Return of the Obra Dinn

Fantastic puzzle game with outstanding music and artistic design. This is a detective game where you try to discover the individual fates of the ghost ships crew by viewing their last moments of life

Hark!, the herald angel (Lucas Pope) sings. A great game for people who like those deduction-grid-mystery-puzzle books and historical fiction. Occasionally a bit of a slog (there was like one or two too many steps you had to take to rewatch deaths that probably amounted to hours of gameplay) but with great payoff at the end. Some things might've been a bit ambiguous but I think the trade-off of context-based clues over gimmicky escape room type stuff is worth it. Incredibly tight on vibes, strong sense of place: I felt like I was reliving Ms. Hamilton's telling of "The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle" whilst cross-legged on my own colored square. The level design is solid, architecture and puzzles were hand-in-hand. The Chinese seemed convincing enough, maybe I have a low bar though. Love the grainy style and dialogue is really charming.

its okay i guess. not like its one of the most well crafted stories in the medium of video games.

Such an amazing game with a unique and fun game mechanic. I wish I could replay it again for the first time

This is not a boat! This is an onion, layered with curses, poor judgment, intrigue, and tragedy. Peeling back each layer you'll be asking more questions than you'll find answers, but this game's designer has given you the tools and clues you will need to identify each crew member and passenger.

If you like being the detective, finding clues, and combing through every detail inside of a game then you will definitely enjoy Return of the Obra Dinn! It's a short game, but you'll spend that entire time enjoying the mystery!

Sadly, as it is a mystery game it lacks a lot of replay value, but that is its only drawback.

Very cool game. Not difficult, you just have to pay attention and notice things. If you get stuck, don't look for hints just push through and play around with things - it is more rewarding that way. The story itself left a little to be desired but the setting and mechanic are both top notch - if only the story was a bit more satisfying, particularly it's end which is a bit anticlimatic. Overall very recommended

This is an excellent puzzle game. Everything about it makes me want more, I just wish I was smart enough to complete it. I refuse to use a guide because that seems to ruin the magic.

Great sound design, art, acting, story, and playthrough. I don't usually play this kind of game, but I genuinely enjoyed this. I want to recommend this to my friends. Good stuff.

Genuinely one of the best games I've played. I can't say much about it other than, if you like puzzle games, it's a must play for everybody who would even consider the thought. Get on this ASAP

If you're a fan of piecing together puzzles, this one is a doozy. Take it slow and methodical - for the right type of gamer Obra Dinn is a ton of fun

unique concept and very cool idea and game play

I was looking for an adventure puzzle game akin to Kings Quest and stumbled upon this very different experience. And it was awesome. Story line, innovativeness, music etc ....A+

I found this game AWESOME. The atmosphere and the music are great. I played it at slow pace in the evenings in a time I wasn't so much for action stuff, as a pleasant interactive book.
Most of the ideas of the dynamics to uncover the events are simple but effective which I truly appreciate in gaming. Paying attention to details and the possibility to go back to the event scene and watch it again I found it great.
The voiceover was very well done and played a role in the puzzle resolution. The b&w graphics gave it an old fashioned taste that was appealing to me.
The story is very cool and I enjoyed evey bit, sometime thinking about it during the day to figure out the twists.
I do not recommend it as a before-going-to-bed thing though, it may leave you dreaming of the facts on the ship in the night :D
Highely recommended for those who like an interactive story with no much pressure.
I got it on discount, but if you have the money I think it's worth the current price for a great effort from the developer.

I'm in a review writing mood it seems. Anyway.
Absolute gem of a game... I love love LOVE the look of this title, but I didn't expect any less from the person behind Papers Please. I love piecing together a story this way and figuring out people's identities by little visual and audio clues. This one ticks off all the boxes in my head and scratches my puzzling itch the right way. Only real bump I encountered at the end is having to look up some missing characters identities because I just couldn't figure out who was who because I felt like there weren't enough hints with some of them, then again that doesn't hinder the main gameplay, that's just for people who want to 100% the game.
Fun little puzzle game with lots of charm, recommend.

Great game, I love the soundtrack and visual effects and it's unique game and the discovered storyline itself!

You can never experience this again once you complete it so I suggest to not look up hints or anything.

