Today marks the TEN YEAR Anniversary of Obduction!

To celebrate, we recorded a retrospective video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrnxqeJe6kI

More anniversary & 60% Off Sale info here: https://cyan.com/.../cyan-celebrates-10-years-of-obduction/

I recently played through Myst and Riven Remastered on the Quest 3 via Virtual Desktop (I also played them when they originally came out, but that's another story…)

Obduction has been sitting unplayed in my PS5 library for a while now… the PCVR version just went on sale in Steam for $12…

Which is the better experience? Playing it in VR or playing it on the PS5 in 2-D?

With the other cyan games, I really loved the immersion of the VR experience, but puzzle solving without being able to take and read notes was kind of a pain in the ass…

I bought the game yesterday, and, while I've had a fair number of problems, I'm sort of enjoying it. But I find myself stuck and don't know what to do.

I'm on a platform in Kaptar, and I'm supposed to be able to move this lever to move across. It won't move, and I don't see anything I need to do to allow it to move.

I'm following a walkthrough for part of the game. While I figured out most of the puzzles in Hunrath - some needed hints - I haven't the slightest idea what to do in this part. I'm at the very end of this section:

https://obduction.fandom.com/wiki/Reactivating_Ancient_Gears

Any idea what I need to do to go further?

To be fair, this has been frustrating, with the game crashing and freezing several times, and the video stuttering a lot in this section... It's enjoyable, but there's a lot of friction.

I just heard about this game, and I'm planning to buy it this weekend on Xbox. Myst was one of the first computer games I played - other than Space Invaders and Asteroids - and I found it quite compelling. I was looking for a chill game with no combat, and this came up in a list of games. I was just wondering, if I get stuck, is anyone here to share clues, or is the came too old for there to be many people paying attention to this sub? (There aren't many recent posts.)

I'm creating some video content about Obduction, and obviously the moment where you first ride the pod into the live battle is a massively important set piece that you can only trigger once.

Would anyone happen to have a PC saved game file from just before you get into that pod? I'm not particularly looking forward to having to grind the entire game through again just to get a recording of that one specific endgame experience.

Dumb question- I got the code to the box of infinite complexity, but I already entered a code into the box previously. How can I clear the old code so that I can enter the correct code?

I recently beat this game. I understood most of the puzzles and think it was a great game overall (except for the part where I wandered around for hours without any hints for "222").

Regarding the title, this is the one thing I still don't understand even after finishing the game. I figured the trapped Villein was going to open the door with its voice, but with no hints pointing to "222", I tried absolutely everything before it finally occurred to me to check the pods for the Mayor.

During that time, this notebook—being the only object physically close to the door—felt like my strongest hint. But it's impossible to connect the spheres on the Villein number pad next to it in the way it's drawn in this picture.

After hours of backtracking through every world to see if I missed something, I was completely stuck. Then I randomly remembered Farley mentioning that the Mayor went into a pod. Out of pure curiosity, and not thinking it was part of the puzzle, I entered 222 and confirmed he was in there. I just thought, "Ah, so the hologram Mayor really is a fake," but when I went back up, the door was magically open. (It made so little sense to me that I genuinely thought it was a bug).

After beating the game, I read a guide that explained the Villein wouldn't open the door until he made sure the player character knew the Mayor was a fake. I get the motive, but how on earth did a trapped Villein know that I looked at pod 222 deep underground? I still can't accept that logic.

And seriously, what the hell was that drawing anyway...?

From someone who loved Myst and Riven. This game failed by every metric. Huge amounts of effort with very little reward and just not fun to play. Constant disorientation does not jazz me. Deleted.

We are still early in the game. We somehow managed to start the electricity for the town, and according to g to the wacko in the shelter, I think he wants us to start the rooftop blue battery. I need carefully explained like I’m 5 instructions for this.

I've played through Myst, Riven (lots of hints for the last puzzle there..) and Myst IV and Uru when I was younger. I'm playing obduction and I'm not completely stumped all the time but I'm definitely not flying through the game like I did with the embarrassingly easy Firmament.

I've read general complaints that Obduction was very easy. Curious if this community really thinks this game is easy and I just have no-sleep-dad-brain or corporate America is really making me an intellectual husk.

Update:

Just finished it. It wasn't too bad actually just needed to get back into the mindset of a classic Myst style adventure game. I absolutely loved it. On to Neyyah?

Hey everyone, so I messed up. After getting off the second big horizontal cable car in Kaptar, I didn’t lower the bridge that connects that part of the map with the main area. After failing to solve the sphere puzzle in Kaptar, I decided (for some reason I will never understand) to switch to Maray and take it from there. After watering the tree in Maray, I went back to Kaptar just to see that I never lowered the bridge. Is there any way to send the cable car back, or anything else I can do? Btw the sphere in Hunrath is at its original state so I can’t use that.

