Return of the Obra Dinn Reviews

I have just finalized this game for the second time. It is a great puzzle game if you like puzzles where you have to deduce information from very limited information.

I found this really difficult. I very nearly searched the internet for answers a couple of times. But some Reddit threads of people saying "stick with it, look at everything" convinced me to keep going and I'm glad I did. An incredibly engrossing and rewarding puzzle experience that I would recommend to all!

Really unique way of discovering clues to piece together what happened on the Obra Dinn. I thought the time mechanics was super cool. My one issue is that the color scale makes it really hard to figure out what is going on in some moments.

Amazing story. Don't look anything up. Just play it. 10/10

One of the most unique games I've played, and the closest experience I've come to feel like I'm actually solving a mystery on my own. It feels like playing like four dimensional sudoku, and I just want more!

Return of the Obra Dinn is one of those games where the more you know about the game going in, the less you'll get out of the experience, and not because there is a plot-twist at some point ([i][b]or is there!?[/b][/i]) but because the entire experience revolves around gathering information and then using that information to make progress… [i]In learning more information[/i]. As such there isn't much you can really say about the game without spoiling it, but given that the game came out [i]7 years ago[/i] at this point, if you still haven't picked it up, you probably need a few more hooks in you. Return of the Obra Dinn is, essentially, a detective game. You're not playing as a detective, but rather as an insurance agent in the year 1807 sent to figure out what happened to the ship Obra Dinn that has mysteriously returned after being lost at sea for 3 years. You're given a book that has an index, a list of the crew's names and roles, a picture of everyone on board, a glossary for landlubbers (read: me) and a hell of a lot of empty pages. In addition to the book you're also given a watch that can go back to the exact moment of someone's death - provided you can find their corpse. With just these tools you're expected to figure out not only the fate of all 60 people on board, but also who they are, and here's the catch: the list of names and pictures of the crew are [u]entirely separate[/u] and you're only ever prompted with their picture, leaving you to figure out everything else through astute observations and clever deductions. If you go through all the scenes and write down only what you can directly observe or reasonably assume you'll probably only get 15 people right. And the thing about the game is that it doesn't care if you get 6 or 60 people right: if you decide to end the game, it's [i]over[/i] and the credits [u]will roll[/u]. [b]But[/b], if you want to really experience the magic of Obra Dinn, to really figure out what happened on the ship and the exact dynamics of the crew, just keep at it from there. It's a bit overwhelming at first, but the more people you guess correctly from there, the more information you have to go on and the fewer red herrings are left to choose from. The feeling of satisfaction from eventually correctly connecting the dots will far, far outweigh the feeling of frustration from floundering around in failure, trust me

Beautiful game and excellently crafted story. The premise and art-style is captivating as much as the mystery itself, and the mystery is really a treat to solve from a completely blind entry. There are so many ways to identify people, from names, jobs, relationships, accents, brute-force, and so many subtle clues that any two people will have totally different methods of piecing together the tragedy of the good ship Obra Dinn. This is a mystery game were every piece of information is useful. All of it. I would highly recommend to anyone who likes any sort of puzzle game, and would even recommend it to those who are not any good at puzzles for just the story of the Obra Dinn itself. The narrative itself of what happened to the ship and crew is amazing, and piecing it together through a mystery [i] game [/i] was much more fun than any movie where I had to reconstruct the plot. And, again, go in as blind as possible.

I haven't finished the game yet but so far I'm loving it despite how excruciatingly difficult it is to solve some of these puzzles. The game provides you with this cast of characters you need to accurately deduce on who they are and what their fate is but that's easier said than done since it's fairly difficult trying to come to certain conclusions on who they are and whatnot but I feel it works in the game's favour since it makes it all the more satisfying when you finally solve the fates correctly. I especially like that the game doesn't try holding my hand and trusts that my dumb ass will somehow be able to figure these out on my own compared to other detective games where they either lead the player down a set route to ensure they get the right answer regardless of their choices or unintentionally spells it out when prompted to pick the right choices so if you want a good detective game that can challenge your deduction skills then this is definitely one of them.

a puzzle game so good that in just about 7 years it's inspired like 5 other puzzle games that are all insanely good as well. the modern puzzle genre can effectively be sorted into eras "pre-Obra Dinn" and "post-Obra Dinn," it's that good.

There aren't words for this game. You just buy it, play it, and love it. Don't look anything up. Don't even watch the trailer if you can help it. This game is an experience. I would give anything to be able to experience it for the first time again.