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Observer


DANGERMAN
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or >OBSERVER_ as I think it's actually called

 

Observer is a Rutger Hauer-em'up, it's by the Layers of Fear people and it's fairly similar. Layers of Fear was an exercise in being locked in until you turned around where the level would have changed behind your back. Observer does do that, but nowhere near as much, it's not simply a Layers of Fear with the paintbrush replaced by the microchip

 

There's a bit more game to Observer, which is a bit of a mixed blessing. You play as Dan, an Observer, which as far as I understand it means he's a detective who can go inside people's E-brains and see their last memories. He goes to see his son in a poor district, trying to find out why he needs help and what he's doing in the slums. When he gets there he finds a headless body and can't be sure whose it it, he was attacked by someone or something and that's what most of the game is about. To get on to the trail of the killer you have to examine the crime scene, superficially that's a bit like Batman, but unless something is locked away really it's mostly a token effort, and you're just their to deep dive and experience the trippy nightmare that is their decomposing memory.

 

Observer isn't an especially scary game, it can be at points, but I found Layers of Fear scarier and that was more cool and clever than scary. But the cyber nightmares are an excuse to leave the more grounded reality, they can be cool, they're where the game is even if I prefer the world outside of them. They are home to the worst part of Observer; fail states. There's points where you're being hunted, there's not loads of these moments but they're the worst part. There's also some puzzles in the game, these can be a bit fiddly. It's not so much that they're testing your brain, more that you've tried everything and can see everything

 

I think one of its biggest problems is that it kind of buries the main story. There's 3 things going on, Dan's son, a serial killer, and an evil corporation. I get why it's paced the way it is, it's to have a middle act that doesn't feel drawn out, but it means the middle feels more important than the rest of it. There's a lot of themes running in the background, again probably too many, but it mostly handles them well

 

Overall I quite liked it, or bits of it. I liked the tone and the setting at least. I was pining for it to end well before it wrapped up though, it's probably a little too long but I do think it's more of a pacing issue than anything else 

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  • 1 year later...

It's not very scary, is it?

 

I had a few fail states tonight and I have to say they do not belong in a game like this, not one bit. They're so jarring.

 

Also had a bit where the game glitched me through a wall, but because of how weird the game is, I just thought it was meant to happen, I managed to glitch back through the wall into the place I was meant to be, so it was fine, but for a good few minutes I was so confused about what I had to be doing.

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yeah, there's bit where it starts to get scary but it loses that threat pretty quickly, it's not a patch on Layers of Fear for that. And agreed 100% the game would be so much better without the fail states, they're annoying more than tense. Although there is one later on I enjoyed more than the others

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That's Observer finished. Could I recommend it? Not really. It's a jumble sale of ideas, but the antique candelabras aren't worth sifting through the Gary Glitter LPs and clothes that should have gone on the bonfire.

 

It's just weird for the sake of being weird. It could have been so much more cohesive if they'd have just kept that stuff to the minimum and saved it for the truly fucked up parts. For the people that aren't actually that damaged making the glitch stuff and going to unsettling and scares just lessens the impact, the way they deal with jump scares is really telegraphed as well, aside from the one right at the start of the game with the apartment blocks manager. Maybe some of this was taken away as I was streaming it, but honestly I don't think much would have changed if I wasn't streaming it. Jump scares are a shit way of scaring the player anyway, but then again the psychological aspect of the game wasn't strong enough to give spooks on its own. There's more to horror than just having something poorly lit.

 

I think the whole concept is a really cool idea, I would love to see someone who is better at this sort of stuff have a go at it. Have a real running kick at stuff like augmenting bodies and splicing genes, make you really question the ethics behind it all, which is just as creepy as the outcome of some of this biological meddling. Coming right of the back of Eliza that had a lot of these "Oh" moments really hurt this game I think. If anything it's made me respect what a lovely little game Eliza was, if you put the two side by side I would have never have guessed I'd have picked that out as the better experience.

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  • 1 month later...

Game Spew: Observer: System Redux has a 4K toggle only on XSX, has a ray tracing toggle only on PS5

 

Quote

Delve into the video settings on the Xbox Series X version of Observer: System Redux and you’ll find that it has a 4K toggle. Turn it on and you’ll get sharper visuals at the expense of a smoother framerate. Imagine our surprise then, when we launched the PS5 version and found that it didn’t have the same 4K toggle. But it does have something else: a ray tracing toggle.

Turn on ray tracing in the PS5 version of Observer: System Redux and you get noticeably enhanced reflections. Out in the courtyard you can see the reflections of nearby buildings in the puddles, for example, and within the apartment block you’ll sometimes be able to admire your reflection in a mirror or pane of glass. Wondering if the Xbox Series X simply has them turned on by default we went back to check. But no; there are no ray traced reflections to be found.

In the first example below, you’ll see a building reflecting in a puddle on the PS5 version. On Xbox Series X, all you can make out is the reflection of a light. In the second, you’ll see your character’s full outline reflected in a pane of glass on PS5. On Xbox Series X? Just a dark panel with a few reflected lights.

 

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