A strange beam of light snatches the player from a contemporary lake to the alien Hunrath at an unknown point in the future. Obduction begins with an abduction: the playerвЂ™s. Despite the rapid splintering of the genre, Cyan has found a way to not only embrace the roots of the type of game it helped to create but to also integrate puzzles and narrative with a deceptive degree of elegance. And The Chinese Room ( EverybodyвЂ™s Gone to the Rapture) places faith in playersвЂ™ ability to find meaning and drama through largely environmental narratives. Jonathan BlowвЂ™s The Witness was a direct response to the idea that puzzle-driven gameplay is incompatible with a complex, interwoven narrative. Developers like Telltale ( The Walking Dead) and Fullbright ( Gone Home) have replaced an emphasis on puzzles with a focus on emotionally charged narratives. In the twenty three years since MystвЂ™s release, CyanвЂ™s influence in the вЂњadventureвЂќ game genre has begun to dissipate. It would be another couple hours before I understood what any of this meant. And suddenly here was a tower and an elevator and a strange device that was half high-tech electronics and half ancient rotary phone.

IвЂ™d undammed a waterfall IвЂ™d used the creek that waterfall unleashed to operate a swing-bridge IвЂ™d restored basic electricity to Hunrath and found aвЂ¦ secret passage that let me reach this cliff (I wonвЂ™t say more for fear of spoiling one of the gameвЂ™s many surprises). IвЂ™d made it to the top of this cliff in roundabout fashion. I could have mistaken Hunrath for John FordвЂ™s beloved Monument Valley if it werenвЂ™t for the purple, alien mountains towering over it on all sides. Several hours into Obduction-the latest game from Myst developers Cyan Worlds-I stumbled upon an elevator hidden at the top of a cliffside amidst the desert mining town of Hunrath.

Obduction worlds