4/5 ★ – Smabbott's review of Return of the Obra Dinn.

Potential Return of the Obra Dinn is a truly unique experience. While leaning heavily on the minimalist art style and timely manor, the game shines within its deduction capabilities. Consisting of 60 people to find, Obra Dinn prioritises learning fates through moments of disaster and cross referencing that with names in scenes. Scenes will contain multiple people giving off their roles through actions, hammocks, placements in pictures. It all coincides with the deduction process. The player is presented with a fob watch which allows you to play out the deaths of everyone on board once you locate that specific memory. Upon seeing the scene in question, it is added to your book which details each chapter and each crew members fate. It is advised to work backward through the book, as the game has a tendency to balloon out of control if you discover too many scenes. The game makes every crew member blurry until you have sufficient information to identify the person and then they become clear. It’s effective but unfortunately I feel the art style as brilliant as it is can obscure some scenes. For example, someone was being stabbed, but the visual presented someone being strangled. Other fates like being spiked or clawed by a beast who look like people could be a foreign enemy, but they’re not. The story of the game is possibly the weakest aspect. The game has a story and it’s alright, but it could have been great. A lot of the plot points are kind of sudden with no explanation. Someone cuts a person’s leg off and it’s never explained why. The UI is brilliant, it really immerses you in the world the game has built. Tutorials being cropped out of the screen with notes of the score booming in are so effective. The score in general is fantastic. Certain tracks convey sorrow, excitement and horror it all works incredibly well. Return of the Obra Dinn is a great experience which makes your brain tingle whenever you solve three fates with names and solidify them. The rush of adrenaline you get when so many pieces start falling into place. Names start to fill themselves in as you find so many connections. Upon reaching half way through the names, the game got easier as you went on. Despite a simple story and very few moments of confusion with the art style, this feels like a birth of a new genre and I’m waiting to see if someone else does anything like this. Currently playing The Roottrees are Dead which is kind of similar but not as atmospheric. Overall, this was a great experience I would recommend to anyone who liked this kind of thing.