Observer
This is one of the best bad games I've played in a while. It's essentially a narrative driven cyberpunk/horror game, that forgets it's a NARRATIVE driven game, and puts some stupid insta-kill gameplay elements into it from time to time, that really takes you out of it.
First things first, it makes no bones about it's "Blade Runner" influences, as you're greeted to an identical text scroll from the classic flick, and it's main character is voiced by Rutger Hauer, and it's all about future cybernetics run amok. It's shameless, really. It's well done enough though, and carves out it's own identity as you play.
The game is a bit of a murder mystery that hooks you immediately with it's investigative gameplay that has you methodically checking every drawer and cupboard for clues, and using your cybernetic implants to scan for clues, ala Deus Ex. That's the long and short of the actual gameplay. For the rest of it, you'll pretty much be walking around in corridors, knocking on every door, talking to the sparse amount of NPC's, and generally being lead by the hand to your objectives. Where the game shines is in it's art direction, which slowly takes the regular apartment building you're walking around in, and morphs it into a mind trip horror landscape. The little tricks this game uses to keep you on edge, are very effective, and it's the game's main strength. It keeps you going just to see what tricks it has in store for you.
It would be a great little horror experience, if not for a few glaring problems. The big one being these seldom, but still very irritating insta-kill stealth sections, that has you avoiding a monster, or in a very frustrating part, avoiding spotlights from flying saucers. The problem is that you're just not equipped to deal with it. The gameplay mechanics simply don't work, because the character you're controlling was not designed with these elements taken into consideration. It would be like throwing Commander Sheppard from Mass Effect, into God Of War. He just wasn't designed to deal with the fast paced action. Same here. It's a character that was built to walk around and look at shit. Not stealthily sneak around and avoid detection. If you've played the game, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. It shouldn't even be a big deal, because these moments are so few and far between, but they're just so infuriatingly frustrating, that they can really ruin the experience.
If you can get past that, it is a very solid experience, with some really trippy visuals, and a great atmosphere. The flaws such as the above mentioned, and some really terrible technical issues, like frame rates dropping down to single digits, hold it back quite a bit though.
6/10
