Obsidian Review

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            Obsidian

Review by EnigmaJune 2002

A classic. That’s what it is. Obsidian may be the most innovative, imaginative puzzle adventure ever conceived. It will plunge you into an Orwellian dream of bureaucratic lunacy. All its elements contribute to a coherent, high satire that might just elevate the game into the realm of art. People either love it or hate it, but no one can deny that Obsidian is a standout.

Welcome to Your Nightmare

Obsidian’s plot tends toward the dreamlike, allowing the developer’s imaginations to soar into the weird and spectacular.  The main character, Lyla, and her boyfriend Max live decades in the future, when the environmental mistakes of our time have nearly ruined the Earth. Using nanotechnology, Lyla and Max have created a highly sophisticated satellite designed to clean up the atmosphere.  Danger looms when the satellite unexpectedly develops a mind of its own, then builds, or rather, grows, a strange structure near the couple’s vacation campsite and lures Max into it. Hearing his scream, Lyla runs to the place and is sucked into a vortex that leads her into her own nightmare come alive.

In her search for Max, who appears in the game from time to time, Lyla and the player contend with the satellite’s twisted mind.  As the game tells you, “your rules do not apply,” and that’s true, especially when it comes to gravity. Ironically, the satellite has concocted devious rules that it’s your task to break. In the first segment, the best of the game, you’re trapped in a bureaucratic nightmare world. The playing areas extend from the floor, up the walls, and eventually to the ceiling. Sliding, climbing, and elevating through this area simply astonished me.  You’ll be interacting with “vidbots,” television screens with mechanical bodies, who insist that everything be done according to their rules. In order to repair a damaged bridge that might lead you to Max you’ll have to satisfy their demands, designed to be impossible to meet unless you learn how to get around their requirements.

Rules Are Made to Be Broken

In order to break those rules you’ll have to solve some of the most creative, devious puzzles of my gaming experience, especially the bureaucratic maze. Maze haters don’t need to worry about this one. It consists of nine cubicles, all of which you can see easily.  The task is to gather the right combination of colored cards, which you must spend to enter the last cubicle, your goal. Along the way you’ll meet more vidbots who deliver hilarious spoofs of medical exams and family photos. I found this puzzle to be the bull’s-eye of the game’s satirical punch, a perfect hit in the bureaucratic solar plexus.

Not only the maze, but the puzzles in the rest of the first segment of the game contribute to the satire seamlessly. Finding a document in the filing system, making a telephone call, and repairing a clock figure into the warped mindset of the satellite. Later, the game’s approach becomes a bit more standard, but it contains some of the most notorious puzzles in gaming history. Oddly, I found some of the most infamous puzzles to be fairly easy, while some of the more standard fare stumped me. The lightening tree and the broken-up waves require patience and frustrate many players, but I had little trouble with them. The chemistry puzzle and the “Church of the Machine,” however, sent me to a walkthrough almost immediately.

The final puzzle is one of the most perfidious in adventure games, considered to be virtually impossible by many players. Walkthroughs won’t help you with it; it’s randomized. You must simply bludgeon your way through it, perhaps getting lucky. Yet, again, I’ve solved it six times by focusing my eyes slightly above the playing screen, which allows a wider range of vision. The endgame payoff, however, is a real letdown. After all that imaginative humor and innovative design, both of the two possible endings are too short to satisfy players. I had the impression that the developers ran out of time and/or money.

Hold, as ‘Twere, the Mirror up to Nature

I found the acting in Obsidian, with one glaring exception, absolutely marvelous. The vidbots, whose mouths are the focus of their television screen faces, hit the precise pitch of sneering arrogance required to drive you mad. When you return to them they have nasty new things to say. In the maze, the vidbot who gives you your cards at the main entrance plays out a little drama, ever more unsatisfied with your failed attempts to get through to your goal. The sardonic humor these actors provide lifted Obsidian to a level far above most games. It worked perfectly.

But alas, the actor playing Max simply isn’t in the same league as the rest of the cast. While not actively bad, he delivers his lines but not much else. Rather than the mirror of a real man in love and caught in a trap, all I could see was an inexperienced, struggling actor. The interracial aspect of the romance between Lyla and Max was nice to see in a game, however.

Obsidian’s cutscenes and music also contribute enormously to the game’s surreal atmosphere. Gorgeous skies, the little robots that comprise a recurring theme, and a tiny Mariachi guitarist keep the eye candy popping. During the maze sequence, sappy elevator music perfectly enhances the mood. The music in the Piazza sequence kept me entranced enough to wish the puzzle there were more difficult.

With the exception of Max, everything fits into a coherent whole that leaves a lasting impression of a wild dream come alive.

But Is it Art?

I’ve been arguing for some time that adventure games not only represent a breakthrough in entertainment, but have become something of a new art form. By giving the player control over movement and choices about what to do next, adventures become rather like interactive movies. Especially when the game takes a first-person format you become a participant rather than a mere spectator, never knowing what’s around the next corner. “Adventure” is the very best name for it, because you personally experience whatever the developers’ imaginations have cooked up.

