>observer_

I found >observer_ (as it is stylized) disappointing. Its futuristic setting had potential for philosophical and ethical questions; I was hoping something as brilliant as Frictional Games' SOMA. Unfortunately Bloober Team left the potential largely untapped. Like their previous title, Layers of Fear, Observer offers style but little substance. It also has some visual quirks that really should be adjustable in-game.

Inane cyberpunk walking simulator

In Observer you play as Daniel Lazarski, a detective who can plug into people's brain implants to access their memories. He receives a mysterious call from his estranged son and ends up investigating a murder mystery in an apartment complex while looking for him.

Such family plot hooks never seem to particularly motivate me. A character simply being related to mine doesn't make me care; a game has to be more creative than that. Solving the murder mystery doesn't offer that much intrigue either. It is quite predictable.

You can have short conversations with still living residents via their intercoms and even face to face with the tenement's janitor. In addition to your current case, you can exchange few words about various topics and somewhat insert your own opinion through Daniel's dialogue options. The discussions never get past surface level, though.

Instead of trying to make you really think, Observer resorts to drowning you in surreal imagery similarly to Layers. First it happens only while plugged into a dead body's brain implant but eventually the stuff starts bleeding into the real world. It's fancy at first but you become blind to it after a while. It's just something to watch while you keep holding down W.

I suppose the game is horror at some level too. But at least I didn't find it particularly scary, less creepy than Layers without a doubt. But one's mileage may vary. There's a small stealth section too in which you have to avoid a monster of sorts from catching you.

Needed a bit more polish

For some reason Bloober Team made it unnecessarily challenging to observe the game world which is already visually busy. Your vision is blurred by chromatic aberration that requires an .ini edit to get rid of and there's no FOV slider to increase the rather narrow default. The latter is particularly odd since Layers had one. Maybe the developers weren't too familiar with Unreal Engine 4 they used this time instead of Unity.

The suggested FOV solution at PC Gaming Wiki definitely widens the viewport but apparently makes computer screens difficult to read. I guess it means that they no longer fill your entire screen when interacted with. I can confirm that I had to lean forward to be able to read stuff from them.

I give Observer few pity points for the protagonist having a lower body and casting a shadow rather than just being a floating camera. Movement speed is also acceptable and you can even run if you so desire.