![]() You interact with objects (door handles, intercoms, plugs and the like) by tapping ‘ZR’ on icons. Clicking and holding the left analogue stick activates a screen-warping jog, but you still won’t be zipping around like a space marine. Those expecting the fast movement of a shooter might find the game’s walking pace frustrating at first. To say more would spoil the surreal surprises in store, but familial connections complicate Daniel’s investigation. Knocking on doors lets you interact with residents over the intercom and the foul-mouthed voice work is strong. You’ll snoop around crime scenes for clues, finding material on PCs and playing minigames in squalid, blood-spattered rooms. Hauer’s gravelly delivery works beautifully throughout, although it occasionally feels like you’re in a recording booth with him over your shoulder. Lazarski finds answers by plugging directly (and illegally) into cerebral nodes of deceased victims to ‘observe’ their fragmented memories. An unexpected lockdown prevents you from leaving, but your investigations take you around the structure – modelled on a real tenement block in Kraków, fact fans – as you track the killer. It’s 2084, and Lazarski arrives to investigate a grisly murder in a run-down apartment building. Beyond transhumanist nods to electric sheep, its gruesome depiction of splicing and body enhancement whiffs of Bioshock, too. His voice and likeness are front-and-centre in a detective narrative that’s chock full of old chestnuts (addictive substances, tech viruses, shadowy corporations – are there any other kind?), yet somehow manages to produce a compelling slice of first-person cyberpunk horror from tired tropes. Rutger Hauer – yes, Roy Batty himself – is put to great use as the eponymous observer, Daniel Lazarski. It’s a testament to the Layers of Fear developer’s talent that the game feels fresh and interesting, despite the cavalcade of sci-fi clichés. From its white-and-red opening text to the high-collar silhouette of its protagonist, it’s in thrall of Ridley Scott’s sci-fi classic. References aren’t so much ‘on the nose’ in Observer as ‘stuffed down your ears, nose and throat’. However, we must concede that we probably don’t like Blade Runner quite as much as Bloober Team does. Oh yes, we can recite the C-beams speech verbatim, and more besides. We love the original 1982 film, in all its guises, and we adore the 2017 sequel. Here at NL Towers, we’re partial to a bit of Blade Runner.
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