Return of the Obra Dinn

Although marks have to be given for at least attempting something new, a good initial concept is besmirched by subpar execution and what eventually starts to feel like lazy writing masquerading as mystery.

The initial third of the game seems to be setting off well, with an excellent atmosphere and the first few death scenes give a tantalising hint of how you will purportedly unravel the identity of the whole crew. However, this quickly becomes mired in several UI / UX choices that seem designed more to introduce deliberate confusion and just slow the player down. Each death 'scene' is initially viewed for a set period of time (can neither be extended or shortened), before then chaining into another scene set moments before, but focused on a different character. These chains can go on through 4-5 iterations without actual pause but you are expected to make mental note of the smallest details throughout. Once the end of the chain has been reached you can go back and revisit but the mechanic for doing so is almost intentionally slow and frustrating, first you must find the death entry in the book, then go to the area indicated that shows where the corpse 'or ghost' in question finally died, and then you can revisit;

This all comes before we discuss the actual 'detective' elements of the game, and I feel that detective is a tag applied too generously here. It's mentioned right at the start that you are not a detective or even some kind of police, but an insurance adjuster. This presumably is to set an outlook that you aren't actually required or even expected to actually figure out every death correctly, if at all. I'm sure a horde of self-proclaimed super nerds will tell me how I'm wrong, and that every character here can be perfectly identified just based off the evidence shown, but I don't feel that many of these points are particularly clever:



Ultimately I refuse to believe that almost any player will complete this without just guessing at least a few conclusions. The odd mechanic where once you get 3 'right' they become permanently set in the book means that it's not difficult to see how someone died and then just constantly guess their names until it's confirmed for you. Overall the atmosphere and concept are great, but the execution and storyline felt like the player is being tricked and led along, rather than slowly piecing apart a mystery.