Obitus (1991)

Name:Obitus
Number:243
Year:1991
Publisher:Psygnosis
Developer:Scenario Developments/Tech Noir
Genre:Action
Difficulty:5/5
Time:1 hour 30 minutes
Won:No (107W/78L)

For the second time in a row, I've come across a game that really tries my general ethos that there's something of value to any game. That no matter how crappy it is, there's a lesson to be learned from it. Any such lessons that could be learned from Obitus are so obvious as to be a basic building block of the idea of making a game. It's that bad.

The story is, a long time ago, a king was unable to find a suitable bride in all the land. The search went on for long enough that a wizard, who hid himself from the world, heard of it. The wizard hated the king a great deal, and created a bride for him. Not a good bride, but one born with a spark of evil.

The king and the bride meet through convenient circumstances and they fall in love. Four sons are born, and when the king dies, they start to war among themselves. It goes on for a while, and the land becomes a hellhole. A strange device appears in a tower in the middle of the land, and each son takes a piece of it, which allows control over the populace. An uneasy, oppressive peace falls over the land.

In the present of the 1990s, a history teacher by the name of Wil Mason, driving his Volvo, crashes during a thunderstorm. He wanders until he find a glowing light which leads to a strange tower. With nowhere else to go, he sleeps, and finds himself teleported a thousand years in the past.

The first problem with this game is that most of this doesn't really matter as far as the game is concerned. There are supposedly four figures in four castles you need to kill, but this is about all it matters. Mason might as well be a baker for all he matters to the story, since as soon as the game begins he becomes a silent killing machine, capable of shooting a bow with unnerving accuracy.

I'm not arguing that this backstory is bad, it just doesn't matter. The game doesn't have an actual story as much as a series of cryptic statements from people you're probably about to kill. It'd be one thing if Mason being a history teacher was relevant or if the machine is relevant as anything other than a treasure hunt. They aren't, you could say any of a thousand different backstories and they'd be true.

I didn't realize that the game had VGA graphics at first, so I played a bit in EGA.

You start off in the tower with a key on the floor in front of you and four doors around you. Something a text crawl helpfully tells you. The way things work is not obvious. Oh, you get a GUI with information on it, but that information is not necessarily obvious to the player. There are nine actions which are mostly self-explanatory. Mostly.

Info is weird. The manual tells you nothing about it, but obviously you can use it on items to get information. This tells you the various stats of items, from the straight-forward and useful to the more vague. Weight and nutrition have direct effects, you have a weight limit and nutrition is how much an item heals you. Mystic and value don't seem to have much direct effect in gameplay.

For a long while, I didn't figure out that you can use info on characters in the game world. Here, you can trade with people. I want to repeat that the manual mentions nothing about any of this. This is where value sort of comes into effect, because presumably trades are based on the value of items. The theory then, is you trade the most expensive item you can find, then work your way down.

This makes Info the closest the game has to a look function. It's more illuminating than a regular look function in theory, telling you all you'd ever need to know about an item. In practice, a list of statistics with very little to go by beyond that is very unhelpful. Everything requires you to guess as to what it does and how you use it.

Which is a problem with puzzles, which all involve guessing what item you have to use on which hotspot. Hotspots are tricky to click on, which is odd because the mouse cursor doesn't seem like it should cause any issues with this. When you have many keys and don't know if you use them on the door or the lock and have no indication of which is which, you have a problem. When things start getting less blatant, it's very troublesome. There is no indication that you're doing something right or wrong until an action happens, be it a key in the right lock or you accidentally shooting an arrow at nothing.

This leads to a sort of new section, the maze sections. Technically the maze is the same as the section you just came from, except you can actually move forward and backward. Controls are customizable and imitate a single button joystick, but you still need to use the mouse to click on things. You can use an actual joystick to, which seems like it would be interesting for a few moments.

The big draw of the game is the shiny, first-person parallax graphics. It's very nice, some of the best first-person 2D work you could find. Except that it's also quite confusing. Turn and you track in one of eight directions. It's enough distance that you would turn in real life, except that when turning it doesn't feel like you're properly turning, just sort of side-stepping.

