Observation is a first-person thriller with puzzle elements. These elements complement a well-written story that will leave its player-base feeling tense, anxious and entranced. Players will endure this emotional experience all the way through its five-hour trek through No Code’s gorgeous rendition of space. I have been a massive science fiction fan my whole life, so it’s hard for me to find a sci-fi story that feels fresh and interesting. Observation doesn’t really break new ground with its story but it definitely left such a good impression on me that I have been theorizing and thinking about the game for weeks now.

Though Observation is set on a space station you never really get to feel the vastness of space. Instead, you experience tight, claustrophobic corridors as you control the station’s AI named S.A.M. As S.A.M. you will be unlocking doors, setting up cameras, and activating a myriad of different life support systems for the last remaining crew member Emma Fisher; who is experiencing memory loss and odd visions that cause her to blackout.

S.A.M. can connect through the station’s cameras (and later a camera mounted on a movable sphere) so you are always looking through a screen as an AI probably would. This unique feature adds an extra bit of immersion to the gameplay, down to the flickering and screen tearing of the cameras themselves. Though when you are controlling the sphere the camera tends to tilt slightly and with the added screen flickering it did make me a bit sick at times.

As you progress through the story S.A.M. will slowly gain access to the station’s other segments. In other segments, you can explore the crewmates’ bunks to find audio logs and family photos that give you a deeper insight into the other crew members and their relationships with one another. This leads me to want to learn as much about this crew as possible and to scope out as many of the audio logs that I could.

Observation is a slowly-paced game and at times that can be a tad bit frustrating, as you have constantly pan a slow-moving camera from one end of the room to the other just to find a machine you have yet to connect with. This is meant to create a tense atmosphere but instead just leads to a bit of annoyance when you’ve panned a room five times looking for a small device and have to move at a snail’s pace.

For a small team, No Code made a truly gorgeous game with absolute stellar facial capture, and a beautifully crafted station. Though at times the station’s layout can feel a little too similar to other parts of the station and can create confusion. The choice acting is pretty stellar though, and adds to the immersion. All this is tied together with a fitting soundtrack, which like its’ story isn’t groundbreaking but definitely lends itself nicely to the tense and mysterious atmosphere.

I loved the majority of my time with Observation, but due to the feelings of motion-sickness, the slow-pacing and the confusing layout that lead me to become lost at times; I found it hard to play in longer play sessions. Though these issues aren’t prevalent enough to have detracted too much from the overall story the gameplay left me a little underwhelmed. I think that if you enjoy a good sci-fi story and are looking for a unique perspective, Observation should definitely be worthy of your time.

A PS4 review copy of Observation was provided by Devolver Digital for this review.

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Observation

7.5

Score

7.5/10

Pros

• Unique Perspective
• Good Story

Cons

• Poorly Paced Gameplay
• Nauseating Camera