Goated game i wish i got amnesia to play this again for the first time. It was hard to solve but challenging and I haven't felt like that in a while thanks for this piece of art I will always recommend it

One of the most original and mind bending puzzle games I have ever played. It's an unique art piece, play it.

Genuinely one of the best games I have ever played. I recommend not looking up hints or clues if you can at all avoid it (though it’s your game, play how you want). To me the fun part of the game *is* figuring out all the deductions on my own.

Can't believe I waited this long to finally get around to playing this game. Beat the whole thing in one six and a half hour sitting followed by a single 30 minute sitting the next morning to finish everything up. I didn't originally want to play the whole game in a single sitting, but it just engrossed me so much that I had no choice but to stay up until 5:00AM Monday morning to see it through to the end. Truly a masterpiece, and while not without its fair share of shortcomings / flaws, they are few and far between and totally worth looking past for the sake of enjoying a wholly unique game, unlike anything that had been seen before.

I also recommend this if you're not a huge fan of puzzle games, because the puzzles are really not that difficult compared to some recent entries into the genre. I never found myself stuck on any one portion for longer than 20 minutes, progress and reward was constant and well paced throughout. If anything, I made it harder for myself as I somehow missed one of the first 5 clues given to you in the entire game until literally the last possible second I walked right past the body of the captain, which you're supposed to find within the first 30 minutes, so I didn't know he killed himself, which resulted in me having him as the sole remaining person until the end. So I thought, similar to Martin and Filip, that the captain survived, which resulted in a ton of unneccessary red herrings

It's a great game and I recommend it although it is certainly short as I completed it in 6.5 hours

I have opened this game and streamed it to a Discord call just to make my friends play it so I can vicariously live through their experiences.

I think that it is ideal for new players to come to this older but still brilliant deduction game without any detailed fore-knowledge, so that they can experience the same sense of puzzlement, surprise, gradual enlightenment & small triumphs, and overall awe at the developer's vision and accomplishment, as I did when I played Obra Dinn for the first time four and a half years ago. So no spoilers here, just a heartfelt recommendation to play this magnificent game, to which I return periodically (i have just completed it for the fourth time). Can you piece together the story of the Obra Dinn and its crew? What a voyage of discovery you will have..!

It's a mystery game that actually makes you think. Every deduction makes sense, and you'll have plenty of "aha!" moments throughout the game.

Extremely enjoyable, interesting in every way, and it never feels like a slog to get through. Highly recommend.

A detective/mystery gem that blends a superbly eerie atmosphere with satisfying deduction mechanics. The backwards chronology and flashback mechanic (which sometimes triggers when you click a corpse, other times it auto-triggers) can be disorientating at first. But it’s all forgivable for an indie game that stands in the hall of detective/mystery greatness.

I guess I never played this using my Steam account, but I'm shocked I haven't reviewed it. I completed this back in 2019 on my Switch and replayed it earlier this year with some friends on their account. Quite simply, Return of the Obra Dinn is one of the greatest puzzle games ever made and fundamentally changed what I look for in this genre. I'm so happy that detective games in this style are so popular right now. It's a must play.

Yes best game, dont spoil yourself on anything and just play it! its worth it i promise!

One of the greatest puzzle games of all time, bar none. I strongly recommend doing this one without a guide, as it requires some of the most intelligent deductions I have ever performed in a video game.

Must-play
The music gets a lill old after a while, but its okay
Only hint i would give is that the game accepts multiple answers to a certain death. So its not "Yes" or "No" based.

Whilst a decent amount of it was me guessing correctly, later on i found out certain ways of figuring things out are in the details.

Great game with a lot of attention to detail. Whenever you think "Thats a bit of a lame oversight" it turns out to be the clue you were looking for to identify someone! I could have used a few more button prompts for the first 2 minutes of the game as the controls aren't exactly what you are used to, but there is few enough inputs that you get a hang of it quick.

I highly recommend this if you are in the mood for a detective game.

This game was so fun, great atmosphere and style. The gameplay is incredible and one of the best mystery games I have ever played

There are few games my wife, who’s not really into gaming, has enjoyed playing with me, but Return of the Obra Dinn is one of them. Enamoured by the mystery, we sat down and ended up 100%ing the game in just a couple of sessions. Unravelling the mystery of what happened on the ship was incredibly rewarding.

