| Obsidian | Rocket Science / SegaSoft | 1996 | |
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This first-person, point-and-click adventure begins in a beautiful northwestern forest in the near future. After a few steps forward you find a tent, in which is a small personal computer. This device handily delivers the exposition of the story: You play Lilah, a scientist who, along with your boyfriend Max, has just launched a huge artificial intelligence orbital factory to clean up the atmosphere and repair the ozone layer. The computer includes data on the project - called Ceres - as well as personal information and even details on dreams you and Max have been having. Now on vacation after Ceres' launch, you and Max have noticed a bizarre phenomenon in the forest: a huge black object that grows steadily hour by hour. Just as you are finishing up absorbing this information, you hear a scream - Max must be in trouble. You run to the huge black object - which you've named Obsidian - and you get sucked into it. After a dazzling cutscene, the game truly begins. Obsidian takes you through a series of beautiful and bizarre worlds that have been created by a rogue offshoot of your Ceres AI program and based on your own dreams. The games has a smart cursor, minimal inventory and 2 different endings. The 4 completely different and almost unrelated dream worlds are all dark and mechanistic and devoid of human life, but strangely beautiful and richly detailed. The surreal graphics are stunning, and the animated cut scenes are really spectacular, with atmospheric music and sound effects, and fluid movement. However both the engrossing story and the unusual environments serve merely to showcase the many bizarre puzzles that are the main focus of this game. Most of your time is spent solving them and they are both innovative and difficult. They are an integral part of each unique dream world, impact that world, and often require orientation to and use of that world's logic to solve. None of them are really easy, and be forewarned that there is one at the end of the game which is almost statistically impossible. The high quality animations, the disorientation puzzles, and the writers' ability to see the humor in the darkly prophetic scenario of the first section all contribute to the fun. For those who love puzzle games, this is one of the best... the classic that set the standard for all such subsequent games. It is a unique and memorable game. | ||
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