• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Observer |OT| Blade Walker

Couldn't find this OT in the search, had to take out 'the' and just observer, so I guess it was my fault.

Love the title, made me laugh.



Holy shit, the main character is voiced by Rutger Hauer. That's amazing.

Wow, that's pretty cool.

Is this an UE4 game? I guess I should do some research.

The price is right and the game does look interesting, and I've seen a fair bit of a walk through on YT just to get a feel of it.

So might buy it soon.



Is the TXAA implementation blurry and is it demanding?

My specs are;

980Ti
Win 10 64
3770k stock
16GB ram.

Can I hit 60fps with this set up at 1080p?
.
 
Finished this last night.

Really loved the first couple hours or so. Basically before the mind jacking (or dream eating in this case) really took center stage. After that it just became not super fun to play. The dream eater sequences weren't scary, or particularly interesting either. I really enjoyed the visuals, some really trippy stuff etc but the actual experience of playing wasn't great. And the ending too...I quite enjoyed
the twist...and the very unnerving image of Dans sons mechanical face shifting around...that shit was nightmare inducing. But choosing to reject the son (fuck him, seriously), the bit after that? What the hell was that?

Anyways. Loved the visuals and atmosphere, the writing, even the story is pretty good with a great set up and interesting premise ala Soma. But Soma didn't lose me like this did half way through and that's primarily because of the awful dream eater sequences. :(
 

Exentryk

Member
I found a save from another person and continued the game to the end.

Pros:
  • Atmosphere
  • Visuals and Effects - The graphics are very good, and the number and variety of special effects are also excellent.
  • The different residents of the Apartment and their stories
  • Side Quests - Nice little stories there
Average:
  • Story. Was okay. Didn't do much for me.
Cons:
  • Hide and Run from Monster aspects
  • Cheap Jump Scares - These are used even outside of neural investigations, and most of them don't even make sense. Good games only need their atmosphere to create fear, and don't need to rely on constant jump scares. I am sure this team will eventually learn and improve.
  • Less is more - Don't overuse effects and loud noises. They basically lose their value if you do.

I feel like this setting didn't need to be so focussed on horror as the devs tried to make it. Just the Cyberpunk and twisted-ness of it all would have been enough. Sometimes subtle changes like a painting falling, or a doll turning its head, etc., are far more effective at scaring than overused special effects, loud door knocks, or pigeons flying in your face accompanied with loud noise.

But overall, I enjoyed the game. It's very rare to find these sorta games which avoid shooting gameplay elements, so I'd love to see more from this team.
 

Paragon

Member
Finished this last night. Really loved the first couple hours or so. Basically before the mind jacking (or dream eating in this case) really took center stage. After that it just became not super fun to play.
I was enjoying the game until the first Dream Eater sequence, and after that I decided to give it a break. That was the turning point where I just said "oh, right it's the Layers of Fear developers" and sighed.
They have some great artists and some interesting world building, but they don't have any restraint. Their idea of horror is loud noises, jump scares, and messing with the player's vision to disorient you. (I guess that's the intent) It's juvenile.
It's like they're just throwing everything out there and hoping that some of it sticks and resonates with the player.

Are you saying that it's just downhill from here? Because if the rest of the game is more of this, I think I'm going to refund it.
 

xrnzaaas

Member
I was enjoying the game until the first Dream Eater sequence, and after that I decided to give it a break. That was the turning point where I just said "oh, right it's the Layers of Fear developers" and sighed.
They have some great artists and some interesting world building, but they don't have any restraint. Their idea of horror is loud noises, jump scares, and messing with the player's vision to disorient you. (I guess that's the intent) It's juvenile.
It's like they're just throwing everything out there and hoping that some of it sticks and resonates with the player.

Are you saying that it's just downhill from here? Because if the rest of the game is more of this, I think I'm going to refund it.

You either like these sequences or you hate them, I don't think you can have a neutral opinion on them. I actually enjoyed them (and the ones later on are better imo) even though one or two of them might have been a little bit too long. Anyway I feel like the game is much more mature in that aspect than Layers of Fear which was like "HA! I SCARED YOU MOTHERFUCKER!".
 

Paragon

Member
You either like these sequences or you hate them, I don't think you can have a neutral opinion on them. I actually enjoyed them (and the ones later on are better imo) even though one or two of them might have been a little bit too long. Anyway I feel like the game is much more mature in that aspect than Layers of Fear which was like "HA! I SCARED YOU MOTHERFUCKER!".
Are there people that actually like that kind of thing though?
Maybe it's not as bad as Layers of Fear, but it's still that same type of "horror" which I really thought they might have moved on from, based on the first 60-90 minutes or so before that sequence.
Though I was enjoying it, what they set up initially was not so good that I think I want to push onward and see what the rest of the game has to offer, knowing there will be several more sequences like that.
 

pakkit

Banned
Are there people that actually like that kind of thing though?
Maybe it's not as bad as Layers of Fear, but it's still that same type of "horror" which I really thought they might have moved on from, based on the first 60-90 minutes or so before that sequence.
Though I was enjoying it, what they set up initially was not so good that I think I want to push onward and see what the rest of the game has to offer, knowing there will be several more sequences like that.

