But they feel about in line with my expectations-a bit larger than Myst’s regions.Īlmost too big actually, at times. They’re not given the same room to breathe as in Riven, and I wish Cyan had more time to add fluff objects and random lore. Obduction’s Worlds aren’t necessarily the best Myst Ages. Places where someone (or rather a lot of someones) really cared, had thought hard about the particulars of this world and its inhabitants. It’s not something most games pull off, and more notable is the fact you could probably rattle off the names of the ones that did- BioShock’s Rapture, or Dark Souls’s Lordran, or Morrowind’s…Morrowind. An attention to small details lends these worlds, these incredibly alien worlds, a credibility. The way a machine is built, or over-built, tells you something about the people who supposedly used it.Īnd yes, sometimes the bit of information you learn is “This society’s architects were sadistic to design something like this,” or “These people must love living in a puzzle box.” Often though there’s more to be inferred from the use of materials, from the shapes it favors or its power source or its decorations (or lack thereof). Hints about various cultures, conveyed through their lost artifacts and their decorations and, most often, their machinery.
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The puzzles are the muscle, the connective tissue that propel the player through Myst’s Ages.Ĭyan is a world-builder though, and that talent is on full display in Obduction-on Hunrath, certainly, but in the game’s other Worlds too. The popular narrative around Myst is always concerned with the game’s puzzles, and for good reason.
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It was one of the first games I ever played (though it wasn’t until many years later I finally finished it) and it’s a series I’m very passionate about.īut there is a world here. And all because when I was a kid, my dad showed me this game Myst. We were the first press to see Obduction running, and I think the first to get hands-on with the game too. I’ve met and chatted with Rand Miller and the crew at Cyan at length. Three years on and I’ve been out to Cyan’s studio multiple times. It was the first “story” I ever broke, and an important milestone to me. We were the first big site to report that news. I told Wawro I needed to go, and a good thing I did since that’s where Miller announced Cyan was back from the near-dead and looking to Kickstart a new project. Looking at the lineup, I saw Myst co-creator Rand Miller-“ T he Rand Miller,” I probably would’ve said at the time-was giving a talk. We’ve covered this game a lot in the past three years, starting in 2013 when my old-time editor Alex Wawro and I went down to sunny Culver City, California for IndieCade. I say that up front because I think it’s important for a reader to know where a reviewer is coming from, know anything that might influence the text or the score aside from the game itself.Īnd in the case of Obduction ($30 on Steam), it’s pretty complicated. It’s unlikely I can be objective about Obduction.