


Thus begins the ensuing murder investigation. There he finds a beheaded body, clawed in places by what evidence suggests may be something bestial. Perplexed by the nature of the conversation, the detective visits his son’s last known location–the apartment building. Thus, players slog through a tense, exhaustive first-person adventure, one that feels too overdone in some aspects but undercooked in others.Īt the game’s start, Lazarski receives a call from his estranged son, Adam. Its winding pathways, as well as the unceasing noise that fills them, creates both confusion and a sense of dread.
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Observer’s full arc predominantly takes place in a single apartment complex, a rundown building that houses lower-class citizens.

Observer: System Redux Review – Bigger Picture Are these changes enough to warrant the adventure’s re-exploration? Much like the story itself, the answer to that particular question is a matter of perspective. Enhanced visuals, extra story content, revised mechanics add to the experience, further elevating Observer’s tense atmosphere. This time, however, Bloober Team incorporated a few more points of interest in the detective’s periphery. The protagonist’s journey to uncover clues about Adam’s whereabouts is just as winding and overly complex as the 2017 adventure. Lazarski instead becomes wrapped up in a quest to find his missing son, Adam. This doesn’t count as the crux of Observer’s narrative, though. The dark cyberpunk setting takes place in 2084, years after a digital plague known as the nanophage devastates Poland. Again, players assume the role of Daniel Lazarski, an Observer-class detective in Kraków whose interrogation methods involve hacking into the minds of cybernetically enhanced folks. This does put a slightly different perspective and slant onto the apartment complex that you are stuck in.Observer: System Redux serves as an enhanced version of Bloober Team’s 2017 sci-fi horror title, Observer. The drugs will cause you to hallucinate and see things differently within the world. However, as part of the game, your character must take drugs, which help control his anxiety, breathing and thinking, especially when he comes across some of the horrifying crime scenes. At first I thought I would find the game boring, and I worried that there would be little variation. I was surprised to find that the majority of the game is played within a large apartment complex. For anyone into puzzles and exploration, they will get a lot of enjoyment from Observer. This won’t be to everyone’s taste, unfortunately, which is a shame as there really is a decent story going on behind all the special effects. This is not Cyberpunk 2077, and the pace can be very slow and thought provoking. The game is a narrative-driven adventure, meaning you will not be going in all guns blazing, which some may be disappointed with. As immersive as the game is, it’s also eerie at times, and it will definitely keep you on your toes.

The immersion of the game world shines through the neon lights in city and the people you interact with, it all really looks great. With the addition of ray-tracing, 4K textures, HDR lighting, improved character models and animations – they now make Observer stand out compared to some other games of this genre. From the get-go, Observer now looks fantastic compared to the original. Everything runs very smoothly too, which certainly helps with gameplay and immersion, which the original lacked a great deal. This has now changed, and as the Redux version has been re-written and developed with the new generation of consoles in mind, there is now more of a mixture of gameplay, making everything more atmospheric than the original. The original game had a number of stealth sections, which many complained about as they weren’t done that well, and you gained very little from exploring the world.
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Instead, I want to concentrate more on the enhancements with the Redux version for Xbox Series X. I’m not going to go into the story too much as, one, I don’t want to drop any spoilers, and two, as this game has been out for almost four years, most gamers will know what it’s about. The main character, Daniel Lazarski (Rutger Hauer), is a detective who loses himself within the minds of others as the Observer. Observer: System Redux is a game full of immersion, from the (now) spectacular lighting effects, ray tracing and amazing sound, you really feel that you are playing within a living cyberpunk city of the future.
