I typed out a long ass comment about why he was correct about RAM disks vs SSDs, then I realized that both of you were referring to the slight pause he added to make his point. I wonder how many other people took Cyrusdexter1's comment the wrong way. I mean I'm not the only one who made this mystake.. right?
When I was a kid, I played games like Prince of Persia and Command Keen 4 on laptop with a busted hard drive. It took forever for them to load from a floppy until I realized I could use the RAM disk driver that came with MS-DOS. I made ZIP files of each game and BAT scripts to create a RAM disk and unzip the game files into it. This was all using less than 1MiB of RAM.
"You only have a 1 in 94,000,000,000,000 chance of getting it right, assuming you know what do with the yellow one." You weren't trying to be funny, Matthewmatosis, but you brought me to tears anyway.
I love being introduced to this kind of interesting stuff. This was a superb video, as they always are. That little bit about blindsiding endings was really cheeky.
I've personally played less than like 20% of the games you review Matt but your analysis on games is really appreciated. Even if I've never played the game, having more games getting attention and being exposed to a wider audience is never a bad thing. Review what you want to, that's why I've always enjoyed your videos.
Another fantastic review, Matthew, and certainly improved by taking a look back at Riven first. I really appreciate the decision to focus on smaller, older, or more niche games that you clearly have a lot of interest in rather than just covering the latest Souls, Metal Gear, or Zelda etc. Not that those videos aren't fantastic too, but for a commentator who puts out content of as high a quality as yours, I think it's important to focus on things that genuinely capture your interest and have new, worthwhile points to be made about them. Looking forward to whatever comes next!
"[...]By some forgotten reviewer." Hardly, Matthew. Even if your videos falter, many will take your viewpoints to mind and have it change their perspectives for the better. You'll live on in those and to those you've inspired to be a reviewer themselves. I'd say you have a much more glaring problem with becoming immortal, in that way!
Someone's probably pointed this out, but in CW's notes, he points out that the imager rocks DO have mass (I think, maybe I'm totally forgetting). Or the illusion of mass or something like that.
@@iquemedia its nothing, i replied to a comment you made on a youtube video uploaded literally a few months ago its was mr welbigs video on cursor aiming or whatever you didnt reply to my reply i was just surprised i found you here as well
I agree on all of your thoughts. I also had that moment with the Villein number system. I saw the "15" on the projector screen at Farley's and was sure it was a Villein number, just because it stood at that angle (Didn't realize the projector actually projects the markings on there). So i sat down and wanted to decode it but i could't find the solution, cause you cant correclty replicate the "15". So my next step was to "draw the extra lines as they were necessary", which comes out as 606. I didn't know you could use the gas station machine to convert from Villein to Human and vice versa. I thought it was Human to Villein only. So i was pretty disappointed to find out the machine "auto corrects" the "15" to the correct number. I guess I just couldn't connect the dots correctly. The other annoying moment was with the Maze-Puzzle. I mapped everything down, the pieces too, and was trying to find a way to move through. but you can't. So I thought you'd have to be able to turn the pieces around. But I couldn't find the turner. So I thought there must be someother way. I took like an hour to finally crack and look it up online only to find out i was right all along and just overlooked the turning mechanism in Hunrath. After that it was way easy. I liked the game. The visuals were good. But it lacked a certain something for me to be considered an equal to the originals. Good effort though! Also, I expected there to be some ending that required you to have every teleported piece in the world it originally belonged to. Oh well.
I heard, I forget where, that the villein number puzzles were originally harder, but they decided that would make the game too inaccessible and toned them down. Perhaps the original implementation was more carefully designed, and they didn't have the resources to reconsider it from the ground up when they changed it; a duct tape solution. I do kind of suspect I would have been altogether happier with the original conception, but maybe there was some fatal flaw with it too and the way it turned out was making the best of a bad situation. For what it's worth, it originally wasn't possible to backtrack to the garage to get the answer to the pod puzzle, but they added an extra path in Maray that allows it in a patch. As much as this trivializes the puzzle, I approve of the adjustment, because without it, players who brute force their way to that point without learning the numbers first are essentially stuck, with a choice between a much less manageable brute forcing task, using another save file to do what the added path legitimizes doing and returning to the garage, or looking up the solution. One might say that this is the player's deserved punishment for brute forcing at all, but in no other case does a Cyan game screw the player over like that, which I think is an admirable design tenet. You're right that Soria would have remained empty even if they'd reached the stretch goal to add another world; Rand Miller said in an interview that they planned for it to be that way from the start. I am curious how they would have managed to add just one more world, which is what the stretch goal said, rather than another linked pair of worlds though.
I'm not sure which I like more, when Matthewmatosis reviews a game that I played and enjoyed, or a game I've never heard of and might not have played otherwise...
What's with these comments? Thought another intelligent review wouldn't be subjected to this. Anyway, great review. I was also let down by the number system. It was a fun one to crack, at least. Something you brought up was a lack of puzzle variety. I actually appreciated this because the game was much more mechanically consistent than I recall Myst being. The puzzles were based on understanding systems rather than one-shot concepts, which I think is the way contemporary puzzle games are being/should be designed. I hope Cyan is able to make a sequel to this. I think there's a lot of untapped narrative and mechanical potential in this new world they've created.
