This is effectively two games. Half the time, it is a deep cyberpunk noir story, where you as a detective use your implants to collect clues and solve a murder inside a small but extremely detailed and complex location. The other half, it is a very bad horror game. When you will stop playing detective and start playing itch.io quality horror is a complete surprise, and sadly the former takes up less and less of the game as the story progresses.
I deeply wished I lived in the timeline where the devs picked a lane and stayed in it instead of trying to force a particularly bad version of their usual horror game formula into an otherwise fantastic game concept.
The parts that aren't trying to be scary are so great that I'd suggest playing this anyways, but be sure to get it on sale, and expect a lot of your time to be wasted with redundant, poorly stylized and painful-to-look-at imagery that conveys information you already were told through the far better investigative side of the story.

Observer is a frustrating game. On the one hand, Observer has some downright incredible writing. The authorship, art style, vision, and atmosphere are all 10 / 10. Additionally, the game is absolutely traumatizing, which, if you're here reading this review, is probably what you're looking for. Observer is that special kind of horror that isn't too directly, viscerally scary, but imparts much more of a slow, cerebral dread. The game has its gore and it has its jump-scares, but mostly it's just downright disturbing, to the point where I was literally dreading my next session, but had to go on to unravel the mystery. And if you play to the end, this game seriously delivers. Man, what a finale.

On the other hand, Observer is unfortunately buggy as hell. And not just getting stuck on corners and weird floating objects. The game has certain situations that are so severely broken that you can wind up literally stuck in a room with no way out. More than a few times, I had to google my situation, thinking I was missing some puzzle element, only to learn that no, I needed to re-load the game from my last save and simply avoid this room. After this happened to me twice, I really thought about ditching the game.

This problem is exacerbated by the fact that a few of the puzzles in Observer are quite frankly very trivial. When I say "trivial," I don't mean "easy." I mean, in order to solve certain puzzles, you have to look around the room for one tiny little completely nondescript button in a corner to click. Often I would simply find myself frantically clicking around wall-spaces, looking for the one dang lever or button that would solve the puzzle.

This is too bad, because 1. there are a few really brilliant puzzle moments in the game and 2. Like said, you might be stuck in a stupid bug, and you're never really sure.

What's even more disappointing is that this is the "redux" version of the game. This was bloober's opportunity to fix these bugs and polish up what is otherwise a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ masterpiece of a video game.

Overall, in the end, if you're a science fiction lover, a fan of cyberpunk, or a horror aficionado, you will find these (pretty inexcusable) bugs to be forgivable, if only for the fantastic writing, vision and profound dread that Observer offers. Had the writing not been so magnificent, I would have never recommended this game.

Also, a lot of people complain about the runtime of this game (for me, about 11 hours). To me, especially as I get older, this is a LOVELY runtime for a game. But that's just me.

Second time playing this awesome game. Looks great :D
And thank you Rutger Hauer R.I.P.

EDIT:
Thank you all for the upvotes <3

Highly atmospheric dystopian cyberpunk horror mystery 'walking simulator'/adventure game.
Unfortunately, i have encountered a progress-halting bug. As the game only has auto-save, i cannot reload an earlier save to try and avoid whatever caused it, as i did for the previous two major bugs i encountered.
Also unfortunately, the game has not been supported basically since release. This is essentially an update to the original game (which is no longer listed on Steam). The owners of the original game had to basically petition just to be given a discount on this updated version. Unfortunately, unlike the games made by another famous games publisher who also make buggy games and have a similar unethical practice of selling 'Definitive Editions' as new games, this game has no accessible console commands or mod support, and so i cannot fix my game.
It is basically linear, so i won't replay 8 hours just to get back to a spot where i may simply get stuck again. It would be nice if the publisher would either pay the developers to fix the game, or give me a refund.

Foreword

Originally, Observer was released in 2017. The upgraded version is something that came 3 years later. In this review I will be focusing on all aspects of the game. If you are interested in the updates only head over to the paragraph with the appropriate title. The original version I played via Epic - I also have it here on Steam, however, when completing System Redux I did 2 playthroughs already and I didn't want to do two more again so I decided to just put everything I have to say about the games here.

