself more of an expert than most on the first couple of Myst games, simply because I read the books and learned a lot about the extended universe. Hence, I'm fairly confident that Obduction isn't set within the same universe where people have the ability to 'write worlds' into existence. There are no linking books, there are no imbalances tearing the place apart, but that doesn’t mean the two are mutually exclusive.
In fact, Obduction could be interpreted as existing within a peripheral diversion from the original universe, or at least somewhere far away. I mention this because after playing through the entire game, I have no real idea about the 'story' surrounding Obduction. There are some basic unmissable details along the way, but it's hard to get a grasp on the meta-themes that govern the game's world.
Before we get ahead of ourselves though, let's pick it up from the start. You're given the option of playing Obduction with the classic scene-to-scene method, or explore the 3D world as you would any other modern game with mousey keys. As this game had been built from the ground up with the option to explore freely, I chose to go with the new method, but this isn't the kind of game where controls or mechanics make a whole lot of difference.
Within the first moments of the game you're teleported to another place that initially feels like a familiar landscape. After some exploration, you discover that you're actually inside a large dome, while an alien world exists beyond its borders. Eventually you find terminals that allow you to travel from your initial location to entirely different alien locations. Much like the linking books of Myst, these worlds are linked and it's up to you to discover what has happened.
In the first moments of the game you learn that you have been teleported to a town that has been constructed to look familiar to humans. You meet one of the only survivors, who implores you to help him fix the broken community in order to escape. Eventually you find a big tree, whose roots connect all the worlds available to you in the game.
What follows is as series of puzzles that culminate in an overall goal of linking all of the worlds and relaying their power to the central tree that links it all together. Of course, each world has a number of intermediary puzzles to solve in order to connect them, so get ready to have your brain squeezed. Puzzles in Obduction are given the added dimensions of space and time, which had me in a baffled state of confusion longer than I'd like to admit.
As it happens, when you teleport between worlds, you're actually teleporting a spherical area of space around you. Each terminal has a counterpart in another world (or even within the same world), which it swaps positions with. So one terminal might be situated in an open plain of dirt, until it's swapped with another located inside a building. You can begin to imagine how this plays into puzzles, and how the difficulty spike when they compound into each other.
For example, in one section there is a terminal located within a building, within a cave. There are a number of different terminals that all connect to the same space, but each is a different size and has a different set of walls and openings. Thus, you're tasked with finding and using each different terminal, in order to access every space in the cave and progress through the world.
Another features a series of terminals that are connected with pathways, except you can't walk from one to the other thanks to walls and obstacles in the way. There's a combination of other terminals that can replace the originals and allow you to pass from one to the other, but not only are these in other places, they're in other worlds.
I'm not doing it justice, as these examples are only the rudimentary ones I can recall enough to offer. The real mind bending gets underway when you have to remember how a space is set out and how it is oriented, then travel large distances to another point in order to swap it with its appropriate counterpart. Sometimes you even have to make a number of swaps in sequence to get where you're going, or close of one path to open another.
Although the puzzles aren't just limited to swapping pieces of land until you find the correct sequence. There's also alien contraptions to manipulate and put together, or even a mine-cart type of vehicle that fires a laser that affects the world in different ways and opens up more puzzles along the way. Suffice to say that before I knew it, my notepad was full of random clues and possible solutions, as my brain was trying its best to keep up with its spatial recognition and sense of direction.
Unfortunately, the down side is that I didn't end up paying all that much attention to the story, which is there for those who want to find it, but easy enough to ignore. As much as I love these stories, when my brain is doing logical gymnastics to keep ahead of everything its seeing, any additional information ends up being ignored.
Obduction ends up being exactly the game I was hoping it would turn out to be. That is to say that I'm not sure if it will be for everybody, but if you're a fan of the Myst games and how they operate, this is that new version you've been looking for.
There are a few minor defects here and there, but I didn't encounter any bugs or problems during my playthrough. The game looks great, and exploring each new world is intriguing and full to the brim with creativity. While some of the puzzles might be super frustrating at times (like having to learn a hex based mathematical language), the answers are all hidden within the game somewhere. There are clues and cryptic hints all over the place, much like how Riven hid solutions all over its map; it all depends on how dedicated you're willing to be.
I may not be obsessing over Obduction in the same way that I fell into Myst, but I thoroughly enjoyed diving back into a unique and creative universe. I simply love how original these games feel, both in their gameplay methods and their setting. It makes its contemporaries look like children's toys in comparison. This is definitely a game for adult pants.