Return of the Obra Dinn
Return of the Obra Dinn | |
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Single-player |
Return of the Obra Dinn is a 2018
The game is set in 1807 with the player assuming the role of an unnamed
Gameplay
The Obra Dinn, insured by the East India Company, went missing in 1803 as it was to sail around the Cape of Good Hope. It has since washed up in port with all sixty passengers and crew dead or missing.[1] The player is tasked with determining the fate of all souls on board, including their names, where and how they met their fate, who or what their killer was, and their location should they be alive.[2]
Return of the Obra Dinn is effectively one large
With each death, the logbook automatically fills in basic information. The player is tasked only with naming those present and accurately describing their cause of death. Naming the crew is done through small clues, inferences, and logical deduction – mainly, narrowing possibilities as the game progresses. The causes of death are selected out of a catalogue, and some deaths will accept more than one solution. The player can revise their logbook as they gain more information, but to deter guesswork, correct "fates" are validated only in sets of three, with the exception of the last six fates discovered in a playthrough, which are validated in pairs.[5]
Plot
The Obra Dinn, an East Indiaman trade ship, departs from Falmouth to the Orient in 1802 with 51 crewmen and 9 passengers. The ship fails to meet her rendezvous at the Cape of Good Hope and is declared lost. Five years later, the vessel suddenly reappears off the coast of England with every soul either dead or missing. The East India Company sends a newly appointed "Chief Inspector" to determine what happened aboard the ship. The inspector receives a copy of the Obra Dinn's logbook, drawings of the passengers and crew, and the Memento Mortem from Henry Evans, the ship's surgeon. The Mortem, when used on a corpse or its traces, enables the user to observe the exact moment of the corpse's death, frozen in time. With this and the logbook, the inspector sets out to unravel the fate of all 60 aboard.
The Obra Dinn carried a number of passengers, including a traveling musician, a wealthy Englishwoman and her companion, and two Formosan nobles and their guards transporting an exquisite treasure chest. Initial calamity struck only a few days in, with one crew member crushed to death by unsecured cargo, and two others dying of pneumonia despite Evans' best attempts to save them.
Shortly after reaching the Canary Islands, the Obra Dinn's second lieutenant is committing theft when the musician catches him in the act; the lieutenant stabs him and frames one of the Formosan guards. The captain, bound to obey Company regulations, has the man executed by firing squad. The lieutenant then organizes a small party of men to steal the chest and take the nobles hostage aboard two of the ship's launches.
Three mermaids then ambush the boats, killing most of the group. The mermaids' attack is stopped only when the male Formosan uses a magical shell pulled from the chest to stun the mermaids at the cost of his life. The lieutenant ties the boats together and returns to the Obra Dinn along with the captured mermaids, only to be fatally shot by the surviving Formosan guard as he approaches. As they are brought aboard, the mermaids, who hold shells of their own, lash out and kill several crewmen before they can be locked safely away in the lazarette.
The captain orders the ship to return to England. The mermaids use magic to summon a terrible storm, allowing a pair of sea demons mounted on giant spider crabs to attempt to rescue them. The demons are killed, but the crew suffer heavy casualties. Shortly after, the mermaids summon a kraken, which kills more of the crew and badly damages the ship. The captain, having figured out the truth, goes to the lazarette and kills two of the mermaids before the third sends the kraken away. The surviving mermaid is set free, but only after agreeing to guide the ship back home.
The surviving passengers and some of the crew decide to abandon the Obra Dinn and make for the western coast of Africa, but only Evans and his boat reach safety. Evans kills his pet monkey in the lazarette and keeps its paw. The handful of survivors still aboard gradually turn on each other, before finally trying to seize control of the ship. The captain manages to kill them all in hand-to-hand combat, but with his wife already dead from injuries sustained during the kraken attack, he commits suicide with a pistol.
The inspector eventually catalogues the fates of 58 of the 60 souls aboard, leaving shortly before a sudden storm sinks the damaged Obra Dinn. The completed logbook is mailed back to Evans, and an insurance report is written, compensating or fining the estates of lost crewmen, depending on their conduct. A year later, Jane Bird, one of the survivors who fled with Evans, mails the book back to the inspector along with the monkey's paw and a letter saying that Evans had died shortly after receiving the logbook back. The inspector uses the Mortem on the monkey's paw in order to deduce what happened in the lazarette and catalogue the last two fates, thereby completing the whole story of the Obra Dinn for their personal collection.
