Awwwww, hell yeah!!!

You had me at Rutger Hauer. INSTABUY!

Yep. Horror plaguing some SF games that would have been otherwise great. Namely, Soma, great SF, existential horror, and also an ode to machinery. Then add nonsense monsters to run from and it becomes a nono as you get bored from neverending jumpscares.

I am not sure what kind of horror is imbued in Observer. Existential, yes. The kind that hits you in the low belly once you get to understand what is really happening. That is OK. Running from monsters/slashers again and again is not. So, waiting for now.

Edit: added the last paragraph.

It's not even available on Steam yet while I am writing this - must be a first for GOG, well done! :)

Not a fan of these types of games normally, but this looks great!
Will probably buy it in the next couple of days.

Edit: They mentioned the game is 7-8 hours long, seems perfect for a horror adventure. :)

I haven't played >observer_ (yet), but if their previous game, Layers of Fear, is anything to go by, I think you can expect this title to be more of a psychological thriller than a straight-up "run away from monsters" survival-horror game. In fact, I think labelling Bloober's games as "survival-horror" is a tad misleading, as you don't have to survive anything, other than your own madness.

Bloober tend to go more towards ambiance horror than plaguing their games with monsters for the player to run away from (mild spoiler: there *are* some "creatures" in Layers of Fear, but they don't chase you and you don't even *have* to avoid them -- though the game recommends doing so).

Then again, do notice I'm basing all of this on their previous game, as I haven't yet played this one. Will get back to you when I've played at least a bit of it.

[EDIT] On an unrelated note, Poland is killing it with so many awesome video game developers! CD Projekt RED, Techland, Flying Wild Hog, People Can Fly, 11 bit studios, Bloober... heck, even TopWare, I guess. You're on a roll, Polish buddies!

https://images-2.gog.com/7a8455cb99b58df99a75d06a901ac039936bd600d0037050eec40b18bc27b275.jpg

Can we add some more chromatic aberration to that? It's not "state of the art", if you can still vaguely recognize the characters and setting.

Yeah, this effect and its excessive use is a bit of a pet peeve of mine. In fact, if it can't be disabled or toned down in-game, I may skip the game just for that. Which would be a shame, because the setting and theme actually looks interesting.

Interesting, I've just finished the base game of layers of fear (on steam, because I got the addon through humble monthly) and it was kinda nice, but with a big annoying fullscreen bug at launch.

In any case, I'll wait a bit for reviews and because gog stole me money already with their stupid useless pinatas.

Thank you for the explanation. Soma was such a disappointment in the end after so much promise. I will be waiting on this one with hope.

And yes, there is some talk that Warsaw is becoming something like an European Silicon Valley. I guess you have there a combination of a cultured, creative people (with imagination and a love for fantasy and SF) and reduced costs compared to the neighbouring country to the West.

I hear ya! Chromatic aberration, motion blur, depth of field,... they're all awful. Thankfully, most of these can usually be turned off. I'm downloading this game now and I'll let you know if there's an option for that in the graphics menu - that is, if I can get this game to run on my piece of junk laptop. ;P

Did you actually play SOMA or did you skip it because of the action elements? It's true that it had its occasional tedious or annoying moments, like most games of the genre, but overall they did a good job with the gameplay. I thought the pacing was good -- you're not constantly being chased around by some nasty creature. Also, the monsters were much more varied, compared to Amnesia or similar games. And as far as I remember it didn't have many scripted jumpscares at all. It's mostly slow paced atmospheric Horror -- nothing like Outlast, Dead Space or other modern Horror games.

And bloom in other games... Making the game look as if the screen is oozing syrup... Then abuse of narrow depth of field...

It is always good to have the chance to enable them or not. But it should not be necessary if they were not abused that much. Abuse of effects does not confer personality to a game per se...

It's not that any of these effects are necessarily bad by default, but they're all being used excessively, and often feel out of place. As an artist I've also noticed this trend in 2D artwork and photography for a while now. I'm not sure who started this whole mess, but by now it's everywhere. It's like all those cheesy lensflare effects during the 90s/early 2000s. Here's hoping it will reach a saturation point soon... And then everyone will move on to the next annoying trend in visuals/game development, I suppose. :/

I should add, SOMA had this problem as well. In general the effects suited the theme of the game well, but despite that there were a few situations where it was just too much, and I had to disable them temporarily.

I played it and made it to Theta Labs. There I just wanted to explore and find out about the stories of the people there, tragic, humorous, there were many things to find. BUT the mandatory monster was patrolling the corridors. By that time I was fed up with running from effing monsters and called it quits.

Otherwise it was a great game with interesting things to tell and interesting SF. Even SF author Peter Watts (of Rifters and Blindsight fame) recommended it. I liked what was being hinted about the protagonist and the overall situation. Just looking at yourself in the mirror was more than enough to make you think. The answers at Lambda and before were interesting. BUT the monsters were not for me.

There is a mod that lets the monsters follow you but not hurt you. But there is no mod that makes them disappear altogether, as far as I know.

So I guess the company came from games with monsters and did not want to lose the portion of the crowd that does require the jumpscare. As for me, and others who feel the same, they spoilt the game.

Yet, for people who can live with the monsters, if they like SF I am happy to endorse the game for them as a must. One of the finest SF games.

yes, now that you mention it. i love me some Rutgar :P


i get a huge Blade runner vibe, even the music is reminiscent of it. definite wishlist tho im tired of adventure horror

I know this has been mentioned in this thread before, but if the protagonist reminds you of Rutger Hauer, that's because Hauer is playing him.