I managed to complete the brain-hacking horror game Observer in two sittings live on our Twitch, here’s some thoughts.
Disclosure: Key provided by Aspyr Media.
If you want to see the entire playthrough that I did live on our Twitch channel, you can find Part 1 here and Part 2 here on YouTube.
Observer paints a very bleak future for human kind. After the “NanoPhage” (a digital plague) wiped out thousands and a major war between the East and the West, the world has become pretty dark. The only winner was Chiron, a huge corporation that seized power, with no one left to oppose them. It’s set in 2084 Poland and you are Dan Lazarski, an Observer, someone who literally plugs into the brains of others to gather evidence.
Honestly, I wouldn’t say it was actually all that scary overall. There were a number of moments that made me jump, sure, but overall as a game it wasn’t the type of horror experience I was expecting. If you’re after something to completely terrify you, this probably isn’t it. However, if you go in expecting an adventure game with horror elements then it will probably satisfy you. Most of the horror is psychological, with the use of some fantastic audio work that leaves your mind to wander into the unknown.
Visually, it’s a wet-dream for sci-fi fans. Mixing in retro-futuristic devices that could have been taken out of an 80s film depicting the future, with reality-bending overlays. It’s like if you mixed the technology from the Aliens film and merged it with Virtual Reality interfaces.
It’s a clever story too, with your character’s own fears and memories leaking into the minds he’s currently hacking into. It creates some truly incredible scenes, both disturbing and thought provoking, not to mention confusing.
The game does an excellent job of keeping you on your toes, keeping you guessing and wondering just what the hell is going on. It perfectly blends the lines between what’s real and what’s not. The story is done exceptionally well for the crazy setting they created. Thanks to playing as Lazarski, who gradually starts losing his mind, things get more than just a little weird.
The level design and environments are incredible, it offers up an experience I truly think I’ve not had with any other game. There were moments of sheer panic when the walls around me started crumbling away, when I turned and found everything had changed and with items that phased in and out of existence as I moved around. It’s constantly mesmerizing and elements of it are terrifying, as everything is so constantly unexpected.
I think Rutger Hauer did a fantastic job of portraying Dan Lazarski. His delivery was near-perfect on every line. The sounds he made when you wake up, all confused and delirious after hacking a brain was some fantastic acting. My only complaint is that the voice-over was often a little on the quiet side compared to the rest of the game's audio, so having subtitles on did become a necessity.
One part of the game did annoy me, which was the way you picked dialogue options and interacted with the environment. It was often hard to tell exactly where the mouse pointer was to pick an option. You get what looks like a single white pixel, which was a bit annoying.
I should note, that the game does have two major issues in the Linux version. The mouse often becomes hard to move. I’m unsure if it’s intentional or not, but it seems the mouse behavior is extremely strange. Often it’s as smooth as silk, other times it felt like I was fighting my mouse just to look around.
On top of that, performance wasn’t great. Even on Medium settings, I often saw massive FPS drops, sometimes in really important situations, and it wasn’t pretty when it did that.
It took just short of five hours to finish. To me, the length was pretty perfect, unlike some horror and adventure games that drag on and put padding into everything they can, Observer told exactly what it needed to.
In terms of audio, story and graphics it’s close to a masterpiece in my eyes. Not quite due to quiet dialogue, performance and mouse issues, but close. I enjoyed almost every single moment spent in it. Honestly, I would say it’s the game I’ve enjoyed the most this year so far.
I would really love to see more stories made from this universe—fantastic.
You can find the Linux version of Observer on Steam.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Quoting: jensBut from their point of view it is still about just making money, or in case of publishers: trying everything they think is needed to max out their investments.
Urge for power is different from urge for money. They can combine together, but they can actually be conflicting. I.e. these execs can even rationally understand, that something they do would mean lost profits, but they still would do it, to feel more control. That's quite irrational from the pure financial point of view. That's why I said, don't just use common sense logic with them - it won't explain their behaviors in certain cases.
Here is a good example of this.
Quoting: ShmerlQuoting: jensBut from their point of view it is still about just making money, or in case of publishers: trying everything they think is needed to max out their investments.
Urge for power is different from urge for money. They can combine together, but they can actually be conflicting. I.e. these execs can even rationally understand, that something they do would mean lost profits, but they still would do it, to feel more control. That's quite irrational from the pure financial point of view. That's why I said, don't just use common sense logic with them - it won't explain their behaviors in certain cases.
Here is a good example of this.
Yeah ok, obviously CEO's are found of their positions and accept a short-term loss for a long-term win. There are always political fights and different agenda's at the top of an organisation. That said, they are still normal people that just want to make the best out of their lifes. Their viewpoint is just completely different :). Most owners and Executives I have spoken have my deepest respects. It is really not so easy to ensure that a company survives and to bear their responsibility.
Quoting: jensMost owners and Executives I have spoken have my deepest respects. It is really not so easy to ensure that a company survives and to bear their responsibility.
I have no respect for control freaks who push DRM everywhere, while knowing it has nothing to do with increasing profits. I suspect Linux situation falls in the same irrational behavior category.
Quoting: ShmerlStart your own company and do it better ;)Quoting: jensMost owners and Executives I have spoken have my deepest respects. It is really not so easy to ensure that a company survives and to bear their responsibility.
I have no respect for control freaks who push DRM everywhere, while knowing it has nothing to do with increasing profits. I suspect Linux situation falls in the same irrational behavior category.
Quoting: jensStart your own company and do it better ;)
There are rational companies out there! They already sell games for Linux, as well as sell DRM-free.
