It is a shame that while Observation is an interesting game because of its story, it is also frustrating because of one of the most damning things a game can do wrong: it's marred by its terrible control mechanics which don't seem to work properly on either keyboard and mouse or with a gamepad. While playing the game, the controls feel like the biggest obstacle on your path which does lead to some rather frustrating gameplay. And then there's the little problem of the game UI not always properly scaling on higher resolutions than 1920x1080, which added some confusion on what to do before I noticed that parts of the UI were missing and thinking the game to be completely broken.
The space station Observer is hit by an unknown event. Dr Emma Fischer begins a feverous task of trying to piece together what has happened and where the crew of the station has disappeared to. Interestingly enough, you don't control Emma, but the AI of the station, SAM who can control and monitor the ship through several cameras and spherical drones. Emma acts as the source of information on what you should do at any given time.
As SAM, you can go through the station, looking for clues in what has happened while repairing the systems and keeping an eye out for any survivors. Soon the AI and Fischer learn, that the station has somehow travelled to the orbit of Saturn, where the huge hexagonal cloud formation seems to keep tabs on them. Like a gigantic eye, it gazes at the station.
On an occasion, SAM encounters an alien entity, a hexagonal slab of darkness. The entity, what or whoever it is, interacts with SAM, presenting it with a simplistic sequence of images, which it then has to transmit back to it. These events act as a narrative device in pushing the story forwards.
So, that's the premise of the story and it would be a disservice to detail it further, as the story really is the best part of the whole game. It's frankly the only reason why I mustered through it, despite I strongly disliked the controls.
When you control the cameras of the station, the movement feels sluggish and overly constrained, The sphere controls, while more fluent, are marred by the poor navigation and somewhat claustrophobic FOV. It's also easy to get stuck in obstacles you don't always even know are on your way or see. Also, the couple of times you do get to step outside the station in the spherical form, it is at times hard to orientate towards the parts of the ship you want to go as there are no, as the station part detection doesn't seem to work correctly. Or if it does, it requires you to be almost next to the part you are travelling to.
But the control problems don't solely hinder the movement, they, at times, get on the way of the many quick-time events present in the game. Especially towards the end, there are three station parts you need to jettison and each lock has to be opened by completing a QTE where 9 locks have to unlatch in 10 seconds, In theory, it should not be a difficult task, but the way the controls work feel like you are playing the controls against the game instead of playing the game with the controls.
Observation is filled with non-puzzle activities. I assume these are meant to make you feel like you are doing something, but really, having to punch in a 3-button sequence each time you connect to a new system, be it a laptop or a station system, turns into one more aspect of annoyance. I don't think these even are QTE, they are there just for the sake of being there, not because they add something. More annoying are the hatch control schematics. In order you operate the station doors, you have to find the schematics of whatever arm you happen to be in after which you can open and lock the doors. This happens by connecting two points on a square table. Not tasking, but gets old really fast. It's basically a prime example of a non-puzzle that is presented as a puzzle.
Observation is by no means a well-designed game. It's not even a good game. On that note, it is an interesting game mostly because of the story and how it's presented. I pushed it through because I wanted to see where the story goes. I endured the poor gameplay because of it, but I don't really expect that many people to endure the same, so for those who don't want to do it, I'd recommend checking Youtube for gameplay videos. I'm certain there's someone who has endured the gameplay for you and recorded the whole thing.
For those, willing to give it a spin, you can get Observation for Windows, PS4 and Xbox One.
Comments
Post a Comment