This is what happens when your subscriber base is a bunch of basement dwelling NEETs who browse an anime imageboard for antisemites. Truly the highest calibre of video connoisseur for my youtube channel - I know just where to advertise!
Fungusdude42 The neogaffers, redditors, and tumblrites are salty about his OG 4chan audience because we are big ol meanies and their skin is 2 thin for it.
Jesus this comment section is cancerous. Very good video on a game not many have talked about. Personally I think Obduction was pretty good, but had some flaws that could easily alienate players; even ones who generally like these types of games. Above all else I feel like worldbuilding took a priority over puzzles and gameplay, and that there was an over-reliance on the swappers for puzzles. I like good worldbuilding in games, but the problem for me was that it felt like it was all in service of contextualising the gameplay which, because it took a backseat to story, felt a bit lackluster. At the end of the game I had to look up certain things to explain some aspects of the story that I missed, but I wasn't compelled to look into any deeper lore of the world. For having such a focus on worldbuilding, the story itself felt somewhat surface-level. The contrast to something like The Witness is pretty stark, and while I do much prefer The Witness, both games provide good examples of puzzle-adventures that are somewhat flawed, albeit in the opposite sides of the spectrum. It's games like these that help shine a light on why certain game-mechanics do or don't work.
Yeah, I hope the nasty comments don't persist. Anyway, are you saying the swapping and world-wrapping mechanics didn't work? I thought figuring out how these systems work was one of the best parts of Obduction. Then again, some of the puzzles incorporating these mechanics did fall a bit flat. Curious about your thoughts on what flaws The Witness has.
I'm not saying they didn't work, it was a great concept and I liked most of the puzzles. Imo it just felt like they relied a bit too heavily on them, and at some point they just became tedious. Once you "got" them and knew what you had to do, the issue was not solving the puzzle any more, it was spending 10 minutes or more just executing it. Regarding the witness, as I said I think it is a much better game, but it does kinda fall flat on narrative. There was a lot of potential to the mystery of the island, but they failed to both build that mystery up and to deliver with the ending. I get that they were focusing on the puzzles and that story came in low on the priority list, but something more engaging story-wise would have made the game nigh perfect. A game I think has very good story and presents it in a very interesting and unintrusive way is The Talos Principle. It builds the mystery from the beginning and makes you want to find out more, and in that process you engage with philosophical ideas in a dialogue, instead of just being presented with them as prerecorded messages. Unfortunately the puzzles themselves, while quite fun and difficult, are fairly uninteresting mechanics-wise. I just want to see a game that perfects the puzzle-adventure in every aspect. It's a lofty dream, but with so many good games to learn from I can't help but feel like we're getting closer and closer.
When you talk about how Obduction emulates the kind of worlds Myst and Riven players are interested in, do you mean these wholly unique looking "sci-fi" worlds? I've been on a scifi concept art binge for the past few weeks and your reviews of Riven and Obduction really showed me how intellectually and creatively desolate these scifi artists are compared to the folks who worked on these games.
Everyone out here complaining and I'm just sitting here appreciative that I have a new video to sink my mind into over and over. Seriously I periodically watch most of your videos again and again.
Really wanted to watch a new video by you but I'm holding this untill I play Riven, It's a bit sad because finding the time to do so will take at least a month. But keep up the good work, I'm always glad to see you uploading.
I don't care what anyone says, keep making videos of what you want. I and many others don't watch you just for metal gear or dark souls, we watch just for whatever you make. so keep it up. :)
Excellent review. You nailed them some of my major gripes with the game and even elucidated on some new observations I had not considered. Parts of the game felt like content deserts where I was left to unfortunately back track to a loading screen, not the best gameplay loop.
Great review, but I'm a bit confused by your characterization of the ending being a matter of going with one person's gut feeling vs. another person's gut feeling. It's more like choosing an outcome that's guaranteed to be bad vs. choosing to take a risk, just like the ending to Myst. Assuming you took a good look outside the Soria sphere, that is.
I am the Gamer of the Future brining news and trivia: - Between patches and hardware advancements the game only stutters briefly during seed hops, and that's on a SATA SSD and a Ryzen 3600 - I'm pretty sure CW's notes explain that Mofang projectors do obstruct physical space. You can also see that if you zap the fake mayor's corpse - There's two big hints about the good ending: Farley's journal mentions the battery connection and if you take the side route on Soria you can see the post-apocalyptic Arizona that's CW's plan would logically send you to But nitpicking aside this review is pretty spot on. I'm surprised Matt didn't gripe about the Maray gauntlet and maze more, even with fast loads the ratio of puzzle solving to walking is very poor. Still had a good time tho!
Didn't give it away to me that it was a bad ending, I thought maybe the atomic blast had somehow escaped the sphere and it was simply that local area that was devastated, no reason to believe from a small snapshot of a ruined town that the entire earth is gone, especially not since we know at least one dude from 2050 ended up in hunrath.
