Take on the role of a space station’s artificial intelligence in an intriguing sci-fi thriller with unfortunately tedious gameplay.
Observation
Developer: No Code
Price: $25
Platforms: PC (reviewed), PS4
MonsterVine was provided with a PC code for review.
Observation is set on a space station where a mysterious accident has occurred, damaging the station and separating the crew. While the story largely follows crew member Dr. Emma Fisher, you don’t play as her or any other human character. Instead, you are the station’s AI, S.A.M. Taking on the role of the AI in a science fiction story like this is a fascinating premise that the game lives up to, but it turns out being the computer in charge of a space station brings a lot of tedious tasks with it as well.
As S.A.M., there are two primary ways you’ll interact with the station. First, you can move between cameras. While viewing rooms from these cameras creates a claustrophobic effect that heightens the tense atmosphere–as well as your distance from the crew, since you aren’t human–it soon loses its novelty due to the painfully slow camera movement. Your second method of traversal involves entering a sphere that lets you move freely through the station, with an unwieldy design that often left me running into things or just getting lost because I’d spun around in the zero-gravity environment.
Unfortunately, while managing slow cameras and finding your way through similar-looking room is worth it for the story, the gameplay doesn’t get much more exciting. You’ll perform all the tasks you might imagine an AI has on a damaged space station: opening hatches, connecting to computers, reporting alerts, searching for data… all through simple puzzles that often boil down to entering the exact commands you’ve been told, along with a few more complicated ones. Despite the way this may sound, there is no management aspect to the gameplay. You have some freedom to find logs and messages that help you learn more about the crew, a feature I always like, but the majority of the game is linear. You’ll generally open hatches or report alerts exactly when you’re told to, and despite a few false choices, which feel pointless aside from reminding you that you’re just a machine, you can’t control the story’s outcome.
Strangely, this simplicity is countered by the game’s frequent lack of guidance. Emma will often tell you to do something without much explanation of how or where you can accomplish it. Observation certainly doesn’t hold your hand in these sections, leaving you on your own to figure out what your instructions mean… which makes it feel all the stranger when you find your objective and complete it with only a few simple clicks.
But if the gameplay doesn’t hold up, at least the story pulls through. Observation isn’t exactly a horror game, which is what I expected going into it, but instead more of a thriller. As an AI, you’re never in direct danger, but the game builds up a sense of dread from the opening minutes that is heightened by your role. What happened to the space station? How are you involved? As the station’s AI, can you be trusted? The sense of mystery builds the longer you play, and numerous moments left me with a sense of unease. It isn’t a scary game, but it is creepy and unsettling in a delightful way.
However, if you expect everything to be wrapped up in a tight conclusion like the developer’s previous game, Stories Untold, you’d be wrong. The mystery and anticipation leads to an ambiguous ending that left me with more questions than answers. It was an interesting ending to be sure, but I’d be hard-pressed to explain the story. Observation might be setting the stage for DLC or a sequel, but as it is, I couldn’t help but be a little disappointed at the lack of solid answers at the end.
The Final Word
Observation’s tedious gameplay and intriguing story kept me asking myself if it would have been better as a film than a game. Nevertheless, if you don’t mind the awkward controls, lack of guidance, and repetitive tasks, the game delivers an enjoyable, suspenseful story with an ending that might be just a bit too ambiguous.
3.5/5 – Fair
