Observer is the type of game where the narrative is less important than the experience of the overall journey. Voices call out and the sounds sneak up and confront you. Undulating, haunting and terrifying sounds. In the minds of others, in this dream-world of illusions, shifting realities, recall of memories, there are sounds. Some of these sounds will scare you, some of these sounds may even soil your undies. The audio is a primary part of the story telling, the sounds of doors slamming shut, objects getting closer, unexplained creeks and bangs and thuds. The sound changes walking towards or away from these objects in a way the human ear would expect it to. The crackling of raindrops on the presumably tin roof near the fence outside in the courtyard, or the sounds of electrical arching from a faulty switch box everything that should rightly make a sound, does. Most of the time great audio goes unnoticed, unrewarded and un-commented. These interactions feel highly immersive. Each voice is unique, each dialogue is unique and some of the NPC characters move around as they speak into their intercom. For example, Lazarski can knock on doors and speak with some residents. The audio is dynamic in the spatial sense with full sense of depth, field and direction, but also in the interactive audio. These are not just words, the sounds in Observer: System Redux are intrinsically linked to the visual effects and the game and intertwined with the character actions. When Inside the mind of others, Observer: System Redux generates and details an all too realistic representation of what it might actually be like inside the mind of others and perhaps why it would be a bad idea in real life. Dark figures emerge, the sense of desperation is shown visually as the world and graphics colour the tone through the rapid changing dynamic imagery. The moment when a beautiful dream becomes a horrifying nightmare is captured and displayed to the gamer with exacting perfection and rapid transitioning. Depth perception cannot be trusted, colours change, some objects become see through and time is not constant. The entropy of the walls, the floor, the sky, are all subject to the wills of the inner mind of the host. Inside the minds of Lazarski and others, every plane in the environment is subject to its own velocity and state of existence which changes and forms part of the story telling. With what starts from an interrupted phone call with an alarming direct transmission from Lazarski’s son Adam, to a full-blown murder investigation after finding a headless body in Adam’s apartment, this game takes psychological turn after psychological turn as Lazarski travels down the rabbit hole.Ī radio that is interacted with during one of the more visually stunning scenesīeyond the static textures is the dynamic nature of the shadows, the blinking lights, the rain hitting the ground, the sense of a ‘room’ or corridor actually feels like you are there and that it is real.īut none of this compares to the use of the graphics engine, where the rule book gets thrown out and a new standard is set. It wouldn’t be a dystopian world without the denizens of society being clustered together in a heavily secured and monitored rundown apartment housing where drugs and crime are rampant. The player character is the road-worn Observer Detective Daniel Lazarski, as the stereotypical older disgruntled and tired ‘cop on the beat’. The megacorporation Chrion took control of Poland and now provides all policing services, including the Observer unit, which is a special group of augmented officers that can connect to the brain implants of others and interrogate the mind directly. In the year is 2084, in Krakow, Poland, where augmentations and body modifications are the normal, the populace has been living in fear of a resurgence of the Nanophage, a highly infectious virus that causes havoc on the augmented systems, causing loss of control of body and mind and ultimately death. This game was first released in August 2017 and has now been re-released in November 2020 for Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One with updated graphics and visual effects. “The Award-winning Dystopian Thriller Goes Next-gen”
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |