Obsidian, 2022

Added to my list due to positive press and comparisons to Disco Elysium (for example, RPS review).

[Notes after 7 hours] Mechanically and aesthetically has a lot in common with Oxenfree and Disco Elysium: Walk around, talk to people with dialogue options informed by some fairly coarse character background you've selected. The only skill checks I've seen are persuasion rolls, which have been mostly determined by my past interactions with characters. The mechanical heart of act 1 is a severely time-limited search for clues that leaves you trying to resolve a murder with limited information. The end of act 1 felt like a complete game, so the seven-year jump to act 2 after about six hours was a shock. You get to see lots of consequences of your decisions and it's not even the end of the game. I'll want to read a technical analysis of the story space at some point after I finish the game. Also I already want to do my second playthrough as a pious logician (my first is a skeptical bookworm/occultist).

[Notes after first playthrough, 15 hours] Wow! So good. The end of act 2 was a bigger twist than act 1 (and a larger time jump). Then I found the third act quite thematically resonant and the conclusion logical and satisfying. I was happy to find this story ends on a hopeful note much like Disco Elysium does, particularly focused on the hope that people are able to face hard truths. This is a strong recommendation… to a limited audience, I think.

I have mixed feelings about a second playthrough right away; I really do want to try a different path, but I kind of don't want to break the illusion yet. Maybe I'll revisit in a year or so.