"Yes, with a but." I'm glad I played this, but man, there is a lot to complain about. This is like watching a pretty good cyberpunk movie with solid script, great performances and good direction, but overlong with criminally bad editing and a crappy ending.

----

The good:

• Atmosphere. Bloober Team had a very strong vision and it was realized perfectly. This IS cyberpunk. It's got that great darkness to it that only Eastern Europe can really nail.

• Art. This is part of why the atmosphere is so convincing. I feel like this looks exactly how they wanted it to.

• Acting. It may be obvious to state, but Rutger Hauer is great in this role. Even though he is in his 70s now, he delivers hard. I really liked the character. Other actors are also convincing, funny, weird, scary, etc. and direction is excellent.

• Writing. I was interested in watching things unfold, discovering the reasons behind everything that happened, learning the stories of the various characters. Towards the end everything is explained pretty well and there are some good twists.

• Investigations. You have different "bionic eye" forensic vision modes, for scanning technology (e.g. bionic implants, tools and devices) or biological matter (e.g. bloodstains). The crime scene sequences are fairly linear, but there are a lot of little things to scan and you might miss some of them, so when you find them it feels good.

----

The bad:

• Trippy. This game is WAY too trippy for way too long. Through the Observer's neural interface, our hero is able to explore the subconscious minds of those he connects with. There are many of these "dream" sequences throughout the game and they all drag on for what feels like hours.

For example, your first "Observation": I get it, this guy went to prison and it was unpleasant, I don't need a 20 minute sequence of walking through a prison-themed maze with lots of monitors showing giant eyeballs looking at me.

Some of these sections have solid, interesting story info, but it is buried deep under endless running through halls of weird meaningless stuff. I get it, computer screens filled with static are cyberpunky. I get it, electronic items jumping around like they're alive is disturbing. I get it, it's ugly when the walls are made of human intestines, but none of this actually says anything and I get the point after 5 minutes.

I GET IT.

On top of that, your character seems to be getting on in years and his implants are old and buggy, so ... sometimes he seems to be hallucinating, or his vision glitches out. Basically things look really weird a lot of the time, which is actually pretty cool; but once it's clear that you can't trust what you see, nothing matters any more, and it's no longer disturbing when something truly strange or awful happens.

• Length. Goes with what I said about being too trippy. The artists did great work and I think the team wanted to show it ALL off. The game should be half this length; it feels like it never occurred to them to edit anything out and every idea was thrown in, regardless of relevance or coherence. "How about a flying TV that cries like a baby and follows you around for half an hour?" "Perfect, let's do it!"

• Super linear. Despite having an entire apartment building to explore, the sense of exploration is minimal. There is a lot of nosing around, but it's all about either finding the next story point or finding dead ends. Some dead ends lead to entertaining conversations with apartment residents, and these are fun because the acting and writing are good, but they don't detract from the sense of watching a movie instead of playing a game. In a game, you can develop a playstyle and figure out how you want to approach things. Aside from one or two optional missions, you really have no choice how to play this.

• Weak tension. Firstly, a good horror game makes the player feel isolated, but this takes place in a crowded apartment building. You never see the residents wandering the halls, but ring a doorbell and you can have a nice long conversation any time.

Secondly, and even more damningly, since there are no conflict mechanics in the game (i.e. you can pretty much only be hurt in cutscenes), it's hard to feel scared no matter how dark it is, or how loud a sudden sound is, or if a monster appears for a moment in a flash of light. Bloober loves putting these jump scares in, but after the first one or two, I just didn't care because what could happen?

• The ending. Just after the last reveal where the story gets really interesting and a fascinating conflict is introduced, the game simply ends, with the weak resolution completely scripted (there is a decision point which determines which one of two endings you'll see, but they are effectively the same and neither is satisfying).

----

So that's it. There's plenty worth seeing here, mired in filler and without player agency. Again, I'm glad I experienced this game, for the performances and the writing (except the end). If you want to check out the story and don't mind trudging through the repetitive parts, go for it. If you like to take drugs and play through trippy shit, you'll love this. If you're the kind of person who watches games on YouTube instead of buying them, you're a bad person but this game is ideally suited for that.

I received this as a gift so price wasn't an issue. I would NOT recommend this at $30, no way. Wait for a sale or bundle, $10 max.

P.S. If you do play it, make sure to look up how to edit the .ini files to fix the field of view. I increased mine to 95.

