The year is 2084 and Daniel Lazarski is an Observer -a special investigator working in the police department of the futuristic and dystopic Krakow, right in the beating, biomechanical heart of the Fifth Polish Republic. On a dark, rainy, drenched in green neon light, morning he receives a distress call from his estranged son, Adam. A call that sends Daniel to an apartment building in the slums of the city, in search of Adam and figuratively down the rabbit hole: a headless corpse and a suspicious lockdown of the complex later, finds Daniel Lazarski frantically searching for his son while fighting for his sanity and perhaps, his life.


In this cyber/biopunk psychological thriller, humanity has found a way to transcend the physical limitations of the flesh by means of cybernetic augmentation such as mechanical prosthetics and neural implants, among others. Obeying the law of cause and effect, a divine punishement for hubris or, perhaps, simply in a cruel twist of fate, a plague dubbed nanophage afflicts those who have been cybernetically enhanced. The infamous 'AA Glitch' has turned the nanobots responsible for easing the (unholy to some) union of flesh and machine against their hosts, killing thousands upon thousands. "A heavy cost for meddling with our minds and bodies." Daniel laments in the prologue -rightfully so.

As if the horror of a digital Black Death wasn't enough, mankind is yet again thrown in a world war conflict, nicknamed the Great Decimation. As West kills the East and vice versa, dead bodies pile up. The losses on either side: astronomical. Winner(s): only one -CHIRON. A megacorporation that seized power as the dust settled upon the ruins and is effectively governing a reforged Poland as the Fifth Polish Republic. In the words of a deeply disheartened detective: "a crooked empire of blood and ash". The new authoritarian administration implimented a strict societal class system of 3 tiers, where Class A and B are the privileged citizens (as much as privilege goes in a totalitarian regime) and the rest 91.6% of the population is thrown in Class C, the abysmal citizenship status where human rights and freedom are labeled as dangerous, unpatriotic dissident propaganda.

Such an arbitrary goverment needs an equally oppressive unit of enforcement, capable of using advanced (and unethical) methods in order to keep a tight grip on the populace. Enter the Observer: a police detective, primarily tasked with contacting neural interrogations with the usage of the DR-3AT implant, colloquially referred to as the "Dream Eater". The procedure involves the Observer peering into the mind of the persons who are being interrogated, with the aim of extracting information from their memories.

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As soon as i finished Observer for a second time, i rewatched the original Blade Runner (1982). I was in a hurry to do so, not only to spot the ideas in Ridley Scott's masterpiece that inspired Bloober Team to create the game, but mainly to confirm the impression i was left with, by film and game alike: that of the feverish, maddening visualization of the two dystopian worlds. Both delightfully portraying their noir cyberpunk setting -and also very unsettlingly.

Elements of horror are present, predominantly in the later part of the game. I have read complaints in reviews about the disruptive effect that horror has on the narrative and while i also prefer the 'detective' side of the story over the 'hide and run for your life' one, i disagree with the notion that the shifting of focus to the horror genre in various stages of the game, is a bad thing. Without going into spoiler territory, the aformentioned elements are critical to the story as a whole, especially the biological-horror themed ones and generally the developers did a good job clueing the player in as to why these shifts are happening.

While i haven't played the original Observer, the graphics in this remastered version are amazing. The detail given to the various enviroments that Daniel visits throughout the game is astounding, fleshing out a world of decay. Exploring is highly rewarding since every visual detail, no matter how minute, is memorable. On a sidenote, i played the game with film grain on, but i understand why someone else would be annoyed by it. Personally, it added to the atmosphere but you might consider turning it off for a clearer visual experience.

Music and sound design in game are both commendable, pretty much what one would expect from a heavily themed, bleak cyberpunk game. Inspired by similar works in this genre (mainly Blade Runner and Ghost in the Shell [1995] OSTs), the synthesizer-heavy ambient tracks create the ideal atmosphere for the grizzled detective to explore the derelict apartment halls and the choral tracks, albeit few, drive the nail home by creating feelings such as awe and bewilderment, at the right place and time.

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My final thoughts on the game are about the Observer's actual job: targeting the poor and desolate third-class (literally) citizens, aiming to weed out potential insurgents.Behind the facade of police officers, the Observers are Chiron's henchmen -whether they like it or not. Dreaded and loathed by the general populace, their semi-prestigious status as law enforcers must mean little to them, especially to those who are conscious of what they really contribute to society and of the threat, that they are always on the verge of becoming to it.

Observers are described as "ticking bombs". The constant use of the Dream Eater takes its toll and succumbing to the mental strain from violating minds and meddling with foreign memories is virtually unavoidable, with its outcome being unpredictable: since the mental collapse of an Observer led to a mass shooting incident, carrying firearms is prohibited for the unit of special interrogators. By literally delving into one's mind it can be argued that an Observer is taking an intrusive peek into the abyss of the human psyche and it does come at a cost -the abyss will eventually stare back at the one who observes it.

This is my attempt to entice you into giving this amazing game a try. Cheers!
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