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AG Community Playthrough #51: Return of the Obra Dinn

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LOST AT SEA, 1803
the good ship
“OBRA DINN”
————————
Built 1796, London ~ 800 tons, 18ft draught
Captain R. WITTEREL ~ Crew 51 men
Last voyage to Orient ~ Cape rendezvous unmet
————————
Contact East India Cy. London Office
for enquiries or testimony
————————



Welcome to the community playthrough of Return of the Obra Dinn - an insurance adventure with minimal color.


To maintain the element of surprise and intrigue (which all good insurance investigators should hold in high regard) I won’t be revealing too much about the game here and suggest that participants use spoiler tags when appropriate.


Nonetheless, here is some basic information to get us started should you wish to join the investigation.


The Setting

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.

What kind of game is it?

Return of the Obra Dinn is a first-person deductive puzzler with a strong narrative aspect. It is unique in having a distinctive gameplay style, which involves keen observation and deductive skills to figure out what happened on board the ship.

If you’re not a note-taker, don’t worry - you won’t need to write down much (if anything) - although it might be helpful if you are inclined to take notes. You are given everything you need in-game.

Another unique aspect is that there is very little reading in the game. You won’t be poring through logbooks and journals. Watching, listening and thinking will be your primary tools to help your investigation.


Where do I get it?

The game is available for purchase from Steam and GOG.


How will this work?

As we will discover shortly, the game is divided into a set number of chapters and parts.

Although these do not proceed in a linear fashion, we will try to tackle each part sequentially and regroup at certain events or investigative landmarks. This will become clearer later on and may be adapted as we go along depending on how participants fare.

Other than that, the only advice is to focus on what the current task is and not to wander too much, at least in the beginning.


I’m in! What now?

If you wish to join the crew, please install the game and complete the tasks below, which should easily take less than an hour.

We will regroup on February 16th to continue.


A note about protagonists

I know some gamers like to choose their gender. I always thought the Obra Dinn protagonist was female but to my surprise, on my second playthrough it changed! I think it depends on which slot you choose at the main title, so if you want to change genders, try a different slot. It doesn’t have a whole lot of bearing on the game, but if you care about such things it’s nice to have the option there.

Tasks to complete:

-Play through the prologue, explore your surroundings and read through anything you find.

-Stop after you investigate your first fate. Do not enter any unexplored rooms after this.

-Post a message here when you are done, and if you wish please add any first impressions or thoughts of what you have played so far.

     
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Excellent! I have the game installed and will make sure to finish those tasks before Saturday.

     
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Installed and completed the tasks.

Even went a bit further and explored the first room (and the second and third fate). Captain looks completely badass.

*VERY* interesting gameplay mechanic, and a highly unique visual style. Both are simple yet elegant and extremely distinctive.
Lucas Pope once again shows amazing talent, if you ask me.

Looking forward to the 16th. I’m already having a good feeling about this game…


Btw, I picked the IBM 8503 monitor. Looks best to me. LCD is too bright, and the coloured ones just look off (except the sepia Zenith ZVM 1240 monitor which would be my second choice). Cool

     

The truth can’t hurt you, it’s just like the dark: it scares you witless but in time you see things clear and stark. - Elvis Costello
Maybe this time I can be strong, but since I know who I am, I’m probably wrong. Maybe this time I can go far, but thinking about where I’ve been ain’t helping me start. - Michael Kiwanuka

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TimovieMan - 12 February 2019 05:54 PM

Installed and completed the tasks.

Even went a bit further and explored the first room (and the second and third fate).

That’s fine, I was thinking about setting that as the first task anyway.

A note about protagonists: I always thought the Obra Dinn protagonist was female but to my surprise, on my second playthrough it changed to male! I think it depends on which slot you choose at the main title, so if you want to change genders, try a different slot. It doesn’t have a whole lot of bearing on the game, but if you care about such things it’s nice to have the option there…

(I’ve added the above information to the CP introduction)

     
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After checking a few reviews I feel this CP (of an apparently very nonlinear game) will be either too spoilerish or too restrictive for me. I want to be free to play the game my way. So I will not participate in the CP until I’ve completed the game on my own.

     

See you around, wolf. Nerissa

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I have accomplished the beginning tasks. I love this game, reminds me of 1985 mac adventures which were amazing in their day.

Heart

     

I enjoy playing adventure games on my Alienware M17 r4 and my Nintendo Switch OLED.

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cyfoyjvx - 12 February 2019 06:26 PM

A note about protagonists: I always thought the Obra Dinn protagonist was female but to my surprise, on my second playthrough it changed to male! I think it depends on which slot you choose at the main title, so if you want to change genders, try a different slot.