So you have to rely on the GUI to tell you where you're pointing. The most obvious problem is that looking at the GUI to figure out where you're at kind of ruins it, even if it has a compass. You're looking at a map, not the game, in a game where the graphics are the selling point. The less obvious is that the way thing on the compass is a man, so the two ends of it? Those are the sides. Took me a while to figure that out.

Moving is no less confusing. Unlike turning, there's no locking, you just keep moving until you hit a wall. To help, there's no turning unless you're on an octogon, to name a tile. If, say, there's a octogon you can turn around on in-between the octogon you started on and the octogon that's at the end of your walk, the only way you can find out is by looking at the GUI.

This gives the game a very empty feeling. Not as if they forgot to populate the game world, just that you're doing the bare minimum for it to be called a game. You walk around, click on things, pick up items, then use them when relevant. It's just a game, not anything you could actually do with that, nothing special.

In order to navigate around the game, you either need to make a map yourself or take a map someone else made. I'm thankful that maps already existed, because that's just not a rewarding process. To start with, you're mapping eight-sided tiles, which is something you're going to have to figure out how to do yourself rather than take advantage of anything preexisting. So you have to figure out how you're going to map it, then actually go through the large and confusing area of the game, in a game that has more trouble than the usual dungeon crawler in making areas feel distinct.

Combat is dead simple. Have a weapon selected, and if you're in a first person section, click on what you want dead. Then keep clicking until it dies. Strategy consists of using a different weapon if it doesn't die and you have to reload. Side-scrolling sections add a little strategy, sometimes you can jump into an enemy to kill it.

But there is a curious aspect of this. Some enemies don't attack you. You can talk to them. They're obviously hostile, because this game doesn't do subtle. If this game had clever writing, you might think this was foreshadowing that the player isn't a good guy. Then the game makes you kill an obviously non-evil NPC to advance.

I'm not saying that a game can't allow you to kill innocent characters, but I expect it to be acknowledged. Tell me I'm evil for doing it. Acknowledge that it's not the act of a hero. I can believe that a British history professor, when push comes to shove, will kill someone trying to kill him. I do not believe that one is going to kill a defenseless old woman. Especially not when he could just walk around her!

Eventually, there's a path out of this area, leading to another new type of gameplay. A side-scroller section. It's dead simple, you go from left ro right until you reach a dead end or another area. Enemies occasionally pop up to stop you, but as far as I got, they weren't much trouble. Hell, you can just jump into them and they die.

Much later, there's yet another style of gameplay, sort of like the side-scroller, except designed like a game with more traditional screens. It's built off part of the last game from the lead developer, The Kristal, most visibly with being able to go into the background and the foreground to simulate depth. It's the part that most feels like a game, though this could be because this is a boss dungeon, at least in theory.

It's at this point that I gave up. Oddly, this is because the game finally throws something at me I feel like isn't just me randomly clicking and things happen, because there are traps. Traps that are very hard to avoid. Up until this point, the difference between getting hit and not getting hit felt very small. You have a lot of health and most enemies don't do that much damage. Traps are different, they take a big chunk of health and it seems almost impossible to dodge them.

Which means I've been playing it wrong and I need to do everything right in order to make it to the end. Since the difference between dodging and getting hit is barely noticeable, that's not very easy or fun. Healing is limited to items. Sleep is just busywork, a fatigue bar periodically fills and you need to rest lest you lose more health.

I did look up the ending afterwards. Wil just sort of ascends the opening tower, and then goes on further adventures in other worlds? I mean, that is a valid idea. A history teacher who is suddenly capable of fighting monsters and wizards like some sort of knight? Yeah, I'd want further adventures too. But considering everything else the game has, I'm just left wondering about it all. To the rating.