I don't know if you know this, or just missed it because you understood the number system first time, but it's worse than you make it out to be. I blundered my way through the bridge sections on Villein without understand the number system really at all. I knew it was a number system, but the fact that I could "brute force" the bridges meant I didn't have much incentive to fully understand it right away, and figured there might be more clues later on. Then, in what I can only describe as a staggeringly poor decision for this type of game, you reach the one panel that *requires* you to understand how to write a precise number. And unlike what you said in your review, you *can't* return to the register to just plug the number in for the result. I assume this is why they decided to *TRAP* you in this section until you give the correct number. They may have patched it since, but when I played it near release it was impossible to leave that area. This meant that I, as someone who didn't understand the number system, was trapped in an area with a puzzle that I could not solve and had no resources to learn how to solve other than putting something in and waiting 30 seconds for the animation to display what number I'd entered. It was by far the worst point in the game for me, next to atrocious 5 minute long loading times on the spheres and how that discouraged experimentation. I was forced to look up the answer online, which obviously ruined that aspect of the game to me. I still love the game, but how they didn't manage to catch that problem is mind-blowing to me.
I'm a freak when it comes to exploring numbers, so I understood this stuff immediately, but I also thought they made it too easy to play through without understanding.
Thank you for what you said about the ending. I also really felt the good ending wasn't hinted at well enough. Also, about the game feeling incomplete towards the end, playing through it myself it seemed really obvious that they wanted to do more, but I suspect that they were running low on their funds and time, and so decided to leave it where they did.
It's a shame I just don't have a mind for these games. I did play and complete Obduction, but out of complete sheer force of will. I didn't learn anything, I just sat there for an hour either running back and fourth or fiddling until it worked, and even then I didn't understand why I got what I ending I did.
Yeah. The game seems to expect you to really pay attention to things. I played in much slower than an hour; I think it was more like 5, and things clicked together really well.
This game interest me, but right now I don't have a computer able to play it, should I watch this review or wait? (it could be a long time). Also I need to play Riven, is this too spoiler heavy, or can I jump them, like on the Riven video
The load times between swapping caused me to put down the game for a good while when I arrived to the Gauntlet/Maze puzzle, because I didn't have the patience to try different combinations and re-doing stuff. It's pretty sad.
A few things- the audio cuts in the beginning of the review so that it starts in the middle of a sentance, and that blogpost you mentioned *should* be available using waybackmachine or something like that? Might be worth taking a screenshot and posting it to imgur so that it can be referenced, maybe with a link in the description
I had an idea for the Villein number panels. The final one could have been a panel with 13 "digits", making it 5x5 blobs plus edges. That way the one in the garage could remain unchanged yet the player would have to actually learn the number system. I thought the Villein numbers were the most interesting part of the whole game, learning to count in this unique way, and it was disappointing that it was barely used. Regardless it's pretty damning that the most fun I had was while using pencil and paper instead of keyboard and mouse.
I've played only a handful of the games you've critiqued, but I am so compelled with every new video. I'm in academia and I can recognize your skill in narrative organization; your analysis is clear, thoughtful and, most importantly, ordered with a natural momentum. Thanks for your hard work!
I thought the game ends too quickly, but I was forgiving considering the constraints. By the way, one of the main developers was battling brain cancer and he apologized in a blog if any of the puzzles didn't make sense. I thought it played out quite well. But the one thing I found irritating was the communication box on the one world. It has a ton of buttons and doesn't make much sense. You think you missed something about the game when you complete it without solving it (technically, I did solve it, but the buttons I didn't understand distracted me from trying stuff outside of the box itself) and then you find out that successfully doing anything with it is actually an "Easter Egg".
I was using a traditional hard drive when I first played it at launch, using short stroking to get the best speed possible, and although the load times were pretty bad at times, I didn't really consider them game breaking, just inconvenient. I also don't remember any hitching, but that might be because I had just upgraded to an 8-core AMD processor and a GeForce GTX 980 Ti, so the rest of my system was likely able pick up some of the slack of my hard drive.
I have to thank you. I watched a portion of this video roughly when it released. Maybe in 2018ish Epic Games released Obduction for free. I quickly set it aside after a 30ish minute first play session and decided I wasn't in the mood and it was too obtuse. Fastforward to 2023 some time in July and I revisited this video and gave Obduction another (more patient) try. It was magical to slowly patiently investigate the world of Obduction and I fell in love with it (circle maze puzzle almost made me quit). Quickly devoured the rest of the series. Massive thanks for your video recommendations. It's been a serene journey and it's sad that I'll never be able to relive that magic of discovery fully. Personal tier list. Riven>>Obduction>Myst>Myst III >>>Myst IV.
I'm really glad you've been going over these games recently. Because your audience seems to be the type who normally considers anything that isn't shooty shooty bang bang "not really a video game" and thus I hope they'll listen to you and grow an appreciation and understanding for different types of games.
I never was able to completely figure out the number system, especially for accessing the Mayor's pod, I eventually came to a fairly logical conclusion, but I don't think it was how the numbering system was supposed to work. That and the number panels were an absolute pain to use likely largely due to the Unreal engine REALLY not liking high DPI mice. I really like your idea for it, though. I would have really liked that if the interface was better designed.
