A grand crime at sea is perhaps a troublesome job to research however an insurance coverage agent doesn’t hand over really easy, in accordance with Return Of The Obra Dinn, subsequent from Lucas Pope – creator of Papers Please. After 4 and a half years in growth, the low-fi thriller journey is sort of prepared. Pope reckons it’s only one week and a day from being ship-shape, launching on October 18th. Armed with nothing however your deductive wit and a pocket-watch that allows you to view fragments of historical past, you’re piecing collectively why the Obra Dinn’s crew shrank from 51 to skellingtons. Below, a trailer.
Its the sort of thriller that will get any sort of style fan’s mind itching – in 1802, the Obra Dinn units out from London. Six months later, it was declared misplaced. Five years later, it drifts into port, crewed by nothing however echoes and (very inanimate) skeletons, and historic omni-villains the East India Company wish to know why – for insurance coverage functions, in fact. Cue a real-time, first individual journey the place you stalk the halls of the ship, crew manifest and notes in hand, making an attempt to piece collectively the complete story of the catastrophe.
While it might take a forensic super-scientist to infer the reality simply via remark, you’ve received a pocket-watch that allows you to peek into the previous, listening to the voices of the crew and seeing their ends frozen in time. Not that you simply’ll get the complete image, the motivations or perceive what occurred to all of the crew simply from one snapshot. It all jogs my memory a little bit of Her Story, solely extra tactile and visible, piecing collectively shreds of historical past to assemble a ultimate chain of occasions. Exactly the sort of quiet, solitary journey I can see myself stepping into on a chilly Autumn night time.
Return Of The Obra Dinn launches subsequent Thursday, October 18th. You can discover it on Steam, Humble and later GOG for $20 – round £15. There’s a (very outdated) demo on its Itch page here.