"Yes, with a but." I'm glad I played this, but man, there is a lot to complain about. This is like watching a pretty good cyberpunk movie with solid script, great performances and good direction, but overlong with criminally bad editing and a crappy ending. ---- The good: • Atmosphere. Bloober Team had a very strong vision and it was realized perfectly. This IS cyberpunk. It's got that great darkness to it that only Eastern Europe can really nail. • Art. This is part of why the atmosphere is so convincing. I feel like this looks exactly how they wanted it to. • Acting. It may be obvious to state, but Rutger Hauer is great in this role. Even though he is in his 70s now, he delivers hard. I really liked the character. Other actors are also convincing, funny, weird, scary, etc. and direction is excellent. • Writing. I was interested in watching things unfold, discovering the reasons behind everything that happened, learning the stories of the various characters. Towards the end everything is explained pretty well and there are some good twists. • Investigations. You have different "bionic eye" forensic vision modes, for scanning technology (e.g. bionic implants, tools and devices) or biological matter (e.g. bloodstains). The crime scene sequences are fairly linear, but there are a lot of little things to scan and you might miss some of them, so when you find them it feels good. ---- The bad: • Trippy. This game is WAY too trippy for way too long. Through the Observer's neural interface, our hero is able to explore the subconscious minds of those he connects with. There are many of these "dream" sequences throughout the game and they all drag on for what feels like hours. For example, your first "Observation": I get it, this guy went to prison and it was unpleasant, I don't need a 20 minute sequence of walking through a prison-themed maze with lots of monitors showing giant eyeballs looking at me. Some of these sections have solid, interesting story info, but it is buried deep under endless running through halls of weird meaningless stuff. I get it, computer screens filled with static are cyberpunky. I get it, electronic items jumping around like they're alive is disturbing. I get it, it's ugly when the walls are made of human intestines, but none of this actually says anything and I get the point after 5 minutes. I GET IT. On top of that, your character seems to be getting on in years and his implants are old and buggy, so ... sometimes he seems to be hallucinating, or his vision glitches out. Basically things look really weird a lot of the time, which is actually pretty cool; but once it's clear that you can't trust what you see, nothing matters any more, and it's no longer disturbing when something truly strange or awful happens. • Length. Goes with what I said about being too trippy. The artists did great work and I think the team wanted to show it ALL off. The game should be half this length; it feels like it never occurred to them to edit anything out and every idea was thrown in, regardless of relevance or coherence. "How about a flying TV that cries like a baby and follows you around for half an hour?" "Perfect, let's do it!" • Super linear. Despite having an entire apartment building to explore, the sense of exploration is minimal. There is a lot of nosing around, but it's all about either finding the next story point or finding dead ends. Some dead ends lead to entertaining conversations with apartment residents, and these are fun because the acting and writing are good, but they don't detract from the sense of watching a movie instead of playing a game. In a game, you can develop a playstyle and figure out how you want to approach things. Aside from one or two optional missions, you really have no choice how to play this. • Weak tension. Firstly, a good horror game makes the player feel isolated, but this takes place in a crowded apartment building. You never see the residents wandering the halls, but ring a doorbell and you can have a nice long conversation any time. Secondly, and even more damningly, since there are no conflict mechanics in the game (i.e. you can pretty much only be hurt in cutscenes), it's hard to feel scared no matter how dark it is, or how loud a sudden sound is, or if a monster appears for a moment in a flash of light. Bloober loves putting these jump scares in, but after the first one or two, I just didn't care because what could happen? • The ending. Just after the last reveal where the story gets really interesting and a fascinating conflict is introduced, the game simply ends, with the weak resolution completely scripted (there [i]is[/i] a decision point which determines which one of two endings you'll see, but they are effectively the same and neither is satisfying). ---- So that's it. There's plenty worth seeing here, mired in filler and without player agency. Again, I'm glad I experienced this game, for the performances and the writing (except the end). If you want to check out the story and don't mind trudging through the repetitive parts, go for it. If you like to take drugs and play through trippy s[i][/i]hit, you'll love this. If you're the kind of person who watches games on YouTube instead of buying them, you're a bad person but this game is ideally suited for that. I received this as a gift so price wasn't an issue. I would NOT recommend this at $30, no way. Wait for a sale or bundle, $10 max. P.S. If you do play it, [b]make sure[/b] to look up how to edit the .ini files to fix the field of view. I increased mine to 95.