Observation - PS4

I went into this game knowing as little as possible and I think that is the best way to experience Observation. My only hope is that I wanted this game to be somewhat scary. I was hoping it wasn’t going to be similar to FireWatch, where the trailers led you to believe that you were solving a mystery or discovering something out in the wilderness. I mean I guess if you really want to look at it you discovered who you really are out in the wilderness, but I was hoping for something a little different. I still very much enjoyed FireWatch but I am hoping Observation is able to give me this constant unease trying to figure out what has happened aboard this space vessel.

Right away the game has vibes of Alien Isolation and Dead Space based on the silence of space that you are thrust into and the constant unease you feel. In those games you were very aware of what the issue was whether that was xenomorphs or nercomorphs trying to kill you. Here, you are unsure what or who the problem is, as you slowly start to unravel the issue of what went wrong. The game sets you aboard the observation space vessel where something has just gone wrong and you are the AI of the ship. You have just been rebooted, which has left your memory blank and the only remaining crew member is an astronaut named Emma. She’s helping reboot you and trying to figure out what is happening at the same time with you. Placed in the shoes of the AI provides an interesting persepctive and while you would think that you eliminate some of the tension, it actually ratchets it up as you are very limited to what you can see on the security cameras. Using only cameras has worked well for other games and adds a level of tension and it continues to work well here. You also have the ability to slowly move around the ship using a drone can go in any direction inside and outside of the space station. All of these cameras and drone aren’t the easiest to control which is how some of the classic horror games added to the sense of dread by making you feel uncomfortable and outside of your elements like the tank controls from the early survival horror games.

One thing that becomes clear very early in the game is that there is some higher power trying to control you all at the same time of trying to figure out what is going on. The game plays out very slowly and takes you in between dialogue sections and puzzle sections. The main game is centered around puzzles and trying to figure out schematics, plans and diagrams of that sort. There is a vast array of puzzles and they all dont tell you how to solve them for the most part and some can become quite frustrating at times when what you needed to do was the easiest thing in front of you but you might have hit a wrong button. Other puzzles that dont make sense is you need to figure out the password for a crew members laptop and they just conveniently left it on a sticky note on the other side of the room. The game is relatively short at around 4-5 hours which is a perfect length that doesn’t overstay its welcome and anything longer may have been a bad idea. The ending leaves the door open for a sequel in some sorts. It provides good closure on the singular story but also allows the universe to keep going on a different note should a sequel come around.

Overall this was a decent psychological sci-fi horror game that didn’t use on jump scares to keep you on the edge of your seat but instead relied on an ominous feeling that left you uneasy at times. Unfortunately it would have been nice if they had somehow been able to keep you on the edge of your seat or uneasy at all times. Using the AI to restrict your movement to minimum was a good idea rather than to be another astronaut who is able to move much easier around the space station. The story did feel slow paced at times and bare even though the game was only 4-5 hours. There are much better horror games and even space horror games out there but observation offers a different perspective from the usual.