Return of the Obra Dinn
September 8, 2022 3:55 AM - Subscribe
Return of the Obra Dinn is a first-person mystery adventure based on exploration and logical deduction.
An Insurance Adventure with Minimal Color
In 1802, the merchant ship Obra Dinn set out from London for the Orient with over 200 tons of trade goods. Six months later it hadn't met its rendezvous point at the Cape of Good Hope and was declared lost at sea.
Early this morning of October 14th, 1807, the Obra Dinn drifted into port at Falmouth with damaged sails and no visible crew. As insurance investigator for the East India Company's London Office, dispatch immediately to Falmouth, find means to board the ship, and prepare an assessment of damages.
An Insurance Adventure with Minimal Color
In 1802, the merchant ship Obra Dinn set out from London for the Orient with over 200 tons of trade goods. Six months later it hadn't met its rendezvous point at the Cape of Good Hope and was declared lost at sea.
Early this morning of October 14th, 1807, the Obra Dinn drifted into port at Falmouth with damaged sails and no visible crew. As insurance investigator for the East India Company's London Office, dispatch immediately to Falmouth, find means to board the ship, and prepare an assessment of damages.
I assumed all four are together purely because I can see how they might have lost their appetite for sea travel, but also, there's no reason to determine their current whereabouts for insurance purposes. (There is a clue for what location they escaped to, in fact; it's just that you won't find it in a flashback.)
I don't know if this counts as self-promotion, but I wrote a nudge guide for this game because a) I really liked it, and b) I thought it deserved a UHS-style guide and figured that if I didn't write one, none of these Damned Kids would think to write it. I probably should go back and correct the title image and that one error that I see the comments keep telling me about.
posted by Merus at 1:47 AM on September 9, 2022 [4 favorites]
I don't know if this counts as self-promotion, but I wrote a nudge guide for this game because a) I really liked it, and b) I thought it deserved a UHS-style guide and figured that if I didn't write one, none of these Damned Kids would think to write it. I probably should go back and correct the title image and that one error that I see the comments keep telling me about.
posted by Merus at 1:47 AM on September 9, 2022 [4 favorites]
A year late so I don't know if anyone will see this, but I'm obsessed with this game so what the hell, why not?
Pure luck too that I guessed that the passengers were all in Africa, rather than any of the other countries listed. Were there any clues to that?
This is one of the trickiest fates in the game. You have to notice that the introduction to the book was written by Henry Evans, the surgeon, and he asks you to return it to him in Morocco. He's also the one who had the Memento Mori in the epilogue, and used it to reveal the secret of what happened in the lazarette.
The other one I got stuck on for a long time was the steward in the port walk - spiked? shot? speared?
There are a couple fates that rely on you tracing bullet paths, and if you don't realize that's what you're supposed to do you can get really stuck. (This is also another "trust the dev" moment, because there really is an answer there if you know to look for it.)
It's been 5 years since I originally played this (though I recently went through an obsessive phase of tracking down every lets play and stream I could find of people playing this for the first time) and the one I remember just completely baffling me was the guy with the stripy shirt. It wasn't until I saw him on the deck in the scene where the guy gets struck by lightning, ordering around a bunch of seamen hauling on a rope, that I realized he must be either the Bosun or the Bosun's mate. (That and the Chinese topmen, whose shoes looked far too alike for me, even after I figured out that that was how you were supposed to identify them).
posted by firechicago at 7:18 PM on October 31, 2023
Pure luck too that I guessed that the passengers were all in Africa, rather than any of the other countries listed. Were there any clues to that?
This is one of the trickiest fates in the game. You have to notice that the introduction to the book was written by Henry Evans, the surgeon, and he asks you to return it to him in Morocco. He's also the one who had the Memento Mori in the epilogue, and used it to reveal the secret of what happened in the lazarette.
The other one I got stuck on for a long time was the steward in the port walk - spiked? shot? speared?
There are a couple fates that rely on you tracing bullet paths, and if you don't realize that's what you're supposed to do you can get really stuck. (This is also another "trust the dev" moment, because there really is an answer there if you know to look for it.)
It's been 5 years since I originally played this (though I recently went through an obsessive phase of tracking down every lets play and stream I could find of people playing this for the first time) and the one I remember just completely baffling me was the guy with the stripy shirt. It wasn't until I saw him on the deck in the scene where the guy gets struck by lightning, ordering around a bunch of seamen hauling on a rope, that I realized he must be either the Bosun or the Bosun's mate. (That and the Chinese topmen, whose shoes looked far too alike for me, even after I figured out that that was how you were supposed to identify them).
posted by firechicago at 7:18 PM on October 31, 2023
You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments
Purely by chance I saw the three outlines falling into the sea during the kraken fight, and it came just at the point when I'd realised that I was expected to figure out what happened to the folks who disappeared as well. Would have been frustrating to miss it and spend hours figuring out what happened to those three. Pure luck too that I guessed that the passengers were all in Africa, rather than any of the other countries listed. Were there any clues to that? If there were, I didn't spot them. The other one I got stuck on for a long time was the steward in the port walk - spiked? shot? speared?
Anyway, I've played so many games recently that just astonish me in terms of what they accomplish - the level of detail, the scripts and dialogue, the plotting - and this is another one. It's exciting.
posted by happyfrog at 12:29 AM on September 9, 2022 [2 favorites]