Introduction

Return of the Obra Dinn is a 2018 puzzle game created by indie developer Lucas Pope. Prior to creating Return of the Obra Dinn, Pope was most notably known for his game Papers, Please. Anyone who has played Papers, Please will know that Pope is exceptional in crafting unique games with an engaging story.

Return of the Obra Dinn is a game about an insurance inspector sent to investigate the mysterious return of the Obra Dinn, a ship that has been missing for the past five years. Though this premise may sound a bit dull, what is very interesting is your mode of investigation: the Memento Mortem, a magical clock that transports you to the time of death of any corpse you come across. I should mention that you will be coming across many corpses, as each of the ship’s original 60 passengers have either died or gone missing. 

That being said, I have almost nothing but praise for Return of the Obra Dinn.

Gameplay

As a game made by a single person, the gameplay is not very complex. It plays similar to mystery/visual-novel games, in that the gameplay primarily consists of consuming a story presented to the player. Pope, however, takes a very interesting turn with this game in how this story is delivered. 

By using the Memento Mortem, the player is able to walk around freeze frames of the different deaths of the Obra Dinn’s passengers to piece together the multitude of tragedies that befell the ship. Additionally, the main task presented to the player is to conclude the identity and manner of death of each person. The combination of the freeze frame scenes and this seemingly impossible task is the perfect experience for logic puzzle enthusiasts. Hints, clues, and easter eggs are scattered through the many freeze frames for eagle-eyed players, making for a very deep gameplay experience using very simple gameplay elements. 

Story

Return of the Obra Dinn had my complete attention from beginning to end. Each time I put it down, I was quickly flooded with ideas of what might happen next. Due to the nature of the Memento Mortem, the events of the story are mostly told in reverse chronological order. This allowed for a lot of imagination by the player to figure out the truth of the story and piece together the different events in a very paced manner. Likewise, even if you focus on trying to solve the fates of the 60 passengers the story doesn’t slow down. 

The fates of the passengers are inseparable from the story itself, and so there is no disconnect between gameplay and narrative that is often present in games. Because of this, the game has a lot of room for analysis outside of what is explicitly stated or presented. I myself am not great at analyzing or reading into small details in games. However, once I finished my playthrough I went down a rabbit hole of reading through the game’s wiki to learn about all the easter eggs and nuances I glossed through during my play. And let me tell you, that rabbit hole is a deep one!

My only criticism of the story (and for the game as a whole) is that it had a relatively lackluster twist ending. This twist is explicitly set up from the start of the game, but just didn’t have a solid payoff compared to the rest of what happened to the ship and its passengers. By the end of it all, it felt like a carrot on a stick for a horse that had free reign walking through a buffet.  

Other considerations

As mentioned in the intro, Lucas Pope is no stranger to originality in his creations. Return of the Obra Dinn is no exception to this. I have never seen a similar gameplay loop as this, and it made for a truly memorable experience. Four years from now I may not remember the details of the story and what happened to everyone on that ship, but I will remember the feeling of satisfaction of correctly deducing a whole slew of micro-mysteries just from a few freeze frames. 

The game’s visuals are also incredibly executed, and are worth noting. The game uses a 1-bit monochrome style, which results in a grittiness and bleakness that’s fitting for the overall theme. Just like the originality of the gameplay, the game’s graphics were something I will remember for a long time.

Concluding thoughts

I would highly recommend this game for anyone remotely interested in mysteries and/or puzzle solving. It is pretty lightweight, taking about 8 hours to beat and is very easy to pick up and put down. It’s also entirely possible to brute force your way through some of the more esoteric fates (I’m guilty of this). That being said, everything is certainly solvable using context clues and details present in the game. 

Return of the Obra Dinn sets a new standard for puzzle and indie games. If you’re reading this and haven’t played it yet, I urge you to give it a shot. Likewise, if you have played the game already please leave your thoughts in the comments!