>Observer_ Allows Us to Hack into Fear
>Observer_ caught my eye from the moment I saw its teaser trailer during the PC Gaming show at E3 2016. I was hooked even more when Bloober Team’s PR manager Rafał Basaj took the stage and opened with, “What if your fears could be used against you?”
If Bloober Team sounds familiar to you, it’s because they are the Poland based team behind Layers of Fear. According to my talk with Rafał and game designer, Wojciech Piejko, Bloober Team started working on >Observer_ almost immediately after finishing Layers of Fear. Talk about commitment to their craft.
Rafał and Wojciech didn’t have any additional gameplay to share with me past what they showed at the PC Gaming Show. But playing through it with controller in hand, rather than hands-off watching it on screen, made a big difference. The controls in >Observer_ are very similar to Layers of Fear; you zoom to take a closer look at things, and can manipulate doors/other items. There is one additional mechanic in >Observer_, however, and it’s best compared to echolocation used by bats. Think detective vision from the Batman: Arkham game series. Using this search technique in >Observer_ allows you to see where key objects are before you reach them.
Another major thing that separates >Observer_ from its older sibling, Layers of Fear, is of course the setting. >Observer_ takes place in a cyberpunk universe modeled after a futuristic Kraków. It was explained to me that in this world, rather than attempting to rebuild walls and floors, humans have taken to covering issues with holograms. So, is your living room wall slowly crumbling? No problem, that’s what holographic wallpaper is for! Sure, you might feel a draft, but at least it’ll look nice! All kidding aside, this premise gives >Observer_ an incredibly eerie, yet futuristic look.
I figured many people would compare >Observer_ to The Matrix, so I asked Rafał and Wojciech if that was one of their main inspirations. They said that it wasn’t, that they were instead influenced mostly by Blade Runner and Japanese animation. I brought up Ghost in the Shell more specifically, and they conceded that series in particular had an impact on >Observer_.
Now, how about that crazy machine we saw a seemingly defenseless woman attacked by? Apparently they are called “dream eaters,” and detectives use these machines (implemented into their hands) to hack people’s minds and memories to use their deepest fears against them. In doing so, they are able to extract any information they need by essentially scaring it out of their subject.
Rafał and Wojciech were unable to give me a release date for >Observer_ so early into the development process. But they were able to tell me that >Observer_ will have a longer play time than Layers of Fear. So while we don’t know how long we have to wait yet, at least we know it’ll be worth it!
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