I like your Dark and Demon's souls videos but the way they made souls fans come to this channel under the bizarre assumption that this is some sort of "Souls content" channel is annoying. I'm so sick of every damn video having comments just asking for Dark souls 3 or Bloodborne (MGSv too) despite these games already being talked to death anyway, what could really be added to the discussion at this point?
Which would simply echo the opinions that everyone else has already put forth. The length of time between his videos has nothing to do with when or if reviews on those games specifically come out though, its irrelevant.
'...what could really be added to the discussion at this point?' His opinions of those games. I wasn't aware you knew what they'd be. It certainly seems like he'd after an interesting viewpoint of MGSV given his feelings on the rest of the series. Its not irrelevant. Dudes on patreon on a monthly donation system so it seems a video a month would be fuckin minimum. Between Va-11 Hall-A and Riven dude got ~$2,450 and then to drop an 8 minute video about a 20 year old game is a fuckin joke. People are throwing dude money so it seems they're entitled to let their opinions be known. Not to mention legit falling off the face of the earth to avoid Persona 5 spoilers is fuckin funny. I prefer him to make videos on things he loves, but to act as if people who want him to make videos on more relevant topics are just whining is absurd.
There is literally hundreds of hours of podcasts, videos and shit out there on MGSV by people who have played the entire series, the game has been discussed to death, there is not much left o be said there. "Your pledge doesn't buy you any preferential treatment. In fact, I take my impartiality so seriously I try not to even see who's donating to me. I'm equally open to feedback from anyone, patron or not, it's the only way to be fair." He also mentioned multiple times he is not working on either Bloodborne, DS3, or MGSV videos at the moment. To keep talking about them and acting as if he owes you them is the joke here, grow up.
Well this certainly feels like a bit of a return to roots, Matthew. Your sense of humour is incredible, and just keeps getting better with more experience, but I don't think it's been this overt since you tackled the MGS series. Not sure if that kind of distraction / calling attention to it is something you want to go for or not. N-n-not that I'm opposed! I actually enjoy both styles equally well! I just wanted to make sure you're aware of its impact.
Im sure you get recommendations all the time, but it would be super awesome if you could review the Metroid Prime Trilogy. Its my favorite game trilogy ever and i'd really like to hear your thoughts on it :)
Happy to report that I'm playing this in 2020 with basically zero technical issues, only real load times are in the central trees and they are just a couple seconds. I do have a PC built from last year though.
I love these type of games and can't help but buy them even if I don't even come close to completing them. I just don't have the patience anymore. Can anyone suggest a favoured CZcamsr who did a let's play of this please?
I like how Matthew plain doesn't care about requests but instead reviews what he's interested in
"-eview of Obduction"
"You may consider this river to be the games primary antagonist"
No, you didn't accidentally skip the first second of the video, just in case you were wondering.
Your description of installing the game onto RAM rather than an SSD cracked me up
lol, "while it..................loads in."
I typed out a long ass comment about why he was correct about RAM disks vs SSDs, then I realized that both of you were referring to the slight pause he added to make his point.
I wonder how many other people took Cyrusdexter1's comment the wrong way. I mean I'm not the only one who made this mystake.. right?
Jake Reason You're the only one.
D:
When I was a kid, I played games like Prince of Persia and Command Keen 4 on laptop with a busted hard drive. It took forever for them to load from a floppy until I realized I could use the RAM disk driver that came with MS-DOS. I made ZIP files of each game and BAT scripts to create a RAM disk and unzip the game files into it. This was all using less than 1MiB of RAM.
"You only have a 1 in 94,000,000,000,000 chance of getting it right, assuming you know what do with the yellow one."
You weren't trying to be funny, Matthewmatosis, but you brought me to tears anyway.
I love being introduced to this kind of interesting stuff. This was a superb video, as they always are. That little bit about blindsiding endings was really cheeky.
4:17 That small pause you did was perfect.
I've personally played less than like 20% of the games you review Matt but your analysis on games is really appreciated. Even if I've never played the game, having more games getting attention and being exposed to a wider audience is never a bad thing.
Review what you want to, that's why I've always enjoyed your videos.
I love how he does not even give a shit about how people are begging for a MGS5, BotW or DS3 review and just does what he wants.
Another fantastic review, Matthew, and certainly improved by taking a look back at Riven first. I really appreciate the decision to focus on smaller, older, or more niche games that you clearly have a lot of interest in rather than just covering the latest Souls, Metal Gear, or Zelda etc. Not that those videos aren't fantastic too, but for a commentator who puts out content of as high a quality as yours, I think it's important to focus on things that genuinely capture your interest and have new, worthwhile points to be made about them.
Looking forward to whatever comes next!
"[...]By some forgotten reviewer."
Hardly, Matthew. Even if your videos falter, many will take your viewpoints to mind and have it change their perspectives for the better. You'll live on in those and to those you've inspired to be a reviewer themselves.
I'd say you have a much more glaring problem with becoming immortal, in that way!
I quite enjoy most every video you release, your writing and cadance of speech are intriguing and relaxing.
You deserve a better comment section than this Matt. I'm genuinely sorry people don't appreciate the effort you put into your work.
Godspeed.
