Observation Review: ALMOST The Best Sci-fi Thriller Game I’ve Ever Played [ PS4 ] 

I have just played through it a second time and found the puzzles much less frustrating second time around and definitely much less of a barrier between me and the story. Probably the game state is the result of the devs being too familiar with their own gameplay to appreciate what it might be like for fresh eyes. Certainly, scooting around looking for Emma again, near the end of the game, was just as hellish as the first time I had to do it.

I absolutely LOVE this game. So much. It’s really unfortunate that there are so few videos on Observation or even people really talking about it, because I’m kinda obsessed with it. My first time through, the puzzles were so obtuse and the sections where you had to navigate around in space outside the station were just ridiculous. I got so lost, so often, and unfortunately I couldn’t find any guides I thought were decent (I’ve since started writing the walkthrough I wished I’d had so I can hopefully provide some guidance for other prospective fans to come). I’ve since gone back through the game a second and third time, each time becoming more and more familiar with how it works, to the point where the puzzles become almost brain-dead and I’m learning to recognize the different arms of the station from the outside by the labels on each segment. The puzzles and navigation became just another part of the game to get through for me, because I’m 100% in love with everything else about it. I actually really like how tactile the gameplay is, because controlling SAM is actually pretty hands-on, with how much Emma relies on you to do anything. Moving sliders, unlocking hatches, removing bolts, even just swapping cameras or what have you, there’s just something about the way it all feels that is just so satisfying. It’s just so cool to be actually playing as the station’s computer the whole time, something you never really do in other games. But the presentation - now we get to something truly special. The audio design, the visuals of really everything but the characters’ faces, and especially the otherworldly, almost eldritch encounters, it’s all completely enthralling and frankly pretty terrifying. I almost wish the game were just a little longer, because each playthrough seems to get shorter and shorter and before I know it I’m already done. But I’ll keep coming back to Observation again and again because I just love it so much. It’s like watching my favorite movie.

I'm digging it so far. I certainly don't love the random puzzles with no clues. I felt like this was kinda alien style and pleased to know the actual alien game is related because I just bought it on that recent alien day sale. This game came with a new humble bundle yesterday so I had to cop it seeing how it's streaming on GFN! Thanks for the review.

Really pleased to find this video that encapsulated all my feelings about the chunk I played. Kept feeling like I was an idiot the ui is so obtrusively dense lol glad to know the problem is more w the game than the player

Just finished this game recently and have to say I really enjoyed it. I actually thought the puzzle elements were pretty good. I love how refreshing it was for the game not to hold my hand. Frustrating at times but satisfying on completion. Like that circuit diagram one, where the diagram itself is essentially irrelevant as you can just count what position on the solution sheet they are in and that is the corresponding number to use. I thought the diagrams and documents were very stylised and cool, and the environments filled with just generally interesting assets and objects that made looking around them slowly and carefully always intriguing. A computer I guess does realistically have a great deal of patience.

I can relate ... for me Silent Hill 3 was the most frustrating puzzle collection in any videogame

The huge focus on puzzles reminded me a lot of Myst and other adventure games from the 90s. I think a lot of modern gamers don't quite have the patience for such things anymore.

I remember playing video games and thire wase not much about them on the internet because the internet was new and not that many people had personal pc at home much let the internet .so when you got stuck on a game you either solved it yourself , or go get a game guide at the mall and once in a while you could call a 1900 number for tips and or how to solve the problem you have ... We did not cry about dying 1,000 times just in one afternoon we pulled out boots on and commenced at kicking as

6:29 I have never even looked at the graphic for switch numbers, I just put their correspoding order in the protocols sheet and it worked lol.

I play it rn and the puzzles are rly frustrating sometimes .. like the energy plug shit .. but I love it anyway so far bc i love storys likes this

I actually enjoyed the PSP version running via PPSSPP on my phone more than the PC version. PPSSPP can run it with a hack at 60 fps while the PC version is completely ruined by 30 fps lock.

I really want to like this game, but it can get very tedious.

I've seen worse puzzles, but the game sure does a feel old fashioned by putting these kind of barriers between you and story. At least the whole interfacing thing suits the story and theme well enough.

You coming back to gta once the release the new car update??

About Sam as an AI. You are very damge so u dont really work as intendent. Thus things take time. And a big part of this game is just figure things out.. otherwise its just a 30 min lame movie

This game was sooooo absolutely boring, I gave up and deleted it within minutes of downloading it. I wanted a "horror game" not a "point and click five nights at Freddy's" reskin. 🙄😒🤦‍♂️