Development
Over the course of his career, American video game designer
With the style in place, Pope worked backwards to determine what game to make. His initial idea was one where the player character repeatedly died; the player would see the events of the death from their corpse, and would then be transported back one minute to manipulate the environment so as to recreate that death. However, Pope found this technically challenging, and instead sparked the idea of using freeze-frame flashbacks depicting moments of death to tell a story.[1]
The game's narrative took the longest portion of development. Pope teased Return of the Obra Dinn in 2014 while completing Papers, Please, anticipating a release the next year.[1] Instead, it took four more years. Pope released a limited demo for the 2016 Game Developers Conference, which had only six fates for the player to deduce.[10] Feedback from this was positive, so he began to expand the game's story more than he expected. Internally, Pope created spreadsheets to link all the various characters and their fates, and to ensure that players would be able to logically follow chains of deaths.[10] This ended with him writing the necessary dialog for some scenes and hiring voice actors, provided by locals Pope auditioned, who could mimic the accents of the time period.[1][10]
With a more complete story, Pope created a new demo to take to PAX Australia in November 2016, adding thirteen additional characters to the original demo. However, unlike the first demo, the deaths were presented out of chronological order, and players were confused about how to progress.[10] Pope realized this confusion would become worse with the full cast of characters. He found a solution by having ten events in the narrative serve as a catalyst for deaths, breaking the story into sections and allowing the plot to be more digestible to the player.[1][10] Dividing the game into "chapters" then led to the creation of the logbook, serving as the timeline for the game and cataloguing the ship's crew in the same manner as the real East India Company.[10]
Pope stated he was not worried about how well Return of the Obra Dinn would perform financially, as he was still earning appreciable revenue from Papers, Please. He considered Obra Dinn a passion project and did not pressure himself with deadlines or marketing.
Reception
Aggregator | Score |
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Metacritic | PC: 89/100[14] NS: 86/100[15] |
Publication | Score |
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Destructoid | 9.5/10[16] |
Eurogamer | Essential[8] |
Game Informer | 8.75/10[17] |
GameSpot | 9/10[18] |
IGN | 9.2/10[19] |
PC Gamer (US) | 90/100[20] |
PC World | [21] |
Return of the Obra Dinn received "generally favorable reviews", according to review aggregator website Metacritic.[14] Polygon's Colin Campbell recommended the game, saying "Return of the Obra Dinn takes the whodunit's conventions and twists them into kaleidoscopic narratives that are perplexing and delightful. This isn't merely a great game, it's the work of an intense and creative intelligence."[22] Patrick Hancock for Destructoid commented that Pope had "knocked it out of the park" as a follow-up to Papers, Please, and commented that even after finishing the game, he "could not stop thinking about" it.[16] Game Informer's Javy Gwaltney called the art style "visually arresting", and praised the pacing and thought put into the game. However, they were less praising of the ending, commenting that the "ultimate payoff fails to complement the thoughtful gameplay".[17]
The game received praise for being unique. Andreas Inderwildi of
Some outlets favorably compared the game to Her Story, a similar mystery-driven game where the player must work out the timeline of events and come to conclusions using numerous video clips. Campbell commented that the two games both made him reach for "a notepad and pen",[22] whilst Andrew Webster writing for The Verge commented that both games were about creating clarity even in confusing situations. Webster went on to comment that there were many ways to enjoy the game, that a player could obsessively find the mysteries in the game, or simply enjoy the "grim, shocking story".[25]
Awards
Several video game publications named Return of the Obra Dinn among 2018's best games,
Year | Award | Category | Result | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|
2018 | The Game Awards 2018 | Best Independent Game | Nominated | [36][37] |
Best Art Direction | Won | |||
2019 | 22nd Annual D.I.C.E. Awards | Game of the Year | Nominated | [38] |
Adventure Game of the Year | Nominated | |||
Outstanding Achievement for an Independent Game | Nominated | |||
Outstanding Achievement in Game Design | Nominated | |||
Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction | Nominated | |||
Outstanding Achievement in Story | Nominated | |||
SXSW Gaming Awards | Excellence in Art | Nominated | [39] | |
Excellence in Design | Nominated | |||
Independent Games Festival Awards | Seumas McNally Grand Prize | Won | [40][41] | |
Excellence in Visual Art | Nominated | |||
Excellence in Narrative | Won | |||
Excellence in Audio | Nominated | |||
Excellence in Design | Nominated | |||
Game Developers Choice Awards | Game of the Year | Nominated | [42][43] | |
Best Narrative | Won | |||
Best Visual Art | Nominated | |||
Innovation Award | Nominated | |||
15th British Academy Games Awards | Best Game | Nominated | [44][45] | |
Artistic Achievement | Won | |||
Game Design | Won | |||
Game Innovation | Nominated | |||
Narrative | Nominated | |||
Original Property | Nominated |
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Wood, Austin (November 2, 2017). "Lucas Pope on life after Papers, Please". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on January 24, 2021. Retrieved October 19, 2018.