Weapons:
They differ in power, but otherwise they might as well be the same thing. 1/10

Enemies:
It's a bit odd that the only real difference between enemies is if they attack you when you get close to them or if they attack you after you attack them. 1/10

Non-Enemies:
The difference between and enemy who doesn't attack you and a NPC is usually how fast they die. 1/10

Levels:
Mazes intended to extend the length of an already questionably long game. 1/10

Player Agency:
Outside of hotspot issues, I had zero problems with the mouse and keyboard setup. It could have used some quick select keys for actions, but otherwise I can't see how this aspect could be improved. 7/10

Interactivity:
Only the most important actions do anything, otherwise you might as well be clicking into the void. 1/10

Atmosphere:
It's certainly an alien and mysterious fantasy world, but this quickly disappears when it becomes clear that they just didn't make much of anything. 3/10

Graphics:
The parallax is nice, but the spritework seems quite limited in many ways. Most characters just move to attack, so animation is extremely limited. It's also very samey within an area. 4/10

Story:
A barely important wall of text which could have added so much if the developers actually had some writing in-game. 1/10

Sound/Music:
Passable music and some forgettable sound effects. 3/10

That's 23, which is what the numbers add up to, yet it isn't anywhere near the passing grade that would describe. With a wave of the magic wand of boredom, I shall call it 13. Still feels like a higher number than it should get, but I guess between the graphics and the way I had no complaints with controls, it has something.

Obitus, as a game, is terrible in every regard. It does three genres, each so poorly that you have to wonder what the primary focus was. Having tech demo visuals is a selling point for a tech demo, a game needs something more. This is just nothing, a black stain on Psygnosis's library.

The only thing interesting about it is how some enemies only attack you if you attack first. If it was used by someone more clever, it could make for some interesting gameplay. A different take on getting around some enemies. Or perhaps make it so that attacking an enemy who isn't hostile has consequences.

And the reviews, back in the day, well, quite a few praise the game. I can only hope the check cleared. There are a few reviews that point out that the game is boring and pointless. The SNES version was actually named one of the ten worst games of 1994 by some magazine I've never heard of.

From a technical standpoint, the DOS version I've just played is the worst version. Other versions of the game include lighting mechanics, where you have to use torches and lanterns to see in the dark. Technically, it still exists here, but because the game is in 16 colors even in VGA mode, it never changes.

The SNES version is the best, since apparently resting actually heals you there, even if it comes at the cost of random battles and having to do mouse tasks with a gamepad. It's still not good, but at least you can win without feeling like you're torturing yourself.

Next time, we'll see Skyfox, one of the games I've been looking forward to in 1984.

Obitus: Lost

Something I didn't realize when I was playing the game the first time is that there actually is a VGA mode, which looks nicer, but is still 16 colors. It also has an animated intro. Which is not very informative.

The mines are still very visually nice, and it makes the whole limited number of possible exits from any given section a lot easier to swallow. Since it's basically just a passage carved out of rock. A new enemy type are dogs, which actually attack as opposed to waiting for you to come around.

I wander around for a while, finding more ammo and food, along with a rope, a light key and a gold bar, until I meet this guy. He says some cryptic stuff, which I am supposed to parse as, give me a silver bar and I'll give you a heavy key. Since I'm not making my own maps and using ones that I've found online, it mentions the whole trade thing. Except there is no trade option, and I can neither use nor drop items to perform an exchange.

After flailing around for a bit, I assume that I'm going to have to call this one lost, until in a fit of insanity I use info on him. It works. It freaking works. The manual says nothing about this at all. To trade you cycle through your items, then click trade, then on the item you want. I'm not sure how you're supposed to figure any of this out except through trial and error.

Going through more of the area, I then end up talking to this guy, who is in the way for one of the other areas. He has a lantern, but that isn't what's interesting here. Instead, you're supposed to just kill him. This random, inoffensive and non-violent guy. In order to continue through the game, kill an innocent guy. This is a level of unawareness that I haven't seen in a while.

There are two ways out of this place. The first is through a hole, which seems to be a one-way trip. The rope is used here, except that you actually use it when you're on the other side. Figure that out. This leads to the catacombs, a giant place under all four castles. It's a very large and confusing place full of more items which I collect just for the sake of collecting.

