Return of the Obra Dinn

Return of the Obra Dinn is an immensely clever puzzle adventure game that walks a tricky balance of giving you just enough information to be able to reasonable deduce the correct conclusions while leaving out just enough information to make you feel clever when you solve it. Don't let anybody spoil this for you, it's a truly unique, original experience.

Only complaints are very minor. Really wish that it was easier/more intuitive to jump around between memories when looking around for clues, since the interface is somewhat tedious, but it's honestly not enough to detract from the overall experience.

If you've ever wanted to play a game about an insurance agent finding out who's who and how they met their fates on a ship, this is the game for you.

But seriously, yeah, it's great. I wish the epilogue chapter was more of a "big reveal" than it was, but it was still satisfying and cool.

Return of the Obra Dinn offers an entrancing mystery and satisfying puzzles that can be tackled from many angles. It feels like Lucas Pope showed us a whole new way to craft an adventure game, daring you to investigate every little bit of the story and characters. The game uses its limited graphics and simple presentation to great effect. This could be one of the rare puzzle games worth replaying, and is my game of the year for 2018.