In Obsidian, the developers cooked up a feast of sly, acid satire supported by perfectly matched artwork that’s as upside down and sideways as the game’s humor. The snide comedy, the startling, mind-bending layout of the backgrounds, the mesmerizing locations, the clever puzzles—all fit together, perfectly tuned.

In my humble opinion, it’s art. Obsidian is more than worth the money. I found it unforgettable. The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: Rocket Science Games Publisher: Segasoft Release Date: 1996

Available for: Macintosh Windows

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System Requirements

PC: Windows 95 Pentium 90 MHz Processor 16 MB RAM 16-bit video Sound Blaster 16 4X CD-ROM drive 20 MB free hard disk space

Macintosh: OS 7.5 280 MHz 4X CD-ROM drive 16-bit, 640×480 display 1 MB video RAM 16 MB RAM 20 MB free hard disk space

Where to Find It

      Copyright © Electric Eye Productions.  All rights reserved.  No reproduction in whole or in part without express written permission.

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14 Responses to Fear Factor

  • Fear Factor | Tap-Repeatedly.com | Reality Topics Blog

    […] nobody@flickr.com (graftedno1) wrote a very interesting post today.   Here’s a quick excerpt:My greatest fear is to be trapped alone in a confined space with a blind human, in total darkness. They have a heightened sense of smell and hearing, and. […]

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    Lewis, you made me think of the scariest moments I’ve experienced in gaming, and we’re very similar people.

    Bioshock had two moments – the dentist and the flooded room filled with mannequins.

    Thief had Return to the Cathedral, which was terrifying to me. Thief 3 had Shalebridge Cradle, which is so scary it ought to be fined.

    System Shock 2 kept me on the edge of my seat, but it was more lonely panic than true fear.

    Korsakovia was so scary that I uninstalled it.

    And STALKER. Oh, god, the haunted labs in STALKER. The latter two games don’t have scares like that. Few games do.

    It’s especially rare for a game to have more than mere “moments” – for a game to be scary from beginning to end, that’s a triumph.

    Wonderful article. As if Gregg’s review wasn’t enough to convince me that Penumbra is not something I have the courage to play!

  • DPenn

    I’m with you Lewis … I’m a bit of a puss. I just have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of dread as entertainment.

    Still, I’m drawn to dark stories when they have something interesting to say, whether it’s a game like Thief or a film like, say, Gaspar Noe’s Irreversible. So I’ll push through, sometimes peering through my fingers.

    The trouble with games, though, is that if you look through your fingers, you’re probably just going to have to play through the scenario again. :~)

  • Mike "Scout" Gust

    I wanted to play this game. I downloaded the demo but the controls were just too wonky for me to get my head around. I liked the atmospheric vibe a lot. I think I’m a bit desensitized from an overdose of horror movies in my youth so I don’t so much get the dread thing from these games as a nice creepy vibration. If only the controls were better…

  • Lewis B

    @ Mike, what’s wrong with the controls bud? As someone who despises poor control schemes, Penumbra’s is just like any other FPS, except to examine things you right click on them.  To use things you left click.  I’m not sure that can be considered difficult 🙂

  • Gregg B

    @Steerpike: Yeah my greatest shit-scared moments were with those games too. A few spoilers below people, so beware.

    Bioshock – Haha, I remember the dentist. I didn’t really find the game that scary overall but the bit where you go into the wine cellar and notice a mannequin facing the wall and after upgrading your weapon it’s stood directly behind you motionless and quiet just for a moment before attacking you. I shat a brick. I also missed that bit originally until Lew told me about it.

    System Shock 2 – same as you really, more unremitting tension all the way through rather than specific terrifying moments. Oh actually, theres a bit where you call a lift and it breaks then you realise a service droid is coming to fix it… I do remember having sleep issues after my first encounter with the cyborg ninjas though.

    Thief: The Dark Project – The Sword and Return to the Cathedral and Down in the Bonehoard and well, loads of them. The Sword made me break out into goosebumps though because there was a bit where you could hear this creepy giggling which seemed like it was following me about then it suddenly changed to this horrible throaty noise. What made matters worse was that the EAX (bless you Creative) made my foot steps sound like somebody else was there with me. That level was incredible, a bit too incredible as it seems I missed great chunks of it because I was so eager to leave.

    Thief II: The Metal Age – Trail of Blood where you end up in that opening with those damn tree beasts. God the first time I saw one of those hurtling towards me I actually died shortly afterward. Do you remember that Mechanist child walking around on one of the levels? That was a little creepy.

    Then there’s Penumbra: Overture – quite a few bits but I’m not mentioning them here.

    Oh and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – The brain scorcher lab just because it was so damn quiet. My imagination seriously got the better of me there. Those stuffed animals and heads I’d seen in various buildings led me to believe that those creatures were lurking somewhere in the Zone, specifically that lab.