There are more enemy types, which of course, are not at all very different. They're just sort of there. It's basically just more and more busy work until at one point, I find that my stamina is rapidly draining. Not because of any hostiles, but because I just picked up too much stuff. Not really sure how I'm supposed to work around that considering how obtuse this game is so far and how picking up items and killing hostiles is the only gameplay this game has.

I do discover that if I click on the left side of the GUI I get this screen. Not sure how helpful it is or how I was supposed to figure out out. I can't sleep yet and eating doesn't really do much, so, uh, that probably would have been helpful.

The other way out is to Drakehurst Castle, which is like the side-scrolling sections, except with the adventure GUI. I've seen other games like this before, pretty sure those are a lot better than this one. It's easier to spot when an enemy is going to pop out, but there's not much looking around. If it isn't part of the wall, chances are you can pick it up or shoot it.

Oh, I didn't realize this was built off The Kristal's codebase. You can go to the foreground and the background. Not sure why we needed that. So, the whole puzzle aspect of this section is basically, use the right key on the door. Only in order to reach the boss there are six doors, and I seem to only have six keys to open that kind of door. Go the wrong way and you've lost. The worst thing about this, there are items in some of these places.

The correct path is full of unavoidable enemies and traps, to the point that once again I get pretty low on health. So, healing, food items heal you, as well as potions you can find. Sleep meanwhile, doesn't seem to do much of anything. It just lowers a fatigue meter which has been gradually filling since I started the game. So, health items are very limited and there's not much you can do to heal yourself.

This is about as far as I'm going to get. I can't make it to the proper end of the area without getting dangerously low on health. And that's with using all my health items. There's no boss fight in this version, but there is in the SNES version, apparently. At the end of it are some magic powders, one of which kills the knight from the opening forest.

At this point, there's nothing for me to do but restart and try to optimize the hell out of my actions, or chest. As I'm not enjoying this, I'm doing neither and just ending it here. A disappointing ending to a disappointing game. Which just leaves a disappointing rating.

This Session: 40 minutes

Final Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Obitus: Intro

A very impressive EGA image of the Psygnosis logo.

Welcome to Obitus, a quasi-RPG published by Psygnosis and developed by Tech Noir. Psygnosis needs no introduction, being the very model of cool and mystical Amiga games which don't always stick the landing. Tech Noir, meanwhile, is known for this game and an unproduced sequel. The developers had a hand in The Kristal, a game I played over at TAG, which was terrible. I do not blame them for that, since they were being led by someone who lied about himself to make it sound like his work wasn't trash. It's possible they could make something good unshackled by a madman.

Oddly, this is the first Psygnosis game I've played here that fits into the classic image of Psygnosis, previous titles I've played, including another FPS I couldn't get past the opening screen of. I've played several before off-blog, of course, but this is, in my mind at least, the first proper Psygnosis game.

There are Amiga, Atari ST, DOS and SNES versions. I'll be playing the DOS version because the Amiga version is a bit tricky to get working and the SNES version is a bit odd. Especially since this is a game that makes extensive use of the mouse. The DOS version is EGA only, but has Adlib music. I have played the opening bits of this before and found it to be a video game of general description.

The backstory is, once there was King Cirkassia, who was a great ruler and the kingdom of Middlemere was doing great. Alas, he couldn't find a suitable wife, so he had no heir. The evil wizard DomaKk [sic] hated the king and the land, so he snuck into the castle as a loyal member of the realm and cast spells promising the king a wife and children. The wizard gave him a wife and soon there were four sons. Because the wizard spawned the wife, the children were full of envy. When their father passed away, the four brothers engaged in a war, tearing the land apart. DomaKk left for another plane, his evil complete.

One day, a mysterious machine appeared in the center of Middlemere. Everyone feared the machine, even the four sons. Nothing happened, it just existed. The sons began to explore the machine, soon realizing they could take the parts of it, which allowed them to rule their subjects easier. They feared the machine, even a small part that the sons had. A truce was made, and the land was divided into four.

