It’s nearly Halloween, which means that costumes are receiving their finishing touches and folks are likely burning through their catalog of horror games and movies. If I may, I’d like to make another recommendation to add to the pile, and it’s a short one with wonderfully dreadful vibes. I’m talking about Return of the Obra Dinn, my favorite mystery game, and one of the most striking whodunnits I’ve ever experienced.
You see, Halloween gets me in the mood for horror as much as the next guy, but the mystique in the air also piques my appetite for a a good mystery. Clue is one of my favorite films for a reason, and while Obra Dinn lacks a mansion stuffed full of screwballs and Tim Curry, it does make up for it with strong visuals and a sense of slowly unfurling dread. It is masterful in its creation of a cursed ship, a missing crew, and the unwitting insurance investigator who gets to the bottom of its compelling mystery. Return of the Obra Dinn is also crucially discounted to $13.39 until November 1 on Steam, PlayStation, and the Nintendo Switch. It’s a game best enjoyed over a few nights while you’re huddled under some blankets in the dark, making it a perfect game to enjoy as Hallloween draws closer.
In Obra Dinn, you are cast as an investigator sent to unravel the mystery of the titular ship, which has unceremoniously appeared in the harbor after having been believed to be missing. Except when it turns up at port, the Obra Dinn is missing every member of its crew, and shows signs of having been through hell to get there. With a ledger that accounts for everyone that should’ve been on the ship, you begin poking and prodding at corpses on the vessel in order to discover the fate of everyone aboard, as well as that of its missing goods.
In order to help piece things together, you use a pocket watch that the game refers to as a Memento Mortem. When opened, the world gets enveloped in a void that comes from within the watch, transporting the player to the moment of the corpse’s death. These frozen scenes are the bulk of Obra Dinn, and a key component in how utterly cool the game is. Once you’re dropped into them, these immaculately choreographed scenes welcome you to begin connecting names to faces thanks to morsels of dialogue and situational awareness. The game is one big logic puzzle where you are literally just trying to deduce who died and how, but the greater mystery and story that unfolds as you piece that together is nothing short of epic.
Words cannot express how much joy I got out of just that. At first, everyone but the captain of the ship is a mystery to you and little more than a name in a book. But over the course of the story, certain characters step up and become more than just another crew member. Even if they aren’t the primary focus of the scene, there are plenty of folks in Obra Dinn who largely operate in the background, and studying them and their motivations is just as compelling as the central mystery. At times, the two are even intrinsically linked, and it can pay off to be particularly studious, especially when it comes to making breakthroughs in the late-game stretch. I spent an entire holiday guffawing at the actions that some characters took and cheering on the breaks in the case that I made by following certain folks closely.
Much like this year’s wonderfully weird Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, Obra Dinn is a big-ass puzzle box telling a swashbuckling tragedy in an arresting style. Obra Dinn is a fully 3D game that invites you to walk all across the derelict ship, but it’s presented in 1-bit-style graphics. The monochrome style of older PC games is alive and well in Obra Dinn, and the distinct look gives this otherwise deceptively cutting-edge title a vintage feel.
If you’re looking for a game that welds classic and modern adventure games into a succinct and stylish package, you can’t go wrong with Return of the Obra Dinn. It’s got a simple but electrifying premise, and it isn’t long before it gets its claws into you. Deciphering who’s who on such a large ship can feel like a daunting task, but once you get to know a handful of characters, the game really comes alive, and before you know it, you’ll be ripping through it. My advice: savor it as much as you can by spreading it out over the week. Give yourself the time and space to ponder the faces and words of this enigmatic crew and really live on board the Obra Dinn. By the time you’re done, you’ll almost have wished you were aboard for its final, cursed voyage.