If you’re in the market for a good, solid freebie – and I assume you are, given that you’ve already read the headline – then you’ve come to the right place. Myst developer Cyan Worlds’ enjoyable sci-fi mystery adventure Obduction is currently free on GOG until tomorrow, 1st June.
Obduction released back in 2016, and is very much a spiritual successor to Cyan Worlds’ seminal Myst and Riven series, featuring the same kind of low-key, open-ended meandering and oblique puzzling solving, in a surreal, strikingly designed alien world.
And the good news is that it does a lot of stuff right, with a strong story premise (which I won’t spoil), a pitch-perfect atmosphere – absolutely nailing the sense of wonder and isolation – and conundrums that are, for the most part, logical and immensely satisfying once you finally tease out a solution from the subtle environmental clues. Do be warned, however, that the whole thing comes to a crashing halt about two thirds of the way through with a truly godawful sequence of trail-and-error puzzles that constantly force you between locations, leading to endless loading screens and an increasing sense of despair.
Source: Eurogamer Myst dev's surreal sci-fi adventure Obduction is currently free on GOG