Walking Sim

I consider Observer an interesting game with exciting lore but, first and foremost, this is a walking sim. You play from the first person but you have no weapons at your disposal. And as the development team was Bloober (the folks behind Layers of Fear) expect a couple of jump-scares as well as dreamlike sequences that will test your sensory perception and might disturb you a bit during gameplay.

Rutger Hauer and his story

Rutger Hauer, the actor who delighted us in many films, is the main protagonist here. I have fond memories of him as Roy Batty in Blade Runner or Nick Parker in Blind Fury or even Harvey Stone as the monster-hunting, cynical detective in Split Second. I always appreciate when there is a movie star appearing in a video game. Here he plays a detective who works for the police in Krakow in a dystopian future. While sitting in his car he receives a call from his estranged son which is cut short. He decides to investigate by tracing the signal of the caller.

Now, in this future (late 21st century), pretty much everybody is augmented. We know there was a plague called nanophage that killed a lot of people. And Daniel (our hero) is not just any detective but a special one: a so-called observer who's equipped with a special vision capable of scanning his surroundings. He goes to an apartment building where the call originated from only to find a dead body and then a lockdown happens. We are trapped and can only visit the apartments in each floor (the basement is also home to some people) and the courtyard with a tattoo parlor.

Gameplay

We cannot - unfortunately - enter every apartment. We will be able to speak with many of the tenants at home, though, as the story unfolds. This means a lot of dialogues with many interesting people. We can pick the order of the sentences we want to say but the outcome won't change as the game is very linear.

Things start to get interesting as we enter apartments and scan each room to look for evidence. Our special (augmented) vision either highlights electronic devices or blood (as biological evidence). It's fun looking for clues by scanning everything, opening each drawer, using computers to unlock something or just read e-mails for more information. Now, once a dead body is found we can hack the brains of the individual in question.

And this is where our psychedelic experience begins. Such trips are mandatory to progress the story and this is the only part where we can die. It is also required that we pay attention as the hallucinations not only show important information on the deceased person but also on Daniel's past. Lots of material that will all come together by the end. I think this is the most exciting part of the game - something that the Bloober team was always good at and these sections can be familiar to those having already played Layers of Fear. With this (and additional investigation due to the side missions) a walkthrough can easily be around 10 hours which is pretty great for a walking sim.

System Redux

Sadly, by the time Redux was released Rutger had already passed away. The game gives us a couple of more quests to do in the apartment building. The one with the dolls is especially great! Another thing they did at Bloober was - as they say - enhancing the graphics. Now, it should be noted that while additional features can now be turned on (ray tracing is one example) the game looks (slightly) different. It's one of those cases where while we can argue as to what is considered next gen or last gen (or even current gen) you just can't avoid the feeling that from an aesthetic point of view this version feels different.

I love lighting and in some sections they did a great job (a good example is the small lamp next to a dead body), however, in other sections the lighting differs so much so that it gives an altered vibe to the game. I do not wish to join in on the argument of Original Vs Redux but one thing is for sure: the new edition is slightly longer, it can test your hardware and the game still has a fantastic atmosphere. Perhaps with the new look Observer is a bit closer to Blade Runner and some other works it heavily drew inspiration from. I wish Rutger had been around to see it, too.

Cyberpunk 2077 this!
Cyberpunk 2077 that!
How about give some love to this hidden gem!

This is a recommendation for all the people, that have never played and owned this game. it is still a blast and gives you a lot to think about. But it is also a definite NO to everybody, that has played the game before or still owns it. Yes, it looks better than the original and has new quests, but the technical changes aren't worth it and the quests, while kinda interesting, are not enough. Only get it, if it is a good discount.

The game itself is pretty brilliant, but dark and nothing for people with epileptic issues or that cannot withstand dark mental topics. Apart from that, one of the best Cyberpunk games I have played.