*raises hand*

Idk, I really like walking sims like Naissancee too, where Euclidian geometry and disorienting effects are used to put the player in a weird headspace. I also think Observer does a better job than Layers of Fear for creating a reason for all this visual trickery to be happening since you're forcefully invading people's subconsciouses. I found it a bit wearisome in LoF, but I enjoy it a lot more in Observer.

But I totally get that it might not be everyone's cuppa tea.
 

Mutant

Member
The game glitched and now I can't access the PDA that you need to use in order to take medicine. Uninstalling the game doesn't even fix it, I think it's tied to your save file. :\
 
Immensely enjoying the game, I just finished the 'Little Girl' case. The setting is really cool, I also love the voice actor for Lazarski.

Only downside so far are the biological and electronical detective vision, so annoying.
 

noomi

Member
Playing through it now, just finished up
hidden basement part in under the tattoo shop
. Not sure how far into the game I am yet... but I'm starting to feel a bit weird about the whole experience.

Strong start to set the stage, totally digging it, great atmosphere, graphics, neat detective mechanics and superb voice acting..... Then these really long and weird mind hacking dream sequences start and I'm just not enjoying them. The screen is constantly shaking, weird glitches on the screen, loud noises, rooms that make no fucking sense and are hard to look it, and it's not like these sequences are quick either, you're in them for like 30-45 minutes at a time... it's really draining me at this point.

Also I have no idea what purpose these mind hacks serve. Yeah cool, I'm in someone's mind, but nothing makes sense... why am I being shown this or that? Why I am walking around all over the place... how is this progressing the story?

I don't know.... going to give it a break and get back to it later.

For the most part I do enjoy it, but these mind hacking parts are ass.
 
I have encountered a bug in the
forest section. One of the boxes I need to remove has already been removed so I cannot progress.
Anyone else get this? any acknowledgement from the devs
 

bob_arctor

Tough_Smooth
Anyone get Reshade to work with this? Game refuses to boot with it. I want it for SMAA as in-game AA is way too blurry for me.

Game itself is awesome so far, just started it last night. Love the detective scanning/filters.
 
So I just finished the sequence with
Helena's psyche
in the Tattoo shop. Is this game just talking to doors and then seeing freaky shit for 15-20 minutes? I'm already pretty tired of it's storytelling and presentation. So much of the game has been standing still for minutes at a time watching an animated GIF talk to you.

The side quest with the
woman in the VR machine
was a really interesting story that ended so abruptly without any kind of reaction from Dan whatsoever. Felt like a complete waste of my time.
 

Theorry

Member
Hmm the framerate is really terrible on Xbox One. Almost unplayable. Like it drops to 20 fps or something when it loads stuff. No idea why this game isnt locked 60 to be fair. Think i wait for a patch or something for a more smooth experience.
 

dawid

Member
I want to play this but those hide and seek-moments seems so horrible to play. Are they hard or just annoying?
 

Gaplanet

Member
Yeah the game is great but I wonder if we'll ever have a performance patch (if possible) for consoles? The FPS is really painful at times (for Xbox One, I think PS4 too) and that makes it really hard to fully enjoy the game.
 
Great game and really liked the ending. However the overuse of effects is really obnoxious at times. And they could have done a lot better with the neural interrogations as well imo.
 

Gaplanet

Member
9GB update (just?) hit Xbox One. Anyone know what is it about?

Edit: Ahh found from Twitter. Mainly bug fixes and loading times on doors improved ~50%, that is nice. I wonder if any of these fixes will have an impact on FPS.
 

Lime

Member
Finished the game just now. The atmosphere is excellent and the highlight is definitely the level design and storytelling. The developers must surely dapple in some kind of hallucinogenic because some of the stuff was very trippy.

Incredible work once you consider how difficult it is to program, animate, and design interchanging levels and trippy visuals like this.

Rutger Hauer was also perfectly cast and did a great job acting. He really gave Daniel a lot of character and fitted the voice very well with the deteriorated biomechanical state of the gameworld.

SOMA and Observer go very well hand in hand, I think. The former is superior, but the latter is more experimental I think.
 

Trunim

Member
Any reviews out there for the next gen version? I have it on my ps4 but I never played it. Sucks that I can't upgrade it for a smaller fee or something.
 
Top Bottom