    @Mike: My control setup was perfect after some tweaking (as well as the simple weapon swing fix). If you ever fancy giving it another go, give me a shout and I’ll let you know my setup.

  • Lewis B

    I’m not sure why guys, but one of my starting paragraphs had gone missing, even though I copied it straight from the original source, and It was fine earlier. 

    Incase you missed it due to some technical issue you might want to re-read just after “Well no she wouldn’t in truth, but in Penumbra: Overture you don’t want to move anyway.” at the very start for those who’ve already read the article. Apologies 🙂

  • Mike "Scout" Gust

    Lewis, it was the weapon swing. It had this terrible, unresponsive feel to it, like trying to hit through molasses. I couldn’t stand using it. I tried the .ini fix as mentioned in the review but it didn’t seem to help. Of course this was the demo…but that shouldn’t have made any difference. I might try the second game instead as I guess they did away with the weapons thing.

    I’m see your first paragraph just fine. It’s the dialogue, right?

  • jdeuel

    I like the argument that weapons can remove fear, but even loaded to the teeth with ammo in AVP’99 the Marine missions were frightful because the enemy was anywhere at any time.

    As for Penumbra Overture, if the controls are anything like the original Penumbra they need to hack in some Wii-Remote 3d controls. I did not like using my mouse for 3d movements.

  • Gregg B

    @Mike: I’ve read that many people avoided conflict altogether in Overture which incidentally is something forced upon you in Black Plague. As somebody who has been renovating a house over the last 6 months with no DIY experience I can safely say that swinging a hammer is significantly easier in real life than it is in Overture without the fix. The fix balanced that for me.

    I’d highly recommend completing the first Penumbra because it’s one big build up to Black Plague which spoils the ending to Overture in the intro. And it’s a great ending too. Just so you know!

  • Lewis B

    @ Steerpike, those moments you mention are all my worst too!!  Do you remember the Robot labs in SS2? Absolutely terrifying, waiting for robots to burst out on you! 🙁 oh and have you ever player Condemned?

    @ Mike, The use of weapons in Penumbra is different to say HL2, where the player is physically holding the weapon, as in Penumbra it floats slightly infront of you.  However, if you change the control method to normal weapon swing, it’s no different!  Speak to Greggi and he’ll tell you what to do 🙂

    @ jdeuel, AVP the original and its sequal were scary however what type of fear do you think it is? I don’t think it’s anything more than sheer tension.  Having a Smart Gun makes you feel incredibly powerful.  I can honestly say in Penumbra the fear is sheer unrivalled terror, where you actually have to force yourself to play on.  It genuinly is that scary! 🙂

  • Jason Dobry

    It’s so true, an arsenal of weapons and ammo rapidly deflates any sense of horror or uneasiness in any game for reasons you already mentioned. Sakey, I thought Bioshock was more “lonely panic,” while I was pretty much always terrified in System Shock 2. I really, really, REALLY did not want to enter The Many’s nursery, and my weapons were so unreliable and ammo so scarce that I never felt safe.

    Silent Hill was terrifying for the same reasons. Ammo was rare and I frequently had to rely on my pipe for self-defense.  Even when I had ammo, the game mechanics prevented my character from being anything other than marginal with any firearm.

    Fear had one moment for me: I was climbing up a ladder, and as I reached the upper platform, my guy briefly looked down as he climbed off. As my perspective looked up again, that Ring-esque little girl was RIGHT THERE, reaching for me. I screamed and she was gone.

    What else…the original Aliens vs. Predator sent me into a locker room and I could only hear the facehuggers scurrying about somewhere within. I had to go in there. I advanced about three steps before the damn thing screamed and filled up my screen with its repulsive underside as it implanted me with its spawn. My roommate made fun of me for weeks for screaming like a girl child.

    Korsakovia–meh.  I was too annoyed and frustrated by the box rearrangement/jumping puzzles to be scared. I uninstalled it after an hour of play, I think. Maybe the scary parts were later, but I doubt it.

    As for Penumbra, I did play through about half of it before other games distracted me. I remember unease and creepiness, but no sweaty fear. I think I’m to blame here, or, more precisely, my daughter, who was still an infant at the time and generally allowed me only to play during the day for 45 minutes at a time. I was denied total immersion and the fear effect suffered. Maybe I should give it another go after I finish Call of Pripyat since she sleeps through the night now. With any luck, Penumbra will keep me from doing the same.

  • Gregg B

    I played the demo of F.E.A.R. but that ladder scare is the only bit I remember. Christ, that made me jump. I’m not too good with cat scares.

    Also I felt exactly the same about Korsakovia. It was creepy at first but then it began to irritate me far too much and it just soured the experience. I stopped playing as a result. Not to mention, when I realised I could bash those smoke-things with my crowbar they didn’t bother me nearly as much.

  • Online Up

    Great article. I look forward to reading more in the future.

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