Obscuritas Reviews

it really pains me to do this but... I see where they were going and it was the coolest story concept right up until they ruined it with that with that wizard of oz first grade failing writing mistake at the end as it completely negates the whole story and tells the player "you wasted your time and nothing you did mattered." was beautiful and fun right up until it became an RNG nightmare. the active traps need to be telegraphed better. the vault needs to be reworked. the maze was so bad I had to look up a walkthrough only to be greeted by beginner's traps and stuff that could have been easily have been hinted at with a note or a flashback. that evil dog was absolutely a random broken nightmare more frustrating than scary. there should be mechanics to defeat or placate it for a set time period. brightness slider is completely broken. endless key hunting and gratuitous backtracking. overly light on story. too much trial and error. the other dimension needs story to tie it together coherently. if unrelenting puzzles like the vault if not negotiable, it should be less confusing or at least justified by the story. like was it there in the family manor to begin with? was it a thing the uncle made? moreover why? what is the reasoning here? was it for holding treasure? was it a dungeon? was there some kind of cult? come on: less vaguer and more story. there is so much room to make this amazing. this could have been a masterpeice and could still be with a rewrite and overhaul. this is steam. you can and should fix issues. if you need writing help and direction on better ways to do it message me. as a writer I see where you were going with it and could flesh it out in a month for free. it needs more meaty lore/story and tactfully done clues rather than just have the character yell at you. a collectible system and story page system to tie it together and make backtracking worthwhile could easily save this. perhaps trade some cheap jumpscares with memory items causing flashbacks to tie the characters together. seriously this is great enough I would help fix it for free just to see it done right. it deserves so much more but as is its an unrelenting torrent of messy half realized ideas and mechanics that desperately cry out for more work. its so beautiful and yet so broken. this should have been something a majority of players would come back to again and again but as it is: its not. they went far too light on story trying to be MYST when the story really needed a more in depth go like SOMA and SCRATCHES. like come on its begging for a good silent hill treatment with the parallel world. like was the uncle or her once interred in a mental institution? was the theme park zone her favorite memories while her uncle fought through a crippling fear of it? could the graveyard be her coming to terms with his death? was the house in the field her childhood home? was the greenhouse area a reflection of the only moment of peace in his childhood? was there no place left to explore after he had been to all seven continents driving him to conquer another world? this is begging for some introspective narration and story! the "my work" answer isn't enough, showing doesn't go far when the game is set in total darkness. was he driven to discover the parallel world by the hauntings? what led him to his conclusions? where did he come up with the plans for a stargate? or were the hauntings a side effect of the portal experiments? or was the place built on a rift? or did something awful happen in the past to create the rift? if you must be vague you should at the very least pose possibilities in the story. moreover you don't crash and burn the whole thing with an ending that negates the story. or at the very least you make it clear that it was really and you are in the peaceful post script. perhaps with inexplicable collectible trinkets from the other world on the shelves. so little work is needed to make this gold and add polish its maddening. you are so close to greatness but as is I can't recommend this until its fixed/remastered. it could be worth so much more than the asking price if brought to its fullest potential. I really hope this isn't neglected as a forgettable drop and run. this could and should be reworked into a proper magnum opus. it would break my heart to see this get reviewed by grimbeard in 2026 as yet another broken abandoned title with a sad taste of what could have been. edit: it occurred to me that there may be critical missing story pages hidden too well in areas that actually brutally punish exploration. that is somehow much worse. that's a full on game design and writing sin. seriously would you buy a book with the most important pages glued together? however as is, I'm not entirely sure I wish to replay this anytime soon just for the sake of checking with that crap ending.

the game sucks, the developers are even worse, do not buy this shitty game under any circumstances