Besides just the main story, though, there are lots of bits of lore that Bloober put the effort in to create for those curious enough to explore. They are hidden around the game’s environment - maybe in a cupboard, or a trash can, or a refrigerator - it’s fun to come across these as you’re otherwise studying the environment to piece together clues for the main story. There are some seventy-six cards to find as collectibles, these are baseball-like cards that feature the developers. Observer was a fun, accessible, and largely casual game to play that rewards players for being, well, observant, and thorough. Outside of these, players engage in a fairly normal futuristic dystopian environment with lots of neon, rain, darkness, and screens, making it feel like it’s right out of Blade Runner. Instead, these gameplay moments are utilized in the dream sequences to great effect. The dread and uneasiness-inducing sequences of shifting hallways and the environment changing behind you that were such a huge part of Layers of Fear are present in Observer, too, though they aren’t as dominant. This tainted my experience with Observer only slightly, though. There was enough overlap in the ‘feel’ of Observer, though, to make things a little less dramatic for me than perhaps someone how hadn’t played the older games.
That said, Observer feels pretty similar to the Layers of Fear games as far as gameplay, though personally I liked the story, setting, characters, and overall gameplay of Observer more than Layers of Fear. While the vast majority of Observer is played without the fear of death, there are a couple of times when players have to be stealthy to avoid being detected by the ‘monster’ of this particular Bloober game. Plus, a special ability allowing you to basically hack into people’s brains and replay their memories and explore their fears exists at certain points of the story this is known as dream eating. Both of these vision modes are used simply by tapping LB and RB respectively. Your electromagnetic vision is used to investigate electronic objects in detail. As an Observer, you can use bio vision to scan and analyze things like hair and blood. It wouldn’t be cyberpunk without some augmentations, which Larzarki has several of, as do many of the NPCs you come across. As Larzarski, you’ll walk through the hallways and areas of the complex, interviewing tenants and finding clues to try and put it all together. The sketchy apartment complex soon goes into lockdown, disconnecting all external transmissions, and the mystery is on. Larzarski visits the rough side of town where his son’s apartment is, and finds a decapitated body in this apartment, but it’s unclear whose body it is. One evening, Larzarki receives a strange phone call from his prodigal son. The KPD are the police department of Krakow, a city in Poland, and the story takes place in 2084.
Players take the role of Lazarkski, an aging but capable Observer, or special detective, of the KPD. You can see so many details of the late great Rutger Hauer, whose likeness and voice acting were used for the protagonist of the game, Daniel Lazarski. Character animations and detail were re-worked and are rather stunning. Rather, Bloober Team had ample time and interest to do a significant overhaul of the visuals and the result is a really impressive launch title for the XSX (which I played it on) and the PS5. Observer: System Redux is more than just the base game with a few visual tweaks. Having played through and enjoyed Layers of Fear and Layers of Fear 2, I had confidence that Bloober could tell a story in a dystopian 2084 and do well with it - turns out I was right.
#Observer system redux her fearful symmetry walkthrough code#
I remember when this game came out and I just never got around to playing it, but I’m glad I didn’t since I was able to get a review code for Observer: System Redux, a $30 launch title on the next-gen consoles. It sure doesn’t seem like it has been over three years since our own Will Johnson reviewed Observer, a first person thriller/horror game by Bloober Team.
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