As soon as you click he starts talking lmao. Efficiency at its finest
Someone's probably pointed this out, but in CW's notes, he points out that the imager rocks DO have mass (I think, maybe I'm totally forgetting). Or the illusion of mass or something like that.
Love the videos, your reviews are always insightful and introduce me to a new perspective I hadn't previously considered on many subjects. Keep it up.
I feel so spoiled with all of these uploads lately
I love it
huh
@@dimitri13225 6 years ago.... bro why u gotta remind me
@@iquemedia its nothing, i replied to a comment you made on a youtube video uploaded literally a few months ago
its was mr welbigs video on cursor aiming or whatever
you didnt reply to my reply
i was just surprised i found you here as well
@@dimitri13225 thanks for the reminder! i found the comment and left you a reply :)
i just finished this the other day, i was stoked to see your review come up
i'd love to see your take on uru and the whole mess with myst online
nice to see you uploading more regularly. Excellent video, as always
Worst thing about these videos... I realize how inadequate my own are by comparison. Great work, as always sir.
Two uploads in quick succession? I love your videos so this is great!
You're videos are really excellently done. Fantastic insight and intelligently explained.
Always happy to see a new video!
I agree on all of your thoughts. I also had that moment with the Villein number system. I saw the "15" on the projector screen at Farley's and was sure it was a Villein number, just because it stood at that angle (Didn't realize the projector actually projects the markings on there).
So i sat down and wanted to decode it but i could't find the solution, cause you cant correclty replicate the "15". So my next step was to "draw the extra lines as they were necessary", which comes out as 606. I didn't know you could use the gas station machine to convert from Villein to Human and vice versa. I thought it was Human to Villein only. So i was pretty disappointed to find out the machine "auto corrects" the "15" to the correct number. I guess I just couldn't connect the dots correctly.
The other annoying moment was with the Maze-Puzzle. I mapped everything down, the pieces too, and was trying to find a way to move through. but you can't. So I thought you'd have to be able to turn the pieces around. But I couldn't find the turner. So I thought there must be someother way. I took like an hour to finally crack and look it up online only to find out i was right all along and just overlooked the turning mechanism in Hunrath. After that it was way easy.
I liked the game. The visuals were good. But it lacked a certain something for me to be considered an equal to the originals. Good effort though!
Also, I expected there to be some ending that required you to have every teleported piece in the world it originally belonged to. Oh well.
A Matthewmatosis video on April 2nd? If this appeared in my subscriptions yesterday, I wouldn't have believed it
i just really love your reviews.
I heard, I forget where, that the villein number puzzles were originally harder, but they decided that would make the game too inaccessible and toned them down. Perhaps the original implementation was more carefully designed, and they didn't have the resources to reconsider it from the ground up when they changed it; a duct tape solution. I do kind of suspect I would have been altogether happier with the original conception, but maybe there was some fatal flaw with it too and the way it turned out was making the best of a bad situation.
For what it's worth, it originally wasn't possible to backtrack to the garage to get the answer to the pod puzzle, but they added an extra path in Maray that allows it in a patch. As much as this trivializes the puzzle, I approve of the adjustment, because without it, players who brute force their way to that point without learning the numbers first are essentially stuck, with a choice between a much less manageable brute forcing task, using another save file to do what the added path legitimizes doing and returning to the garage, or looking up the solution. One might say that this is the player's deserved punishment for brute forcing at all, but in no other case does a Cyan game screw the player over like that, which I think is an admirable design tenet.
You're right that Soria would have remained empty even if they'd reached the stretch goal to add another world; Rand Miller said in an interview that they planned for it to be that way from the start. I am curious how they would have managed to add just one more world, which is what the stretch goal said, rather than another linked pair of worlds though.
I'm not sure which I like more, when Matthewmatosis reviews a game that I played and enjoyed, or a game I've never heard of and might not have played otherwise...
That early fade-out fake-out was great. It was very effective; it gave me a little panic attack as I thought I had lost a couple of minutes somewhere.
again, Matthewmattosis needs to play The Witness
Terrific work, as usual sir.
Keep it up!
What's with these comments? Thought another intelligent review wouldn't be subjected to this.
Anyway, great review. I was also let down by the number system. It was a fun one to crack, at least. Something you brought up was a lack of puzzle variety. I actually appreciated this because the game was much more mechanically consistent than I recall Myst being. The puzzles were based on understanding systems rather than one-shot concepts, which I think is the way contemporary puzzle games are being/should be designed. I hope Cyan is able to make a sequel to this. I think there's a lot of untapped narrative and mechanical potential in this new world they've created.
This is what happens when your subscriber base is a bunch of basement dwelling NEETs who browse an anime imageboard for antisemites. Truly the highest calibre of video connoisseur for my youtube channel - I know just where to advertise!
Fungusdude42 The neogaffers, redditors, and tumblrites are salty about his OG 4chan audience because we are big ol meanies and their skin is 2 thin for it.
4chan is no worse than reddit at this point. What a joke.
waaaaah
chu ske Thanks for proving my point
Riven also had the optional lightening mode that would take you through areas you'd already been by in way less clicks.
Jesus this comment section is cancerous.
