Observer (2017)

 Observer (2017), developed by Bloober Team, published by Aspyr Media

I wanted to, perhaps more because of Rutger Hauer than anything else, like Observer.  I do like parts of it, but as a whole, the design of the dystopian cyberpunk sleuthing adventure doesn't quite work. And in all honesty, the voice work Hauer provides to the protagonist Dan Lazarski, isn't really his best effort either.

Lazarski is a detective, a member of an elite branch known as Observers. This particular branch of detectives solves crimes by tapping into the neural network of the criminals, observing what they have done directly from their own minds.

The story begins, when Lazirski receives a call from his estranged son Adam. After the call ends, Dan tracks it down to an apartment building, from where he finds a headless body. A short investigation later, the apartment house is placed under lockdown, which means there's no way in or out before it's lifted. This gives him ample time to concentrate on the task at hand, solving who the body is and how does it relate to his son. Several bodies and mind tappings later, Dan finally finds the killer, which leads him to an old virtual reality salon called the Sanctuary. There he finally meets the virtual version of his son, who finally tells the whole of the matter. 

There is a lot to like about the Observer. The story points are interesting and the world riddled with nanophage that has killed thousands, has a great deal of promise. The whole idea of being a mind jacking detective is more than enough to be building grounds for a good game. But it all just doesn't quite work., mainly because the way the game has been built makes it all feel very gimmicky and unpolished.

The main reason is, that Observer is, in the end, a horror game, not a detective story. While you do investigate the case when you are not jacked in on peoples minds, there's very little of it when you actually do jack in. The bits, which could have been the most interesting aspect of the whole game are now reduced to be clumsily surreal attempts of horror, where you mostly navigate through a maze of someone's past. There are no puzzles to solve, just a train track to follow, occasionally dodging the daemons of the people's minds with rudimentary stealth elements.

Observer is at its best every time you are allowed to explore and investigate the real world. Dan has two different investigation models at his use, which allow him to scan the crime scenes for biological and technical clues. Sadly enough, there's very little in the way of actually connecting the dots the case, as the whole game is mostly a straightforward roller coaster, where you do what the game asks you to do in order to proceed, but at least there is the interesting groundwork for an investigation mechanics present.

I do think, Observer might have been a far better game than what it ended up as. Even with the horror elements in place, it could have been a proper mix of an intriguing investigation and psychological horror stemming from Dan jacking in the subconscious of the people he is investigating. In the end, though, it just feels like the developers couldn't come up with an angle where they could have made it work properly, not as a game at least.

Maybe it was a budget issue or the developers just ran out of time. Or maybe they just tried to do something and failed at it. There's no denying the potential within Observer and its setting, but those things are not really enough when the end result is rather mediocre.