- ^ Wood, Austin (August 15, 2017). "Papers, Please creator Lucas Pope details his next game". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on January 9, 2021. Retrieved November 24, 2017.
- Gamasutra. Retrieved August 30, 2021.
- ^ Schreier, Jason (December 2, 2018). "Why Obra Dinn Is One Of The Year's Best Games". Kotaku. Retrieved August 30, 2021.
- ^ a b Kohler, Chris (October 18, 2018). "Return of the Obra Dinn: The Kotaku Review". Kotaku. Archived from the original on January 18, 2021. Retrieved October 18, 2018.
- ^ Gault, Matthew (October 18, 2018). "'Return of the Obra Dinn' Is a Beautiful Murder Mystery by the Creator of 'Papers, Please'". Vice. Retrieved August 30, 2021.
- ^ Goodman, Ben (February 18, 2021). "Our favorite low-click PC games". PC Gamer. Retrieved August 30, 2021.
- ^ a b c Donlan, Christian (October 18, 2018). "Return of the Obra Dinn review - prepare to be transported". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on November 9, 2020. Retrieved October 19, 2018.
- ^ Wright, Steven (January 23, 2019). "Lucas Pope on the challenge of creating Obra Dinn's 1-bit aesthetic". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on January 8, 2021. Retrieved January 23, 2019.
- ^ a b c d e f Wiltshire, Alex (November 7, 2018). "How a book binds the Return of the Obra Dinn". Rock Paper Shotgun. Archived from the original on December 5, 2020. Retrieved November 7, 2018.
- ^ Wales, Matt (September 4, 2019). "Papers, Please dev's marvellous nautical mystery Obra Dinn coming to consoles". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on September 4, 2019. Retrieved September 4, 2019.
- ^ Romano, Sal (October 2, 2019). "Return of the Obra Dinn for PS4, Xbox One, and Switch launches October 18". Gematsu. Archived from the original on October 3, 2019. Retrieved October 2, 2019.
- ^ "Return of the Obra Dinn will get a physical run on PS4 and Switch this Friday". Limited Run Games. June 22, 2020. Archived from the original on October 25, 2020. Retrieved July 29, 2020.
- ^ a b "Return of the Obra Dinn for PC Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on July 27, 2020. Retrieved November 3, 2018.
- ^ "Return of the Obra Dinn for Swittch Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on June 10, 2020. Retrieved April 13, 2020.
- ^ a b Hancock, Patrick (October 18, 2018). "Review: Return of the Obra Dinn". Destructoid. Archived from the original on March 22, 2021. Retrieved October 19, 2018.
- ^ a b Gwaltney, Javy (October 18, 2018). "Return Of The Obra Dinn". Game Informer. Archived from the original on November 12, 2020. Retrieved October 19, 2018.
- ^ Wildgoose, David (October 22, 2018). "Return Of The Obra Dinn Review - The Good Ship". GameSpot. Archived from the original on February 15, 2021. Retrieved October 22, 2018.
- ^ a b Marks, Tom (October 22, 2018). "Return of the Obra Dinn Review". IGN. Archived from the original on November 28, 2020. Retrieved October 22, 2018.
- ^ Kelly, Andy (October 19, 2018). "Return of the Obra Dinn Review". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on November 23, 2020. Retrieved October 19, 2018.
