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Play OverviewPlay Overview

Return of the Obra Dinn (2019) is a narrative puzzle game where you play a shipping company agent assessing what happened on board a fictional East India Company ship where all the passengers have mysteriously died. Exploring the ship, you can revisit the moment of death for each body in order to identify each of the 60 crew members and how they died. It’s an imposing challenge that must be teased apart with patience, deductive reasoning, attention to detail and some guesswork.

Rather than leading you by the hand to the answers, the game trusts its players to work things out themselves. It’s not easy, but arriving at a solution thanks to perseverance is hugely satisfying.

Although there is violence in the game, it's black-and-white visuals and static scenes make this more palatable than you’d think. If you have someone in the family who loves solving puzzles or won’t stop until the crossword is finished, this is a great game to play with them. Like an Arthur Conan Doyle or Agatha Christie novel, the joy comes from knitting together the clues and making instinctive leaps of deduction.

One family I know played this over one long evening, into the night, treating it like a murder mystery party, complete with themed food and beverages. One of the players took it upon themselves to take notes while together they worked through the evidence of each death to discover what happened on board the ship.

Our examiner, Andy Robertson, first checked Return of the Obra Dinn 4 years ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 7 months ago.
Kids not old enough for this yet? There are lots of games similar to Return of the Obra Dinn. Here are some similar younger-rated games:

Play StylePlay Style

This is a Brain Game and Puzzle game with Narrative elements. This is a single-player game.

DurationDuration

Play Time: This game will take between 9 hours and 13 hours to complete. Although most people will solve the game in around 9 hours, this depends on intuition and deduction and can take considerably longer.

Age RatingsAge Ratings

Content Rating

Rated PEGI 16 with sustained depictions of death to human-like characters. This game contains sustained depictions of death to human-like characters. Throughout the game, the player will relive the last moments of a character’s life. The lead-up to the deaths is portrayed only through audio and subtitles. When a death occurs, the scene becomes a still 3D image which you can freely explore and view from multiple angles. Some of the deaths are particularly gruesome, such as a man being ripped in half by a kraken and a group of men whose necks are being crushed by the claws of a large crustacean. While these images are particularly gruesome, the fact that they are still images, paired with such a highly artistic style lessens the impact of the violence. The audio can be highly disturbing with the sounds of characters screaming in pain and bones breaking.

Skill Level

13+ year-olds usually have the required skill to enjoy this game. Still, it's important for parents and guardians to consider the maturity required to process the game content. The game requires you to identify and track a large number of characters with scant evidence. The skill here is attention to detail, patience and lateral thinking. The level you need these at means this is a game for older teenagers.

CostsCosts

Return of the Obra Dinn usually costs £16.74 to £18.99.
 

Return of the Obra Dinn

XBox Store Xbox One £16.74
PlayStation Store PS4 £18.99
Steam Store PC £16.75
Switch Store Switch £17.99
Steam Store Mac £16.75
There are no additional in-game purchases, loot boxes, adverts or subscription costs.

DetailsGame Details

Release Date: 18/10/2019

Out Now: PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 13+ year-olds

Players: 1

Genres: Brain Game, Puzzle and Narrative

Accessibility: 21 features

Components: 3D First-Person and Pixels

Developer: Dukope (@Dukope)


Taming Gaming Book Written by parents for parents, the database complements the in-depth discussion about video game addiction, violence, spending and online safety in the Taming Gaming book. We are an editorially independent, free resource without adverts that is supported by partnerships.

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