In our modern day, Wil Mason, history professor and Volvo owner is driving in the rain, crashes his car trying to avoid a branch. Leaving to find someone who knows how to fix a car, he finds a mysterious light and heads towards it. Finding himself in a strange tower with four doors, he enters. Protected from the rain, he sleeps, and finds himself in another world.

The game gives you a message telling you you're in a tower with four stone doors and then throws you in it. The backstory does at least feel important even if it isn't likely to mean much. The game is controlled by a combination of mouse and keyboard/joystick. The keyboard controls are entirely selected by the player, movement in four directions and a fire button. In this case, the arrow keys duplicate the directional marks on that dial. In addition, we get nine actions. There's no looking, what you see is what you can use.

There's a key here, which opens the northwest door. Note that the while the compass itself on the GUI is nice and large, the direction it points is not entirely obvious. Because it's showing a person from an upward view. The direction you're pointed in lights up, at least.

This leads to Falcon Wood, a maze if ever there was one. A maze with a purpose, as the game's claim to fame on Amiga is the incredible parallax graphics, which is still incredible in EGA. It's some of the smoothest and incredible pixel art in motion. The inevitable but here is that you turn around in eight directions and move slowly around in a circle. Movement forward, while smooth, gives you an unnecessary amount of freedom.

That's the key word, freedom. It's still technically tile-based, but every tile is eight-sided. In motion, you have to turn around a lot, and while it is accurate to how little you would turn to go from east to northeast, in a video game that's too short. It's disorienting, especially since while the parallax is nice, it's about all you're getting visually. Forward and back slowly glides along, and I'm just left wondering why it couldn't be tile-based.

The starting area around the town consists of a loop with two exits, one inside and out outside. There's some arrows and an apple. The arrows function as a weapon, use while you have it equipped and you shoot whatever's in front of you. Each quiver gives you more ammo, no bow required. Apple is food, which I think is somewhere between health and a hunger meter. I haven't seen the later, the former's on the lower left.

A knight is the first enemy you meet. You can try talking to any character you meet, but some are less helpful than others, like this knight. I don't have enough arrows for him, unfortunately, so I die and restart. When I returned later, he was still too tough for me, probably a puzzle enemy.

Killing an archer, who doesn't actually start shooting me until I get close, I make my way to this random guy. Or woman, I'm not sure, I started looking at online maps pretty quickly and it called the sprite a woman. Either way, she gives you a key when you talk to her. It's at this point that I discover that talking works in weird ways. Some characters have more than one piece of dialog, but to get it working, you need to save and reload to get it.

Exploring the rest of the area is more or less just going around and clearing it out. Most enemies outside of the archers involves you attacking first, sometimes you can even talk to them. I feel like if this game had any sign of a decent story, this would be foreshadowing that you aren't the good guy. At the end I've gotten a page, a red potion, a silver bar, a flask (food), a roll, "Firebrand" (a stick), and a blue gem.

There's a gap in the woods leading to another area, where this guy blocks it. He, like everyone else so far, gives a cryptic message, this one about the knight I couldn't kill yet. The knight is someone I'm going to have to come back to later, even though I have daggers now, I'm not sure how dangerous they are.

Going into the gap leads to a side-scrolling area. Enemies hide either in the bushes or in the branches above. Bump into them or shoot them, and they die. You lose a little health from bumping into them, but it's more economical to do so that to shoot them. There are a lot of guys. Also, if you run past some, they just randomly die. This is very weird.

There is a bit of a pattern to it all, since you can jump at the right moment to dodge. There is an obvious pattern to it, you're not just frantically doing it against razor sharp margins. It's probable that this is going to change at some point, but for now these sections seem to be easy.

At the other end of the straightforward side-scrolling section are the Eldon Mines. I'll stop here for now despite not having gone through much. It's a very point and click approach to FPS, if I could say that. There's just not much of anything going on here. Be it as an adventure game, a FPS/RPG or as a side-scroller. To say there's style over substance so far would be to imply there's substance.

This Session: 50 minutes