Observer Reviews

>observer_ is a wonderful futuristic Cyberpunk adventure game with plenty of detective work that adds the occasional scary thrill. The story is well written and the interrogation scenes are a wild, fun, vivid psychedelic ride.

Observer is a wonderful game from start to finish. It is both fear-instilling and intriguing. So, if you're looking for a horror game that is visually striking and insightful enough to warrant self-reflection, Observer is a wonderful choice.

Observer is a tad clunky as a straight detective game but its story, setting and mind-diving conceit make it much more than that. It's gorgeously depressing, uncomfortable in a number of ways, and you won't be able to shake it from your own thoughts for some time.

I haven’t seen a world this interesting in horror for a while. I apparently took 62 screenshots while playing, and that goes to show how much there is to take in. A few minor technical flaws keep me from giving it a perfect score, but Observer is one of my favorite games in a year that has much to offer.

Experience strange days in this cyberpunk horror game.

While the long, immersion-breaking load times and repetitive nightmare sections are disappointing, horror fans will still find a game worth sinking their teeth into with Observer. Observer's story is reason enough to play the game to completion, but even those that aren't driven by the disturbing cyberpunk tale may still enjoy its puzzles and compelling crime scene investigations. Overall, Observer is a step up from Bloober Team's previous effort, Layers of Fear, and cements the studio as one to watch for horror fans.

Ultimately, the performance complaints are just nitpicks. You do not need a solid 60fps to enjoy taking a ride into future Poland. >OBSERVER_ is a superior, more frightening take on the experience we glimpsed from Westwood Studios’ Blade Runner adaptation back in 1997. Outstanding level design and a perfectly paced nightmare make for one of the best adventure titles I’ve ever played. You will feel a sense of cybernetic dread that has been missing since your last run in with Shodan. This is a must play for fans of the genre or anyone looking for a solid scare. 9/10 tears in the rain - would mindjack these people again.

If you don’t like ‘walking sims’ then Observer isn’t going to change your mind, even if it does include some rudimentary detective work. However, if you like to be swept away by a story and pulled in to a world where every door has a new experience behind it, then close the curtains, turn off the lights, crank up the surround sound and immerse yourself in this great cyberpunk horror tale.

No summary available

An impressive blend of old school cyberpunk and modern survival horror, that’s almost ruined by one of the worst acting performances of the year.

>observer_ takes the beats from Bloober Team’s own Layers of Fear, adds a layer of cyberpunk, and somehow comes out the other end both unnerving, and more than the sum of its parts. There are a few small technical hiccups present, and some infrequent uneven voice work, but beyond that there’s an amazing story about the human toll of investigation and observation.

Observer begins like many classic mystery stories: with a phone call. Detective Daniel Lazarski is in his patrol car when he receives a desperate distress call from his estranged son, Adam. Tracking down the signal, Lazarski races through the futuristic and corporate-controlled Fifth Polish Republic to find the call coming from a run-down apartment complex in the poor part of the city. The grizzled protagonist steps out of his car and into the building, entering a hellish labyrinth where both the sins of his past and the horrors of humanity’s technological future await him.

The gameplay in these scenes is mostly focused on light, environmental puzzles with the rare ‘don’t get spotted by this creature’ moments. Looking at the right part of a room, walking in the right sequence of doors and even occasionally connecting multiple objects together as imagery symbolism bombards the player in a dream like manner. This can be problematic, but the environmental design by Bloober Team does a great job at directing the player where they need to go. Audio, lighting and good level structuring shine as I rarely felt lost even when the rooms around me were a labyrinth in layout, and playing with the sense. The confusion on Observer is deliberate and intentionally there to stress out the player, and blur the lines of reality. There is a downside to the deliberate confusion: multiple times during my playthrough of the Steam version, I encountered sections where a necessary world object wouldn’t load. When these glitches pop-up it undid some of good faith I had with the world. “Is this me not understanding the puzzle, or is the game broken?” is something I had to ask myself a few times, luckily the saves are generous and the loads are quick, and the problems were limited in the review build.

Observer feels like a step down from Layers of Fear. It's intriguing and mind-bending enough for sure with its atmosphere sure to creep out people. But the lead VA, annoying artefacts and some of the horror elements just don't click.