- ^ Dingman, Hayden (October 18, 2018). "Return of the Obra Dinn review: A phenomenal detective story invoking old Macintosh adventures". PC World. Archived from the original on October 18, 2018. Retrieved October 19, 2018.
- ^ a b Campbell, Colin (October 19, 2018). "Return of the Obra Dinn is a superb murder mystery game". Polygon. Archived from the original on November 9, 2020. Retrieved October 19, 2018.
- ^ Inderwildi, Andreas (January 3, 2019). "Return of the Obra Dinn's nautical nightmare". Rock Paper Shotgun. Retrieved August 24, 2021.
- Gamasutra. Retrieved August 25, 2021.
- ^ Webster, Andrew (October 18, 2018). "The grisly mystery of Return of the Obra Dinn will make you obsessed". The Verge. Archived from the original on February 10, 2021. Retrieved October 19, 2018.
- ^ Hudson, Laura (December 21, 2018). "Why Return of the Obra Dinn is my game of the year". The Verge. Archived from the original on February 10, 2021. Retrieved December 25, 2018.
- ^ "The Edge Awards". Edge. No. 328. Future. February 2019. pp. 72–91.
- ^ Gilliam, Ryan (December 21, 2018). "GOTY 2018: #2 Return of the Obra Dinn". Polygon. 2nd place. Archived from the original on January 7, 2021. Retrieved January 8, 2018.
- ^ McCarthy, Caty (December 24, 2018). "USG's Top 20 Games of 2018". USgamer. 14th place. Archived from the original on December 21, 2018. Retrieved December 25, 2018.
- ^ Espineli, Matt (December 19, 2018). "Game Of The Year: 2018's 10 Best Games". GameSpot. Archived from the original on January 12, 2019. Retrieved January 11, 2019.
- The Nerdist. 9th place. Archivedfrom the original on December 22, 2018. Retrieved January 11, 2019.
- ^ Hoggins, Tom (December 21, 2018). "The 50 best games of 2018 | Our guide to the top titles of the year". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on January 15, 2021. Retrieved January 11, 2019.
- ^ Parkin, Simon (November 28, 2018). "The Best Video Games of 2018". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on December 4, 2020. Retrieved January 11, 2019.
- ^ Croshaw, Ben "Yahtzee" (January 2, 2019). "2018's Best Worst and Blandest". The Escapist. Archived from the original on January 3, 2019. Retrieved January 2, 2019.
- British GQ. Retrieved May 10, 2023.
- ^ Crecente, Brian (November 13, 2018). "'God of War,' 'Red Dead Redemption II' Tie For Most Game Awards Noms". Variety. Archived from the original on November 13, 2018. Retrieved November 13, 2018.
- ^ Grant, Christopher (December 6, 2018). "The Game Awards 2018: Here are all the winners". Polygon. Archived from the original on August 12, 2020. Retrieved December 7, 2018.
- ^ Chalk, Andy (January 10, 2019). "Return of the Obra Dinn claims six DICE Award nominations". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on January 10, 2021. Retrieved January 10, 2019.
- ^ Trent, Logan (February 11, 2019). "Here Are Your 2019 SXSW Gaming Awards Finalists!". South by Southwest. Archived from the original on February 15, 2019. Retrieved February 14, 2019.
- ^ Fogel, Stephanie (January 3, 2019). "'Return of the Obra Dinn' Leads IGF Awards Nominees". Variety. Archived from the original on January 5, 2019. Retrieved January 3, 2019.
- Gamasutra. March 20, 2019. Archived from the originalon November 13, 2020. Retrieved March 20, 2019.
- Gamasutra. January 4, 2019. Archived from the originalon November 15, 2020. Retrieved January 4, 2019.
- ^ Williams, Mike (March 20, 2019). "God of War Wins Another GOTY at 2019 Game Developers Choice Awards". USGamer. Archived from the original on March 21, 2019. Retrieved March 20, 2019.
- ^ "BAFTA Games Awards nominations 2019". BAFTA. March 14, 2019. Archived from the original on October 29, 2019. Retrieved March 14, 2019.
- ^ Fox, Chris; Kleinman, Zoe (April 4, 2019). "God of War wins best game at Bafta Awards". BBC. Archived from the original on August 28, 2019. Retrieved April 4, 2019.