The game strikes a perfect balance by giving you just enough guidance to keep you from getting lost but never holds your hand. Solving the puzzles feels satisfying because you’re the one figuring things out. Every time you identify a person or piece together how something happened, it feels like a true accomplishment.

What Lucas Pope has done with Return of the Obra Dinn is nothing short of perfection in delivering that detective puzzle mystery vibe. It’s one of the rare games that makes you feel like you're piecing together the story with your own intuition, where solving the mystery feels genuinely earned.

Visually, Return of the Obra Dinn is unique. The 1-bit art style might be off-putting at first glance, but it quickly becomes part of the charm. It’s often striking and enhances the atmosphere.

It’s unique, rewarding, and one of the best at making you feel smart and like you're actually doing the detective work. If you're up for a good mystery, and are into detective games or challenging puzzles, Return of the Obra Dinn is worth your attention.

Fantastic puzzle game that is held back a bit by the fact that the game likes taking its sweet, sweet time.

It's just good from bow to stern, and if it inspires a new wave of deductive reasoning games that relentlessly and shamelessly steal it's 3-correct-guesses system the way that Chants of Senaar did, I'll be one damn happy gamer.

My goodness this game is exceptional.
The sound design is excellent, the graphic style is unique, and the story is engaging.
The Return of the Obra Dinn is worth your time.

I remember when this game came out in 2019 and captured the hearts of indie gamers and journalists alike. I finally (shamefully) got around to playing it in 2025 and I totally get the hype. That said, this one didn't quite enamor me as well as some other mystery/detective walking sims have in recent memory.

On the plus side: The art style is certainly unique. The gritty, claustrophobic setting feels thematically appropriate. The monochrome palette makes the player feel like a dispassionate observer, almost entirely removed from the tragic events that took place on the Obra Dinn - and also allows the developers to depict pretty gruesome violence without it feeling gratuitous. Also, the writing is clever and the narrative events - which the player experiences in a non-sequitur, episodic, and often reverse order - are brilliantly and intricately constructed into a remarkable feat of stagecraft; each of the *dozens* of characters have a unique set of lines, movements, and interactions that intertwine without a hitch.

On the minus side: 4.5 hours in, the gameplay loop is getting tiresome. Where the game shines is in deduction and reasoning - poring over the logbook, trying to figure out what you missed and how to identify and distinguish the butcher or one of the dozen seamen or the first mate from one another, narrowing it down, bit by bit. It's the sheer tedium that takes place between these moments that's the problem. In order to witness a scene, you have to complete the same menial action over and over again: approach a body, press the action button, observe the scene, press the action button to show you where the next body is, press the action button to exit out of the dream state, press the action button to cause a spirit line to guide you - VERY slowly - toward the body that you just walked to in the dream state, except this time in your cogent state, then press the action button again and repeat. I found myself getting frustrated at the pacing - it just felt like the game was artificially handicapping my rate of progress.

My other minor complaints: the very good music (unpopular opinion here) could've been better utilized and played more of a starring role. Don't get me wrong, sometimes the score really sweeps you away in some of the more dramatic set pieces. But sometimes it doesn't, which feels like a gaping hole in a game where there is very little variance in the visual experience. Also, don't play in the dark, or your eyes are going to be hurting after a few hours.

This game has been played and reviewed by countless people so no one is going to read this, so it's more a way for me to log and remember my experience. All in all - really cool game concept, great writing and "flavor", so-so visuals, good but underutilized music, and tedious and repetitive mechanics.

I didn't hate it and I think it'll continue to click with a *lot* of people, so at a decent sale price, it's a general thumbs up from me.

This game is such a gem of a story and investigation. The idea that you travel though events by finding a point of death is clever and spurs along discovering everyone’s fate. I would warn though, getting everyone right is fairly difficult. I got through all available scenes before being stumped on most when you have to retread everything. No detail is too small to be important or lead you to a person’s identity. Either hold to this and investigate thoroughly, or look up a guide to help you get along. The story is still worth it even if you do have to look up the answers. This is experience is massively recommended.

Amazing game. Will take between 4 and 10 hours to complete but has little to no replayerbility. I would recommend completing the game in chunks as I binged it in only two days. Great puzzles and story.

