Obscure Games You May Not Have Heard Of - Episode 16 - Obsidian
A Dream, or a Nightmare?
It is the early 90s. Adventure games are at a feverish pitch (…or at least it seems it), thanks to the massive success of games like Myst and 7th Guest. It would appear that the future, or as it is, the NOW is 3D rendered point and click adventure games with breathtaking visuals!
Games that attempted to follow this trend almost always failed. And got labeled derisively as “Myst Clones”. One such game was the game of subject today, a little indie game that could called Obsidian, the last hope for its parent company.
Obsidian is a 1997 first person point and click adventure game created by Rocket Science Games and published by Segasoft, exclusively for the PC. God I would have loved this on the Saturn or Dreamcast. Alas, it never got off the ground, as I’ll discuss shortly.
Now, you may never have heard of RSG, but they released a number of games from 1993 to 1997 (which is coincidentally when Obsidian came out, huh, foreshadowing) that aren’t… particularly interesting. I’ve played most of them. They’re stuff for the Sega CD, like Loadstar: The Legend of Tully Bodine, Cadillacs and Dinosaurs: The Second Cataclysm… if you know them for ANYTHING it might be the fact that it was Elon Musk’s only job working game development. Luckily he had nothing to do with the game we’re actually talking about today.
All of their games had reviewed poorly, and sold worse. The company was in dire straits. In a last ditch attempt to survive, the company flung themselves onto this new Myst-like craze that was apparently sweeping the nation. And when I say flung, I mean FLUNG. This game is ambitious. It cost the company four million dollars. In retrospect, Myst’s budget was $700,000. Sure it was 1993, but it’s the best comparison. RSG wanted this game to astound. And it did not.
Well, it didn’t at the TIME. The irony is that the game actually did review well, for the most part. But it did not sell well. Why is that? …I dunno! Selling games is hard! Theories are their advertisement budget was real low compared to the actual development, but either way, it didn’t make back its 4 million. Publishers balked at ever working with them again, causing the company to shut down. Segasoft released one final game due to contract requirements, The Space Bar, which I know nothing about and will have to play eventually I guess, but this is the last true legacy for RSG, a company no one cares about.
….But what is the GAME like?
In Obsidian, you play as the scientist Lilah. Lilah and her partner Max just got finished completing the Ceres satellite project, a satellite that controlls nanomachines and uses them to clean up the environment. They set the satellite to AI control, and when everything seems to have gone well, they pat themselves on the back and vacation in the Pacific Northwest.
The game starts with finding this… weird structure, and Max seems to have disappeared. After wandering a bit, reading your emails (which explain the backstory well), and just kinda hiking in the PNW, you hear him scream, and rush to this weird structure, where you’re transported into the game proper, some kind of strange dream world, with the goal of finding and saving Max from whatever fate he ran into!
The game is your typical “myst clone” from this point on. Wander an area, solve puzzles! The environments are the biggest part of this game, so let me talk about them first. The entire game is about dreams. You discuss your dreams with your partner through emails, weird bizarre dreams, and then you begin to live them out while trying to save Max. Dreams like a weird beauracracy where screens speak to you, or a giant mechanical spider that you need to fix up.
The dreamlike atmosphere comes through real well, and I think it looks rather stunning. On top of it, the game has this weird reverent atmosphere and humor style that comes through amazingly. For a game that cost 4 million dollars, it really doesn’t feel like it takes itself very seriously. In the first area, you’re in an administrative center with all these different screens for different functions. Most of them are just jokes. Here’s one that made me laugh!
https://clips.twitch.tv/EvilChillyLyrebirdDancingBanana-5gTVB0DV5RuijOqY
Please forgive my terrible annoying banshee laugh.
But how are the puzzles? Environments are cool and all, but the actual gameplay should be strong too! And well… yeah. It is strong! You’ve got some solid puzzles here! Not the best ever, but extremely solid, I never felt like they were too esoteric like some P&C games, or too easy either. Perfect level, perfectly solvable with a bit of head scratching. There’s a lot of variety too! There’s some that involve math equations, word puzzles, programming a computer sequence. All in all, I had a fun time with it.
I don’t have a place to mention him but again I’ll bring him up here. This is Bismuth. He’s the best. I dunno why I latched onto his so much, maybe it’s cause he’s literally made out of garbage.
There’s really nothing wrong with this game… at all. If I had to find one nitpick, the game is a tad slow paced. And I don’t mean in like story or structure, I mean you move slowly. There are elaborate animations for moving between each screen transition, and you gotta watch the movements every time, you can’t skip em. Some are LONG walks too. There’s no instant movement option like in Myst. This wasn’t a problem on a casual playthrough tbh, but if you’re REALLY stuck, you might get frustrated.
I don’t see that happening, though. Obsidian is structured in a way to kind of limit that. There are four areas in the game, and all four are rather small contained areas with all the puzzles within. You can’t go back to a previous area, it’s not like Riven where you’re wandering every island, and the movement between them involves taking out CDs. There ARE five CDs to Obsidian, and some disc swapping mid area, but not too much tbh. You won’t be wandering a giant area wondering wtf to do, just a small contained area, if you get stuck. A nice plus!
The story isn’t amazing, tbh. It’s a little predictable, and there’s not a whole lot of characterization? Max and Lilah are more just there than characters. Though it is nice to see an interracial couple in an FMV game, this is the earliest I think I’ve seen that. The FMV is honestly kept to a minimum, since you’re in first person, and Max is captured. But the story isn’t BAD. The game is mostly carried by its great environments and designs, and the relatively strong puzzles.
By 1997, games like this were changing, and Obsidian feels a bit behind the times. It’s like… I dunno, tbh, I feel it’s quite fitting of a Sega property for 1997. The Saturn was an incredible machine that could do the best looking 2D you’ve ever seen. But we weren’t doing 2D anymore. Late 90s point and click games weren’t really doing the FMV thing anymore. They weren’t really doing the hyper designed 3D environments. That was a 1993 thing. We had things like Grim Fandango, where it’s a bit more stylized. I dunno, maybe I’m making something up here, Grand Inquisitor and Riven also both came out that year. I’m not sure what I’m talking about. But it really does feel like the end of a kind of era.
All in all, I highly recommend Obsidian. It probably won’t blow you away, it won’t be the best damn P&C you’ve ever played, this isn’t Riven or IHNMAIMS, but it’s extremely good and underrated. Check it out next time you’ve got a P&C itch, this genre has a lot of good to it that tbh, I feel is forgotten these days.