I usually make it policy to complete a game before reviewing it but for Return to the Obra Dinn I have to make an exception. This is an investigation game that mixes elements of board games such as Clue(do) and Mysterium with a bit of old school Commodore 64 graphics and the result is an absolute joy to the eyes, ears and mind overall. Explore a ship and piece together the grisly fates of all 60 souls on board.

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PROS

+ Amazing soundtrack. The score is top notch and features some creepy cello and violin work right down to the swashbuckling more uptempo stuff.
+ Visually intiguing. Yes the style is old school retro but the limited time you have to pick through a death scene has a great amount of detail for you to take in. The stills that you can move around inside like bullet time and try to piece together the mystery are sometimes bare but more often filled with detail.
+ Great voice work. The voice work is on point. The Scottish people sound Scottish, the Irish sound Irish, the Danes sound Danish etc and this even helps you to solve some of the murders if you have an ear for languages.
+ Well planned writing and story. For a puzzle game I find you need to be able to trust the developer to have covered all bases and that the logic is watertight. Return to the Obra Dinn is hard and you may even find that you are doubting it makes sense but as you wade through the murky waters thing do start to become clearer.

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♥♥♥♥

- The tutorial needs more work. It only pops up when you click on certain things and I went through 3 hours of the game not really understanding anything that I should have been doing but just being absorbed in the story. A great time but I had to restart to focus my efforts.
- You aren't really told about the differences between the black watch, smoke watch, regular watch and kind of have to make up your own story with regards to that. (maybe this is explained in the end)

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Wow. Return to the Obra Dinn is Lucas Pope smashing another title out of the park. This game is worth every penny, make no mistake about that. A must buy for murder mystery fans, puzzle gamers with a lot of patience and attention to detail and Sherlock sleuths. This is definitely my GOTY 2018.