This game can be difficult, but it is one of the best and most well thought out mystery games I have ever played and the satisfaction of solving the mystery and understanding the story of the Obra Dinn is worth it if you ask me.

Super cool game, the music and sound effects are phenomenal, and the visuals lend well to the feel of the story. Its insane how much detail was put in.

I couldn't stop playing. I cancelled weekend plans for it.
Worth it. 10/10

The art direction and sound design were amazing. Amazingly good story and setting. Loved every minute of it.

A guy has a slight lisp during dialogue and you're supposed to pinpoint who it is off that
Pretty good detective game

A well-crafted detective / mystery game that can be off-putting at first but is highly rewarding after a couple hours if you keep at it.

This is one of my favorite games I've ever played. Succint and sweet, yet with enough head-scratching for multiple gaming sessions (my real time ran about 7 and a half hours - I left the game running one night).

Some of the fates were extremely difficult, and though I guessed on a few, later when I revisited chapters for other fates, I noticed pieces of evidence I could have used to deduce the crew members without the need for guesswork, though some clues were very subtle.

Overall, a phenomenal game that really breaks the mold. I'd say it's worth the full price, as you'll never play anything like it again.

Return of the Obra Dinn is a detective simulation game. The main gameplay is a walking simulator mixed with a hidden object game and putting in your best guesses in a journal. This is not an exciting game, and there is no voice acting or animations (for the most part). I put this at the front, not to deter you, but to make sure you understand what you're getting into.

This game has one major flaw, but if you can understand that flaw going into it, you'll likely have a much better time. The flaw is unintentionally teaching the player to expect answers much earlier than the game provides. The tutorial of the game guides you through a few flashback sequences, and has you solving a few of the crew member's death right away. This is not how the rest of the game runs. For the most part, you'll need to watch every single flashback, make a few minor notes on each one, then start following every lead you can to learn who is who, and what happened to them.

The first time I played this game, I thought that I was too stupid to really play it, because after going through about 10 flashbacks, I still didn't know what was going on, who was who, and what happened to anyone. Turns out, this is pretty usual. So, the tutorial primes you to think that you can solve "most" of the puzzles in each flashback pretty quickly, but this turns out not to be the case.

If you are willing to put in the time this game requires, and you enjoy searching for every possible piece of evidence to solve mysteries, this is one of the most singular experiences you can have. However, bottom line, this game isn't going to be for everyone, so know what you're getting into

this game is amazing, i still think of this game and hope i forget all the answers so that i can play it again. its such a cool game, so eerie and interesting. i literally cannot recommend this game enough. it rewards paying attention to small details which feels really good when you get something right.
i keep telling all my friends to play this game!!

Fantastic mystery game that really forces you to pay attention and work your brain. Also good spooky sea vibes. 10/10 would sail again.

I can't believe I forgot to review this game. It has the most fumblable(?) premise in history and uses it so perfectly. The music and visuals are immaculate but aren't even the main draw, it's the fact that this is a *real* detective game. You have a extensive set of tools that are all given to you at the start, and a bible's worth of accidents and murders to fill out. Even games that take inspiration from it (cough cough chants of sennaar) unknowingly butcher the satisfaction achieved from it, because everything in Obra Dinn was made for Obra Dinn. Each little detail serves as one of many clues that push you towards each solution, very few clues completely outweigh others and make them obsolete (these still exist, such as E.S., but this makes sense anyway and is a cool way of figuring out an identity). Lucas Pope is an absolute visionary, just the stylisation alone deserves praise for how it mixes oldschool macintosh visuals with 19th century photographs. Ok, I've been yapping on too much, but it is well worth anyone's time, definitely recommend.

7/10 for me. Great style, great story, fun mechanics, but I'm not the target audience. Requires a lot of patience and attention to really tiny details that I just can't be asked to focus on. Good game tho.

Video games bore me when they tell their story like a movie. Those "story-driven" games are nothing more than a mediocre 10-hour film. In this game, it's up to you to uncover the story through its mechanics, and in the end, you feel like a detective who had the satisfaction of discovering a great story. Some games are more works of art than games—this is one of them.

I've never played anything like this, and I'm not sure there even is something else like this. It's a really unique experience and I loved it.

I recommend playing with a notebook, btw! (You can totally beat the game without taking extra notes, but I found it way more fun and involving)