Review game Observer: not this is the future we were waiting for

Games in the style of cyberpunk, there is a lot: , Snatcher, Shadowrun, , Syndicate, System Shock. The list is long. But how many of you can remember video games, which are based at the same time cyberpunk and horror? Personally, I like tried, and did not remember a single one. Polish Studio Bloober Team has released their new game that combines a fantasy world in the spirit of "blade Runner" with elements of the survival horror genre. Pass up such an unusual project I just could not.

Game: Observer
the Platform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Linux, OS X, Windows
the Genre: Survival Horror
the release date: August 15, 2017
the Developer: Bloober Team
the Publisher: Aspyr

About the Studio Bloober Team became aware of only last year, when the sale of their unusual horror Layers of Fear, telling the story gradually descending from the mind of the artist. Intertwined in this powerful psychological insight and visionary approach except that some famous film Directors. Poles by the unusual art-making was able to recreate on screen the process of confluence of the human mind when it dreams, love, fears and other emotions intertwined in a dreadful whirlpool of illusions, and then fall on the heads of the players. The game was fairly well received by audience and critics, and the poles began to work on the next project.

This game turned out to be Observer – futuristic horror in the style of cyberpunk. I mentioned in the beginning of the cult film directed by Ridley Scott of "blade Runner" (1982), because the role of the protagonist of the game played Dutch actor Rutger Hauer. Yes, Yes! The one that played in the movie Replicant Roy Batty. In the game he got the role of "observer" — and an employee of Chiron Corporation, engaged in investigating various crimes, searching and questioning people, as well as removing from their minds valuable information in the case, if they don't want to meet the authorities.

Picture the developers painted a very depressed, as befits the genre. According to the history of the game in the next few decades most people will volunteer for the modification of their bodies with the help of augments. And all would be well, in the same series Deus Ex, but only in 2047 happened to the epidemic of digital virus "nanotag". The virus has caused serious disruptions in the work of nanomachines, linking the living tissue and electronic components. Defective electronics caused serious damage to the carrier, eventually killing it. Digital plague wiped out millions of people and completely defeat its scientists and failed.

The misfortune of mankind is not over. In 2052 started another world war between China, USA and Russia, which lasted seven years and was called "the Great decimation" (the decimation in the Roman army called the execution of every tenth by lot). A large part of the planet's surface became uninhabitable due to nuclear bombing. In 2059 on the territory of the former Europe, a Fifth of the Polish Republic, whose population was 62 million people. It is ruled by one of the most powerful corporations Chiron, who survived the war. Observers of the Corporation trying to prevent uprisings and fight with any manifestations of dissent in the country.

One of the observers is the protagonist of the game – Daniel Lazarski. He suffers from digital nanotag virus, but suppresses it in his body, taking expensive medication, "Synchroton" issued by the Corporation to its employees. The history of the Observer starts in 2084, when the main character gets a call from the son of Adam, with whom he lost contact many years ago. Daniel feels that his child is in danger and traced the call, it appears in the old apartment complex for the poor. In the suspected apartment of the son of Daniel discovers someone's headless body then rushes to find the killer, hoping that his son was still alive.

Unfortunately, the result is a mysterious system failure, the building is cut off from the outside world, so the further the game takes place exclusively within its limits. Neither of which open world do not even dream. Developer Bloober Team is no stranger to working with confined spaces, so especially do not worry about diversity. With him here, everything is in order. Oppressive atmosphere, combining high technology and endemic poverty, the frightening realism with which she embodied on the screen. People do not trust each other and hate the employees of the Corporation Chiron, but the main character has long been accepted. Work is work.

In the Arsenal of Daniel there are two basic tools. The electromagnetic shield allows him to explore different mechanisms and electronic devices, including implants. And thanks to the biological shield the observer is able to analyze, for example, blood stains, torn hair, and other tissue found at the crime scene. Switching between the two visors, the player will find clues and get out on the trail constantly eludes him criminal, to find out what really happened in the apartment where he lived the son of the main character.

Another important tool of observers is the ability to enter the minds of other people, provided that their brains are implanted with the corresponding augmentation and it is compatible with existing observer equipment. If you wish to penetrate even into the brain of the deceased person, but company rules strictly prohibit it, as the operative could eventually hurt myself. Inside the people's consciousness of the observer every time it appears in a completely new place, not subject to the laws of physics and logic. The time passes is not so, gravity, light and sound are propagated by their own rules, and indeed one gets the impression that you are trapped in someone's nightmare.

Here is how time here the same "horror" that I talked about above. Surreal scenes that you have to contemplate in the maze of someone else's mind, it can permanently get you out of balance. Frankly, the poles managed to create so virtual spooky atmosphere that from time to time I deliberately turned off the game to recover. Sometimes I had the feeling that I'm about to go crazy along with the main hero of the game. And what in the second was Daniel Lazarski, I'm even afraid to imagine. Creepy allusions, nightmarish imagery, fixated space, oppressive background sound – this game can be easily used to torture inmates at Guantanamo Bay. And that she is beautiful.

To Get out of another's consciousness is not so simple. You have to solve various puzzles to move through a psychedelic nightmare, focusing on the not always obvious prompts that activate absolutely crazy mechanisms using, for example, flying TV, crying like a child. In General, very difficult for me to explain to you all this psychedelic variety simple human words. I'll never know where the poles were inspired to create their game, but all this gives the player a lasting impression. Nothing like I have in my entire life not seen anywhere else.

While in reality, you will eventually have to communicate with tenants via special intercoms built into doors of their apartments. Still, after all no one is eager to open the door to the corporate tracker. Dialogue system rarely gives a choice, often simply giving the protagonist the necessary information. The people with whom you can communicate face to face, in the game you will find almost no that only reinforces the sense of loneliness and helplessness. There are some rats, pigeons are stupid, robotic cleaners, and the ubiquitous digital advertising.

Occasionally you will come across on personal computers and terminals, in which you can find many interesting things. This personal correspondence, and the most recent issues of periodicals, and a variety of applications, one of which is a video game With Fire and Swords: Spiders. With each new found computer you will be able to pass it to a new level. As a knight you have to collect all the gold coins scattered throughout the maze, to escape from giant spiders and get to the gold-hungry Princess. If the first levels are passed very easily, the closer to the middle of the game the puzzles become incredibly tricky.

The game has stealth elements. In some locations you have to covertly sneak past enemies unnoticed to merge information from computers and to seek out virtual mazes at a time as you wanted. Not to say that the stealth in the game is diverse and multifaceted. But it definitely adds tension to the already extremely nervous gameplay. Do not have time to recover from the previous shock, as you are waiting for a new test of the nervous system for strength. The developers skillfully played with emotions of the players, they are, perhaps, no equal.

From a visual point of view of the Observer is commendable. The artists managed to create on the screen at once frightening and impressive world of the near future, while paying tribute to such works as "blade Runner", "1984", "Nirvana" and "Brazil". The core of the game is the graphics engine Unreal Engine 4, allowing developers managed to implement a lot of really cool visual effects that enhance the already powerful impact of the game on the psyche of the players. In the Observer there are also great sound and music. They complement the visual component and multiplies it, making your adventure even more atmospheric.

Main disadvantages of the game lie in its optimization. Sometimes I had 10 seconds to stand there and repeatedly poke the door handle, waiting until you see the following...