It’s probably random. It went the opposite direction for me.
When I had just installed the game last week, I started it (to see if it works correctly) and had a male protagonist voice.
When starting again yesterday (after deleting my first autosave, so the same slot was used), the voice changed to female.

Good thing you mention it, I had planned on mentioning it as well yesterday, but forgot. Tongue

Mikekelly - 12 February 2019 09:17 PM

I have accomplished the beginning tasks. I love this game, reminds me of 1985 mac adventures which were amazing in their day.

I think that was the entire idea for the graphics. Smile

     

The truth can’t hurt you, it’s just like the dark: it scares you witless but in time you see things clear and stark. - Elvis Costello
Maybe this time I can be strong, but since I know who I am, I’m probably wrong. Maybe this time I can go far, but thinking about where I’ve been ain’t helping me start. - Michael Kiwanuka

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Joined 2011-10-21

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Anyone notice the speck of light in the distance on the portside of the ship (near the stern)?
My spidey sense says that’ll become important later on. Tongue

Karlok - 12 February 2019 06:59 PM

After checking a few reviews I feel this CP (of an apparently very nonlinear game) will be either too spoilerish or too restrictive for me. I want to be free to play the game my way. So I will not participate in the CP until I’ve completed the game on my own.

That’s a bit premature to state, no? We don’t know what cyfoyjvx has in mind yet.





Edit: pardon the multiple posts. I get excited when a game has me sit up with full attention within its first half hour. Doesn’t happen all that often (Time Hollow and The Cat Lady come to mind), but when it does, the game rarely disappoints.
So, yeah, *eagerly* awaiting the 16th. Tongue

     

The truth can’t hurt you, it’s just like the dark: it scares you witless but in time you see things clear and stark. - Elvis Costello
Maybe this time I can be strong, but since I know who I am, I’m probably wrong. Maybe this time I can go far, but thinking about where I’ve been ain’t helping me start. - Michael Kiwanuka

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Total Posts: 7432

Joined 2013-08-26

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TimovieMan - 13 February 2019 03:46 AM

That’s a bit premature to state, no? We don’t know what cyfoyjvx has in mind yet.

Says the guy who just went ahead and completed more fates than cyfoyjvx allowed… Tongue

BTW, cyfoyjvx, that’s an awful nick name to remember. I’m going to call you Cyfo.

     

See you around, wolf. Nerissa

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I finished playing through the first fate. So far the game looks like a really promising investigative deduction game where you really have to put those brains to work instead of steadily going through all the options. Or at least I hope it to be so.

Tried playing the game in sharp mode as it looked more Macintoshy but it started to hurt my eyes so I switched back to smooth.

I too hope we would think of a way to enjoy the game in a not too linear way because I really like open world games. But let’s see what cyfoyjvx has in mind.

     
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Karlok - 13 February 2019 11:59 AM

Says the guy who just went ahead and completed more fates than cyfoyjvx allowed… Tongue

Investigated. Not “completed”. Grin
And to be fair, the game was only ten minutes underway and I could totally see the corpses lying there. Tongue

     

The truth can’t hurt you, it’s just like the dark: it scares you witless but in time you see things clear and stark. - Elvis Costello
Maybe this time I can be strong, but since I know who I am, I’m probably wrong. Maybe this time I can go far, but thinking about where I’ve been ain’t helping me start. - Michael Kiwanuka

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I didn’t vote for the game but I’m intrigued enough to join in as much as I can with the play through & have downloaded it!  Thumbs Up

     
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I’m up to 3 fates as well and ready to continue.

The music and sound effects are awesome in this game and I love the graphic style. I’ve chosen the blue-tinted Commodore 1084, I find it relaxing and gives me a seafaring vibe.

     
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Wow, I really wasn’t sure what to expect with this game. But I must say so far I am hugely impressed!  Thumbs Up

     

This message will self destruct in 3… 2… 1… BOOM!!!

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Okay, let’s continue! Welcome to all our new participants Smile

So I think the best way to do this is to assign a set number of fates to solve for each week. Otherwise it would be too limiting to play by chapters, since by now you should know that the chapters and parts open up when you access memories and have little to do with your actual progress.

This should keep us all at the same pace while allowing the freedom to explore.

So for this week the task is:

-Reach 18 fates solved and stop at that point.

-Access as many memories as you need to that allows you to solve the 18 fates, but try not to explore more than you need to.

Good luck and have fun!  Cool

     
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Wow, that’s a great way to do that. Thanks!

I will get right on this assignment.

Heart

     

I enjoy playing adventure games on my Alienware M17 r4 and my Nintendo Switch OLED.

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