Very good video on a game not many have talked about. Personally I think Obduction was pretty good, but had some flaws that could easily alienate players; even ones who generally like these types of games. Above all else I feel like worldbuilding took a priority over puzzles and gameplay, and that there was an over-reliance on the swappers for puzzles.
I like good worldbuilding in games, but the problem for me was that it felt like it was all in service of contextualising the gameplay which, because it took a backseat to story, felt a bit lackluster. At the end of the game I had to look up certain things to explain some aspects of the story that I missed, but I wasn't compelled to look into any deeper lore of the world. For having such a focus on worldbuilding, the story itself felt somewhat surface-level.
The contrast to something like The Witness is pretty stark, and while I do much prefer The Witness, both games provide good examples of puzzle-adventures that are somewhat flawed, albeit in the opposite sides of the spectrum. It's games like these that help shine a light on why certain game-mechanics do or don't work.
He's been getting popular on 4chan as of late.
"as of late" no, anons have been forcing his channel over 4 years at least.
Reddit just learned about him and now wants our boi for xirself.
Yeah, I hope the nasty comments don't persist.
Anyway, are you saying the swapping and world-wrapping mechanics didn't work? I thought figuring out how these systems work was one of the best parts of Obduction. Then again, some of the puzzles incorporating these mechanics did fall a bit flat. Curious about your thoughts on what flaws The Witness has.
I'm not saying they didn't work, it was a great concept and I liked most of the puzzles. Imo it just felt like they relied a bit too heavily on them, and at some point they just became tedious. Once you "got" them and knew what you had to do, the issue was not solving the puzzle any more, it was spending 10 minutes or more just executing it.
Regarding the witness, as I said I think it is a much better game, but it does kinda fall flat on narrative. There was a lot of potential to the mystery of the island, but they failed to both build that mystery up and to deliver with the ending. I get that they were focusing on the puzzles and that story came in low on the priority list, but something more engaging story-wise would have made the game nigh perfect.
A game I think has very good story and presents it in a very interesting and unintrusive way is The Talos Principle. It builds the mystery from the beginning and makes you want to find out more, and in that process you engage with philosophical ideas in a dialogue, instead of just being presented with them as prerecorded messages. Unfortunately the puzzles themselves, while quite fun and difficult, are fairly uninteresting mechanics-wise.
I just want to see a game that perfects the puzzle-adventure in every aspect. It's a lofty dream, but with so many good games to learn from I can't help but feel like we're getting closer and closer.
When you talk about how Obduction emulates the kind of worlds Myst and Riven players are interested in, do you mean these wholly unique looking "sci-fi" worlds?
I've been on a scifi concept art binge for the past few weeks and your reviews of Riven and Obduction really showed me how intellectually and creatively desolate these scifi artists are compared to the folks who worked on these games.
I agree with your criticisms with the number system. Not only was it cumbersome, but I brute forced it and was really unsatisfying.
"A sting of Myst potential" lmao
Everyone out here complaining and I'm just sitting here appreciative that I have a new video to sink my mind into over and over. Seriously I periodically watch most of your videos again and again.
Best way to get me to play a game, have Matthewmatosis review it. I want to play it so I can watch the video without being spoiled.
Really wanted to watch a new video by you but I'm holding this untill I play Riven, It's a bit sad because finding the time to do so will take at least a month.
But keep up the good work, I'm always glad to see you uploading.
How'd Riven go?
I don't care what anyone says, keep making videos of what you want. I and many others don't watch you just for metal gear or dark souls, we watch just for whatever you make. so keep it up. :)
HEY MATTHEW!! Your Reviews are great!!
Wow, intro is cut.
fucking WOW
*WOOOOOOOOW AHAHAHAAH DUDE WHAT THE FUCK BROKEN INTRO MECHANICS*
Excellent review. You nailed them some of my major gripes with the game and even elucidated on some new observations I had not considered. Parts of the game felt like content deserts where I was left to unfortunately back track to a loading screen, not the best gameplay loop.
17:25
a sting of... MYST potential?
I'll show myself out.
Close the door also, please.
I really like the way Matthew always gives his closing thoughts while the credits of the game play.
Great review, but I'm a bit confused by your characterization of the ending being a matter of going with one person's gut feeling vs. another person's gut feeling. It's more like choosing an outcome that's guaranteed to be bad vs. choosing to take a risk, just like the ending to Myst. Assuming you took a good look outside the Soria sphere, that is.
Would love to see your take on Pathologic. Seems fitting given the upcoming remake.
I honestly love anything you do Matthew, your critiques are always so on point. Never mind the douchebags who always get antsy about waiting around.
gotta agree on the number system, pretty much "ENTER IN THE HIGHEST NUMBER ALL THE TIME TO FILL IN THE BRIDGE"
very unchallenging.
"Cyan's best works"
So... just Myst and Riven?
can you do legacy of kain 50 years from now please?
I am the Gamer of the Future brining news and trivia:
- Between patches and hardware advancements the game only stutters briefly during seed hops, and that's on a SATA SSD and a Ryzen 3600
- I'm pretty sure CW's notes explain that Mofang projectors do obstruct physical space. You can also see that if you zap the fake mayor's corpse
- There's two big hints about the good ending: Farley's journal mentions the battery connection and if you take the side route on Soria you can see the post-apocalyptic Arizona that's CW's plan would logically send you to
But nitpicking aside this review is pretty spot on. I'm surprised Matt didn't gripe about the Maray gauntlet and maze more, even with fast loads the ratio of puzzle solving to walking is very poor. Still had a good time tho!
