Obduction (Steam VR)

System: Valve Index, HTC Vive & Oculus Rift
Price at Time Of Review: £23.99
Comfort Rating: Red (Extreme Movement)
Genre: Adventure
Input: Tracked Motion Controllers, Gamepad, Keyboard & Mouse
Best Playing Position: Sitting
Multi-Player: No
Age Rating: 15+

Description: From Cyan, the indie studio that brought you Myst, comes a new sci-fi adventure. As you walk beside the lake on a cloudy night, a curious, organic artefact falls from the starry sky and inexplicably, without asking permission, transports you across the universe. You’ve been abducted from your cosy existence and added into an alien landscape with pieces of Earth from unexpected times and places.

The strange worlds of Obduction reveal their secrets only as you explore, discover, coax, and consider their clues. As you bask in the otherworldly beauty and explore the enigmatic landscapes, remember that the choices you make will have substantial consequences. This is your story now so make it home.

Review: Are you old enough to remember the classic Myst games? Myst, Riven, Myst III: Exile, Uru: Ages Beyond Myst, Myst IV: Revelation, Myst V: End of Ages, I’ve played them all and while there has been ups and downs through the series I have enjoyed playing all of them because I was brought up with point-and-click classic adventures. But here we are, over ten years since the last Myst game was released and once again we look into the world of Myst, only this time in VR.

Let me tell you, this game is so much like the original Myst series it is scary, but the good news is you don’t have to have played any of the previous games to understand what is going on here because it is a completely separate adventure. Much like the Myst storyline, you start off realising you have been in some sort of supernatural event that has transported you to lands unknown and strange. Starting in Hunrath town you soon start to explore these strange new lands, looking for the answers to what is going on and why you are there. The maps are simply huge and every new location looks even better than the last, forever keeping your imagination wondering what you will see next, which is handy because you will be racking your brain on what to do pretty much from the word go.

This is a game that will not hold your hand, it’s tough and it’s classic Myst style. Storywise you don’t need to have played any of the previous games as I said, but gameplay-wise it would help if you have because you would know roughly what to expect here. VR sickness is a bit of an issue here with various rail track movements making me feel a little queasy but I have to say that they have done all they can to eliminate this with various comfort modes on offer. This is not a game for quitters. You will need to get your head down and really think long and hard about some of the puzzles here, but knuckle down and I promise you an epic adventure awaits you here.