Return of the Obra Dinn

Return of the Obra Dinn is a first-person detective game about a merchant ship reappearing in 1807, after five years lost at sea. Playing as an insurance investigator, you explore the vacant ship to find skeletons and uncover their memories. While collecting memories and looking over information about the ship’s history, your goal is to piece together what happened aboard the Obra Dinn. Instead of solving individual puzzles, you will have to string together the game’s narrative in order to solve its overarching mystery.

At the beginning of the game, you are given a book with introductory information. Along with the book, there is a mysterious pocket watch capable of transporting the player to frozen moments in time—specifically, the instances in which members of the Obra Dinn’s crew died. Accompanying audio clips will frame the scenes. Your task is to explore these frozen moments to determine the circumstances surrounding the deaths of more than 50 crew members.

For each death, there are certain details you will need to determine: the identity of the victim, the cause of death, and their killer (if there is one). Return of the Obra Dinn requires you to put your observation and inference skills to use. In order to pin down facts, you have to guess the details of three deaths correctly. Those three facts will then be permanently recorded. As you continue to uncover more of the story, your book will fill itself and your watch will guide you to more scenes.

In addition to these mystery-solving mechanics, exploration, narration, and art are key factors of Return of the Obra Dinn. The player explores the 1-bit, gritty environment of the ship in first person. Narration plays an important role, not only in the puzzle aspects of the game, but also in crafting a suspenseful tale. The story may surprise you, as it eventually reveals fantastical and supernatural elements.

Return of the Obra Dinn has some horror influences and may be upsetting for some players. It deals with heavy topics, such as death and suicide. Though the graphics are more stylish than realistic, it features blood and depictions of violence throughout the entire game.

This description was written by Cay Macres and edited by Oriane Tury.