Didn't give it away to me that it was a bad ending, I thought maybe the atomic blast had somehow escaped the sphere and it was simply that local area that was devastated, no reason to believe from a small snapshot of a ruined town that the entire earth is gone, especially not since we know at least one dude from 2050 ended up in hunrath.
I don't know if you know this, or just missed it because you understood the number system first time, but it's worse than you make it out to be.
I blundered my way through the bridge sections on Villein without understand the number system really at all. I knew it was a number system, but the fact that I could "brute force" the bridges meant I didn't have much incentive to fully understand it right away, and figured there might be more clues later on.
Then, in what I can only describe as a staggeringly poor decision for this type of game, you reach the one panel that *requires* you to understand how to write a precise number. And unlike what you said in your review, you *can't* return to the register to just plug the number in for the result. I assume this is why they decided to *TRAP* you in this section until you give the correct number.
They may have patched it since, but when I played it near release it was impossible to leave that area. This meant that I, as someone who didn't understand the number system, was trapped in an area with a puzzle that I could not solve and had no resources to learn how to solve other than putting something in and waiting 30 seconds for the animation to display what number I'd entered.
It was by far the worst point in the game for me, next to atrocious 5 minute long loading times on the spheres and how that discouraged experimentation. I was forced to look up the answer online, which obviously ruined that aspect of the game to me.
I still love the game, but how they didn't manage to catch that problem is mind-blowing to me.
I'm a freak when it comes to exploring numbers, so I understood this stuff immediately, but I also thought they made it too easy to play through without understanding.
Thank you for what you said about the ending. I also really felt the good ending wasn't hinted at well enough. Also, about the game feeling incomplete towards the end, playing through it myself it seemed really obvious that they wanted to do more, but I suspect that they were running low on their funds and time, and so decided to leave it where they did.
the ending was illogical and as you say seemed stunted. farley was f'in frozen, and now she is talking to us somehow??
I could be wrong but I seem to remember reading that the rock images created by the mofang devices are actually solid
It's a shame I just don't have a mind for these games. I did play and complete Obduction, but out of complete sheer force of will.
I didn't learn anything, I just sat there for an hour either running back and fourth or fiddling until it worked, and even then I didn't understand why I got what I ending I did.
Yeah. The game seems to expect you to really pay attention to things. I played in much slower than an hour; I think it was more like 5, and things clicked together really well.
This game interest me, but right now I don't have a computer able to play it, should I watch this review or wait? (it could be a long time). Also I need to play Riven, is this too spoiler heavy, or can I jump them, like on the Riven video
The load times between swapping caused me to put down the game for a good while when I arrived to the Gauntlet/Maze puzzle, because I didn't have the patience to try different combinations and re-doing stuff. It's pretty sad.
A few things- the audio cuts in the beginning of the review so that it starts in the middle of a sentance, and that blogpost you mentioned *should* be available using waybackmachine or something like that? Might be worth taking a screenshot and posting it to imgur so that it can be referenced, maybe with a link in the description
I had an idea for the Villein number panels. The final one could have been a panel with 13 "digits", making it 5x5 blobs plus edges. That way the one in the garage could remain unchanged yet the player would have to actually learn the number system.
I thought the Villein numbers were the most interesting part of the whole game, learning to count in this unique way, and it was disappointing that it was barely used. Regardless it's pretty damning that the most fun I had was while using pencil and paper instead of keyboard and mouse.
I've played only a handful of the games you've critiqued, but I am so compelled with every new video. I'm in academia and I can recognize your skill in narrative organization; your analysis is clear, thoughtful and, most importantly, ordered with a natural momentum. Thanks for your hard work!
I hahaha'd out loud at the bookmark joke, worth the set up. I hope you feel very pleased and smug with yourself.
I thought the game ends too quickly, but I was forgiving considering the constraints. By the way, one of the main developers was battling brain cancer and he apologized in a blog if any of the puzzles didn't make sense. I thought it played out quite well. But the one thing I found irritating was the communication box on the one world. It has a ton of buttons and doesn't make much sense. You think you missed something about the game when you complete it without solving it (technically, I did solve it, but the buttons I didn't understand distracted me from trying stuff outside of the box itself) and then you find out that successfully doing anything with it is actually an "Easter Egg".
I was using a traditional hard drive when I first played it at launch, using short stroking to get the best speed possible, and although the load times were pretty bad at times, I didn't really consider them game breaking, just inconvenient. I also don't remember any hitching, but that might be because I had just upgraded to an 8-core AMD processor and a GeForce GTX 980 Ti, so the rest of my system was likely able pick up some of the slack of my hard drive.
It may look too sudden, but any chance you will want to do a gothic/morrowind review?
had a dream where mathw did review of tanki online
this is an excellent review
Matt: reviews shit you may not have heard of otherwise that are a bit different and unique
Comments: DO MGSV OR BOTW
Godamnit I was about to go to bed
Myst
ery.
