High-performance playtime

An astronaut and a self-aware artificial intelligence form an uneasy alliance.

$25 | PC, PS4 | WWW.NOCODESTUDIO.COM

The space station Observation has broken away from its Earth orbit and is drifting somewhere near Saturn. Its systems are malfunctioning, a fire has broken out, and the on-board artificial intelligence, SAM, is acting strangely. Things are not looking good for Dr Emma Fisher, the reluctant hero of this sci-fi thriller from the studio behind Stories Untold.

But what’s interesting about Observation is that you don’t play as Fisher, but SAM. The station is an extension of you, and its cameras are your eyes and ears. You can, when asked, open doors, cycle airlocks, assess damage, and all manner of functional duties. But something seems to have awoken in you. A flicker of self-awareness, perhaps. And an ominous command from an unknown

party has infiltrated your code: BRING HER.The Observation is reminiscent of the International Space Station – a strangely low-tech warren of claustrophobic corridors with no up or down, littered with laptops, science equipment and the personal effects of the crew. Who, by the way, are also missing. There’s a powerful sense throughout that, until very recently, this place was bustling with life. Fisher is alone, but as she floats through the station in zero gravity there are echoes of the vanished crew all around her.

Fisher is justifiably distressed by the discovery that she has somehow, inexplicably, ended up almost 900 million miles from where she’s supposed to be. But she’s also a trained astronaut and immediately sets to work repairing the stricken station – with your help. At any time you can pull up a schematic of the Observation and jump between stationary cameras, panning and zooming and scanning for objects of interest. The game is largely silent except for the ambient rumble of the station and the whirring and clicking of these cameras, which is enormously atmospheric.

When you’ve located something Fisher is looking for with one of your cameras – a damaged module, perhaps, or the source of a fire – you can respond to her request. SAM will answer in the kind of calm, reassuring, but also slightly unsettling voice so beloved by sci-fi AI. She will also ask you to unlock jammed doors, recover data from laptops, and reboot systems, including reestablishing communications with Earth and activating a tracker that will, in theory, locate the missing crew.

Observation’s great strength is its story. The influence of 2001: A Space Odyssey is obvious, but not in the way I expected. SAM’s rebellion and flutters of self-awareness are not as sinister or obvious as HAL’s. Instead, it’s in the restraint of the narrative where I felt the strongest echoes of Kubrick’s austere sci-fi epic. Observation’s plot is incredibly compelling, with a fascinating, mindbending sense of mystery that kept me hooked from beginning to end.

Verdict

A stylish, understated, and subtly chilling psychological thriller with a compelling mystery.