If you enjoyed "SOMA", you will love this too!

A WORD OF CAUTION: the game has spectacular and highly creative visuals, but due to their erratic nature (i.e. bright neon colors, flashing lights, stuttering static, high contrast between dimly and brightly light areas etc.) the game is prone to causing painful headaches and eyestrain. Do have that in mind and try to limit the game time per day.

I'll be honest. I can't recommend Observer: System Redux. No matter what the devs say I don't think this is the definitive way to play Observer. Starting with the graphics. The game looks better then the last one in some places however In my opinion large chunks of the game look like new stuff jammed into the old.

In fact "New stuff jammed into the old" should probably be this games tagline since they do it at every turn. It's weird they'll add little jumpscares and moments that weren't there in the original story that are forced in ways that are unnatural for an example I will list a moment some of you might find to be a spoiler.

MAYBE SPOILER

In the Original Observer you find yourself in a basement turning on the power. When you flip the switch the see the shadow of an unseen monster at the end of a hallway, A security door closes and It is implied the monster moves to the door and begins banging on it. In System Redux you see the shadow and then the monster sprints into view in a strange animation that doesn't really look like it was meant for that scene.

SPOILER END

And while talking about stuff that does not belong in places Let's talk about the new side missions. These are the only reason I got the game a second time because the devs said they were finishing unreleased side quests that utilised the late Rutger Hauers unused voicelines.

>Insert so that was a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ lie meme<

The voicelines used in these side quests are honestly uncomfortable. A ton of the side quests narrative will be told through the text in the case logs while the main character lets out the odd gasp or "♥♥♥♥" or even in one case a line that just seems completely meant for another scene entirely. It's like when you finish an open world video game and the protagonist just stops talking because there aren't anymore missions for Him to talk in and they become more of a shell of the campaign version of the character just because the only talking they do is the occasional grunt (Looking at you Batman: Arkham Knight)

The voicelines just feel weird because the main character is quite chatty in the normal narrative and then He goes dead silent for these new ones only saying "Bingo" when He hits a light switch or Finds a clue. And something that makes these missions feel all the more awkward to play is the fact that they feel 90% finished and are just lacking the polish. Often during the missions I found myself lacking direction so I would end up just stumbling into where they wanted me to go after a good while of wandering.

I wanted to like this game. Observer is one of my favorite horror games even with all Its problems and to see It twisted and mashed into something It's not while advertising Itself as a bag of new tricks sucks.

Bottom line. If you really want to play Observer and can't get the original then give this game a look but for me as massive fan of the original I can't give this a good review for what is seemingly the same game with new graphics and unfinished extra content.

Great HD remake of the 2017's observer game.
At maximum settings, the image looks really outstanding.
The colors and visual effects are really decorative for your monitor and create a beautiful image of a cyberpunk world.

No idea what life will be like in 2084, but in 'Observer: System Redux' technology and biology live on an equal level,
the futuristic cyberpunk devices and gadgets that you will notice in the game are also very cleverly designed.
For example, your main character will have some unique and useful abilities thanks to these ideas.

In the game you take on the role of 'Daniel Lazarski', a police detective who uses this cyberpunk tech to hack the brains of others even when they are dead, which has been called an 'Observer'.
Observers should try to find out what happened during the last moments of a murder victim by hacking their memory as if you could directly feel, see, hear someone else's perceptions through their senses, ...
You will also be able to confirm objects and bio-traces via certain scanners that you also have in you.
A good tip is to often rescan the places you have scanned, often you will find a detail that you missed the first time.
You will need all of these abilities to further help you resolve the issues in the story.

The game also has many hacking jobs to offer, these often require a lot of thinking and there is the option to disable the hacking minigames if you wish.
You will also sometimes have to hack keypads, the number code will always be somewhere if you look around carefully, but you can sometimes also decipher all keypad's codes by hacking, sometimes even 1, sometimes none, but it is a great help.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANMOY186eTw