Poor Stealth Sequences Let Observer Downįrom time to time, you’ll find a body you can jack into. There’s very little gameplay, and what there is stands out as the game’s main flaw. You find something and interact with it to get more of the story. You go into another apartment, or another room, and you scan for clues. If it seems I’m talking a lot about the story and setting, that’s because that’s most of what Observer is. Of course, I wanted him to have the best possible ending. He brings so much kindness, curiosity, and depth to the role that I positively ached for him. He’s perfect in the role, switching effortlessly between a cop who wants to help people and a concerned parent just wanting to find his son. Lazarski is portrayed by Rutger Hauer, most famous for his work in Blade Runner, who sadly passed away in 2019. Even the choice to force you to actually push or pull doors to open them adds a whole new level of fear about what might be behind them. There are definitely jump scares throughout the game, but they’re just present enough to leave you with dread the rest of the time. I loved the use of the speaker, often catching me off guard.

The game makes fantastic use of the DualSense, with so much feeling in its movement. The PS5 upgrade is stunning, with fantastic lighting and shadows dancing on every wall. Instead, they’re borderline grotesque, showing a future where people are willing to give up their health and their bodies for barely working implants that give them any edge in life. The few characters you see have implants, but these aren’t cool-looking tech.

The building you’re in is for the poor and is practically falling apart. The Krakow of Observer is a cyberpunk-inspired future, but you mostly see the dregs of it. You can communicate with many of the building’s residents through screens on their doors, getting leads, but those who are smart keep their doors closed. Signs of people who are out or even doors that are open are rarely a good sign. This leads to a series sense of isolation. As a result, you’ll see only a handful of other characters throughout the game. So are most of the building’s residents, all trapped in their apartments. Lockdown happens to hit shortly after finding the body, and then you’re trapped in the complex. Throughout Observer: Sysxtem Redux, you’ll need to search different rooms for even tiny clues which can help lead you to the killer, all while hoping the body you found isn’t your son. Observers have a variety of tools at their disposal, such as Biovision and EM vision, different views which let you search for clues. That’s a bit unusual as Lazarski is an Observer. When you arrive at his apartment, you find that’s not the only thing that’s been cut off.ĭespite having a body, however, you aren’t able to identify the owner. Yet today, his son called and then got cut off. They’re not on good terms, with past issues hinted at.

Lazarski finds himself in this apartment building after receiving a call from his son, who he hasn’t spoken to in some time. A plague called the Nanophage wiped out a huge chunk of the technologically enhanced population a few years back, and now any hint of an outbreak leads to instant lockdowns. The world has mostly fallen apart, with most governments having fallen and corporations ruling. You play as Daniel Lazarski, a cybernetic cop in 2084. With nowhere to go and a mission to solve, a single-minded purpose drives you forward, deeper into what quickly feels like a hellscape. You spend the vast majority of your time trapped in an apartment complex. Observer: System Redux Review: Worth ObservingĪ genuine sense of claustrophobia oozes out of Observer: System Redux.

Observer game metacritic