I have to thank you.
I watched a portion of this video roughly when it released. Maybe in 2018ish Epic Games released Obduction for free. I quickly set it aside after a 30ish minute first play session and decided I wasn't in the mood and it was too obtuse. Fastforward to 2023 some time in July and I revisited this video and gave Obduction another (more patient) try. It was magical to slowly patiently investigate the world of Obduction and I fell in love with it (circle maze puzzle almost made me quit). Quickly devoured the rest of the series. Massive thanks for your video recommendations. It's been a serene journey and it's sad that I'll never be able to relive that magic of discovery fully.
Personal tier list.
Riven>>Obduction>Myst>Myst III >>>Myst IV.
I'm really glad you've been going over these games recently. Because your audience seems to be the type who normally considers anything that isn't shooty shooty bang bang "not really a video game" and thus I hope they'll listen to you and grow an appreciation and understanding for different types of games.
I think the start of this video is a little cut off, it just says "review of..." instead of "this review of..."
Just beat the game and what you did cover was absolute truth. 110% accurate review.
What do you mean by the initials C.W wasn't a coincidence?
I think they stands for "Cyan Worlds"
Yo Matt just gotta say man this is great work right here. I have 0 interest in these type of games but you held my attention
Hey Matt, have you tried Quern yet?
Great job on the video!
I absolutely loved this game
"Myst potential"
On a roll lately, aren't you?
Just finished playing Quern, now that's something equal to Myst in almost everything.
Except that it's quite boring and drab.
I never was able to completely figure out the number system, especially for accessing the Mayor's pod, I eventually came to a fairly logical conclusion, but I don't think it was how the numbering system was supposed to work. That and the number panels were an absolute pain to use likely largely due to the Unreal engine REALLY not liking high DPI mice. I really like your idea for it, though. I would have really liked that if the interface was better designed.
Two videos in two weeks? Did hell freeze over or something?
So then... why was the blue beam aimed the entrance?
I like your Dark and Demon's souls videos but the way they made souls fans come to this channel under the bizarre assumption that this is some sort of "Souls content" channel is annoying. I'm so sick of every damn video having comments just asking for Dark souls 3 or Bloodborne (MGSv too) despite these games already being talked to death anyway, what could really be added to the discussion at this point?
His opinions of what those games did right and wrong. I can't say I disagree with them either given the ludicrous spans of time between his videos.
Which would simply echo the opinions that everyone else has already put forth. The length of time between his videos has nothing to do with when or if reviews on those games specifically come out though, its irrelevant.
'...what could really be added to the discussion at this point?'
His opinions of those games. I wasn't aware you knew what they'd be. It certainly seems like he'd after an interesting viewpoint of MGSV given his feelings on the rest of the series.
Its not irrelevant. Dudes on patreon on a monthly donation system so it seems a video a month would be fuckin minimum. Between Va-11 Hall-A and Riven dude got ~$2,450 and then to drop an 8 minute video about a 20 year old game is a fuckin joke. People are throwing dude money so it seems they're entitled to let their opinions be known. Not to mention legit falling off the face of the earth to avoid Persona 5 spoilers is fuckin funny.
I prefer him to make videos on things he loves, but to act as if people who want him to make videos on more relevant topics are just whining is absurd.
There is literally hundreds of hours of podcasts, videos and shit out there on MGSV by people who have played the entire series, the game has been discussed to death, there is not much left o be said there.
"Your pledge doesn't buy you any preferential treatment. In fact, I take my impartiality so seriously I try not to even see who's donating to me. I'm equally open to feedback from anyone, patron or not, it's the only way to be fair."
He also mentioned multiple times he is not working on either Bloodborne, DS3, or MGSV videos at the moment. To keep talking about them and acting as if he owes you them is the joke here, grow up.
look at this 12 year old he sure is mad
"a sting of myst potential"
The beginning is cut off... Is there spoilers for THIS game (Obduction)? Or just for Riven and Myst?
Just for shits and giggles, would you ever do a video on Uru or any of the other Myst games?
I eat a variety of fine cheeses.
Well this certainly feels like a bit of a return to roots, Matthew. Your sense of humour is incredible, and just keeps getting better with more experience, but I don't think it's been this overt since you tackled the MGS series. Not sure if that kind of distraction / calling attention to it is something you want to go for or not.
N-n-not that I'm opposed! I actually enjoy both styles equally well! I just wanted to make sure you're aware of its impact.
When the mayor at the start of the video was saying Hello, he said "Shorah," D'ni.
Im sure you get recommendations all the time, but it would be super awesome if you could review the Metroid Prime Trilogy. Its my favorite game trilogy ever and i'd really like to hear your thoughts on it :)
>another Matthewmatosis video so soon
Christ man, you're brightening my month.
I'm happy with this video.
Happy to report that I'm playing this in 2020 with basically zero technical issues, only real load times are in the central trees and they are just a couple seconds. I do have a PC built from last year though.
How long does it typically take to make a video of your standard?
37 years.
I love these type of games and can't help but buy them even if I don't even come close to completing them. I just don't have the patience anymore.
Can anyone suggest a favoured CZcamsr who did a let's play of this please?