Last edited by Shmerl on 3 November 2017 at 7:46 pm UTC
Quoting: jensAbout wine, that one is a double-edged sword. I'm using wine for two applications (no games) and I appreciate that it works. That said, contrary to your views I think wine seriously hurts the Linux position for gaming, simply because wine gaming counts as windows gaming and does nothing to increase the number of sold game for Linux. Thus it keeps the status quo and makes sure that Linux will stay as a toy only for tech-savy people but no serious OS on the desktop market.
I consider Wine to be crucial to the growth of Linux.
Were it not for Wine I wouldn't be using (and promoting & supporting) Linux right now, but instead would be sticking to Windows 7 and still hoping that ReactOS would become usable soon. I have a library of hundreds of games built up over more than 20 years and switching without Wine would have meant giving all that up, as well as giving up entirely on many newer releases that will never get an official Linux release.
It's obviously a bad thing if Linux users buy new games that don't offer Linux support, but at the same time asking people to just completely abandon such games (along with most of their existing libraries) isn't good either.
I think there is a balance to be struck here though; it's not a problem IMO if people wait & buy such games when they're old & deeply discounted enough (and ideally DRM-free since DRM tends to cause a lot of hassle with Wine, plus getting such games DRM-free at least supports that cause), and save the full/high price purchases for titles that do support Linux. It's basically what I do... my current policy when it comes to buying games is more or less:
- DRM-free and supports Linux = Will consider at full price, if interested. Will also consider for gifting & giveaways.
- DRM-free but doesn't support Linux = Might consider at a low price/deep discount. Might also consider for gifting & giveaways, but only if it runs well in Wine & I make a Wine wrapper for it first.
- DRM'ed but supports Linux = Might consider at a low price/deep discount (will only tolerate Steam in this case, and I buy with the full intention of re-buying if it ever gets a DRM-free release + I like it enough).
- DRM'ed and doesn't support Linux = Worthless. Won't buy but might accept for free (as part of a bundle etc.) and then later try it in Wine with a crack.
- DRM'ed with Denuvo, UPlay, or Origin (or any other DRM scheme I consider to be particularly egregious) = Won't accept even for free; I do not want to risk any of my money going to support them. I've actually gone as far as to avoid buying hardware due to bundling of games using such DRM schemes.
Quoting: jensQuoting: ShmerlTheir mindset is not something you should evaluate using common sense.It's actually pretty easy, it's just about making (lots of) money. Really, that's the only motivation. ;)
As Shmerl said... just look at their obsession with things like DRM, even though it's clear by this point that it doesn't help sales even when it is effective at stopping piracy, and actually drives customers away. See also: the push towards a "games as a service" model (and "x as a service" in general), spyware/"telemetry", etc.
Last edited by adamhm on 3 November 2017 at 8:49 pm UTC
Quoting: adamhmI think there is a balance to be struck here though; it's not a problem IMO if people wait & buy such games when they're old & deeply discounted enough (and ideally DRM-free since DRM tends to cause a lot of hassle with Wine, plus getting such games DRM-free at least supports that cause), and save the full/high price purchases for titles that do support Linux.Yes, I agree. Personally I don't buy any windows games anymore but I occasionally use dosbox for my nostalgic moments which is basically similar. The question then is how old is "old", 10 years would be my point of balance ;). Stated differently, wine shouldn't compete with Feral or Aspyr titles, that would hurt the Linux market.
Quoting: jensStated differently, wine shouldn't compete with Feral or Aspyr titles, that would hurt the Linux market.
For me it doesn't :) I barely see any Feral or Aspyr titles on GOG ;)
Quoting: ShmerlBut you do know that it is kind of hypocrite if you are advocating Linux everywhere but would buy lets say Tomb Raider 2013 for Windows when there is a Linux port? I know Feral/Aspyr games are not on your favorite distribution channel, but would your Linux support end when it concerns a title like this?Quoting: jensStated differently, wine shouldn't compete with Feral or Aspyr titles, that would hurt the Linux market.
For me it doesn't :) I barely see any Feral or Aspyr titles on GOG ;)
Note that I didn't say that you did this ;)
Quoting: jensYes, I agree. Personally I don't buy any windows games anymore but I occasionally use dosbox for my nostalgic moments which is basically similar.
I've bought lots of games on GOG that I never played when they were new for whatever reason (e.g. wanted to play but DRM'ed or just never heard about them or so), or re-bought just to have DRM-free copies so I don't have to bother with potentially dodgy cracks any more. I spend a lot more on Linux games though, and buy more Linux games than Windows games.
Quoting: jensThe question then is how old is "old", 10 years would be my point of balance ;). Stated differently, wine shouldn't compete with Feral or Aspyr titles, that would hurt the Linux market.
I mainly go by price... if it's cheap enough for me to consider it & isn't very old, then it either didn't cost much in the first place or it isn't very good :p
As for Feral or Aspyr titles, those generally aren't on GOG anyway. If they were, I'd have bought most of them at release (and then later bought further copies as well for giveaways etc) like I've done with many of the other Linux games that are available on GOG.
Quoting: jensBut you do know that it is kind of hypocrite if you are advocating Linux everywhere but would buy lets say Tomb Raider 2013 for Windows when there is a Linux port? I know Feral/Aspyr games are not on your favorite distribution channel, but would your Linux support end when it concerns a title like this?
Note that I didn't say that you did this ;)
In cases where a game is available DRM-free and has a Linux version but does not have a DRM-free Linux release I generally won't buy it at all. Although if the official Linux version is just a Wine wrapper or so anyway then I might get the DRM-free version since I prefer setting up Wine myself, but it'll have to be cheap.
Last edited by adamhm on 3 November 2017 at 10:51 pm UTC
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