![]() Instead of a techno-haunted-house aesthetic, it uses realistic NASA-style construction with blue panels, sterile white walls, and constrained tunnels adorned with posters and family photos that serve as a cramped home for the crew. Observation (the space station) is a strong setting. Outside of some fantastic plot-specific moments, this function is useful for exploring the station in search of optional collectibles like audio logs, photos, and journals that help flesh out the crew and take in some of the impressive architecture both in and outside the station. The further you get, the more access to different wings of the (giant) space station you gain, eventually letting you jump from place to place like the eye of an all-seeing god. Besides progressing through the plot, solving puzzles also helps S.A.M. While there are no game-over states, failing to solve certain puzzles alters segments of the story in subtle and neat ways I won’t spoil here. I needed a notepad to get me through a number of the harder puzzles, so you can expect to be challenged – but not to an unfair degree. Observation is satisfying because its constant and well-designed puzzles make you an activate participant in the action as opposed to just an avatar wandering around. Other obstacles you have to overcome include time trials, math problems, and line puzzles. Jumping from camera to camera to access laptops and folders around the room gives you access to the schematics that you can use to dive in to the generators themselves and reboot them via a quick memorization puzzle. For example, to bring back the power in one wing of the station, you need to restart various generators around the room. ![]() While these tasks sound mundane, they’re fun puzzles that help set Observation apart from horror-based walking simulators. Eventually, you gain the ability to move throughout the station as a drone in order to conduct repairs and help Emma get where she needs to go. Initially you can only manually operate various cameras in different wings of the station (think Five Nights at Freddy’s), zooming in on laptops and documents to obtain useful, story-progressing data. ![]() In turn, Emma gives you power-ups that grant you more maneuverability and access to the station’s various functions. to restore functions to the station and open doors for her to reach new places. The pair’s symbiotic relationship is reinforced neatly in the gameplay as well, with Emma needing S.A.M. can’t even verify that it’s not responsible for damaging the station? Emma fluctuates between trusting and suspicious, and who can blame her when S.A.M. a victim in all of this, or is it responsible for the disaster? And what else is lurking on the station beside you two? While these plot points all have satisfying resolutions, my favorite part of the narrative was watching Emma and S.A.M.’s relationship develop as the story creeps along. What is the role of Observation’s crew? Are any of them still alive? Is S.A.M. Uncovering what happened to Observation is the heart of the game, and it’s a hell of a plot, packed with constant twists that leave a trail intriguing and unsettling questions. S.A.M.’s memory cores and most of its functionalities have been wiped in the wake of whatever catastrophe has struck the station, meaning that as S.A.M., you have no idea what has happened and are at the mercy of Emma as she works to help you get all your functions back online. in charge of taking care of the crew of Observation. (an acronym for “Systems, Administration, and Maintenance”) is the A.I. You awaken on the station (itself called Observation) to find a scientist, Emma Fisher, begging you for help as the structure groans and burns all around you. ![]() You play a space station’s artificial intelligence in the aftermath of a disaster, and this angle on puzzles and exploration produces a unique kind of horror – one that takes the time it needs to tell an ambitious story without interruption, letting players marinate in its lake of dread before unveiling the terrors at its core. Observation is different, trading pulse-pounding scares for a sense of creeping fear. Even the more restrained of the genre’s offerings, like Soma and Amnesia, often have indestructible hunters that consistently instill smaller jolts of fright pursuing you. Horror games are often loud and immediate when it comes to the shocks they deliver.
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