I’ve gotten to the Maray puzzle and I’ve built the two bridges on Maray but only the on leading to the locked door in the mines. I think I’ve soft locked myself because of if I try to teleport the smaller spheres, they only go to three of the four positions possible. They stack on each other in the mines and go to both open spots on Maray. And I need the bridge maker on the 4 position so that I can get to the other side in the mines. Any solutions?

So I get that you need to check Josef's pod on Maray to verify that the Josef talking to you on the screens is a Mofang in disguise. But so why does that trigger a door opening? Do/does the Mofang just... give up on tricking you?

Sorry for vague title. It was the best thing I could do to figure out how to summarize without spoiling.

So I’m curious about how the journal in the mayor’s office is handled in different localizations as it pertains a to this one particular entry. The journal says the hint to the code is placed at the original mayor’s “direction,” which logically makes no sense as the original mayor would be long dead (probably anyway?). But it’s really a hint to look at his compass for the note on the underside (“direction,” get it?).

Anybody know how the note is handled in other localizations where that word may not have the same double meaning as it does in English?

I feel like I've done everything I can do--I even closed all the doors behind me, like Riven taught me! But here are all the things I can see but can't get to/do anything with:

Hunrath: --Can't get across river, nor open door on other side (I did blast those rocks on that side though!)

--Blue wall way up where you diverted the waterfall

--Upper level at submarine

--Blocked blue wall in upper scrap yard

--Is that TNT plunger at the top of the boat (?) tower supposed to do something yet?

--Gray sphere in tunnel inside Farley's house

--Boulder-blocked tunnel above tree

--Any of the paths leading out from the tree's heart

Maray: --Only path I see leads to a door that won't open

Kaptar: --Got the gun cart in and knocked out the red beam

--Got those big central pistons going & connected all four arms

--Got the up/down gondola (leads back to entry point) going, as well as the one that goes across from one giant machine to another

--Can't get those steps to swivel down because I have no idea what this Russian machine with 1000 dials and buttons does

I think that covers it but I may be forgetting something.

In the meantime I've reverted to the advice I got about Riven and am pondering the "whys" of it. Like why is there a security camera in the garage? Where does the rest of the town poop? Who builds giant machinery along giant cliffsides and doesn't put in handrails? Etc.

Years late to the game on this one, I'm sure. On a PC, Windows 10, 16GB RAM. Other specs I can tell you when I'm back home and can check. Thanks!

Seen firmament is coming to ps5 soon...how is it in comparison to abduction because I fell in love with obduction

Do you absolutely HAVE to disable the WMD on Maray to progress through the game, or is it possible to swap the bubble that the WMD is in back to Soria before it explodes? I didn't realize that I can't load a specific time-stamp on this playthrough, I would have loved to have gone back and tried to swap out that bubble.

Also, is there a way to unfreeze the people in the pods? I had a REALLY hard time with the Villein interface, I was able to find Farley's pod, but couldn't figure out how to actually get it back to the surface of the pod structure.

Overall, an absolutely excellent game. I'm proud of myself for finally getting through it. Can't wait to start playing Firmament!

and it's not my first run either, I started the game years ago but then life happenned, so I kinda forgot about it. I vaguely remembered some Hunrath and Kaptar puzzle solutions, but mostly had to figure it out again. FWIW, I didn't use any walkthoughs or other cheats, other than a few minor hints, but yeah, not the sharpest crayon on the crayon tree. Internet claims average gameplay length is 10-15 hours

Spoilers ahead

Rode a rail cart a whole bunch because I couldn't figure out how to grab the teleporter lever from inside of the cart, not sure if a bug, or clunky laptop controls, but daym.

The Maze on Maray was a biyatch. A brighter person would realize that there's a door you can open from inside for a reason. This average bear spent better part of the Sunday trying to get wrong piece of puzzle fit.

I don't know how many people worked out Villen numbering system, but I just went back to the garage and used the cash register for numeric translations. Still not sure how many characters I was supposed to thaw, but I try to get as many humans out as possible. Pretty speciest of me, I know.

I spent way too much time running around this single path on Mofang, in hopes for more puzzles. That was a bit disappointing, tbh... It was amusing that there are soviet blocks-type apartment buildings on Mofang, I grew up in a similar neighborhood, minus the post-nuclear blast craters. I guess shitty architecture is an omnipresent sign of an aggressive civilization.

Got everyone killed on the first try blowing up the tower. Well, at least the fallout was kinda neat. Good thing the game auto-saves before major f*ckup, I wish my life worked like that.

C.W. is a bit of a cunt, imho, but the new planet has rocks one can fall off of, so

Not sure if I got the "good ending" but I'm ok with the new planet, at least what I can see from the tower, this one is full of clowns

When is the next game coming out?

​Replaying Obduction (I started it a long time ago, but didn't complete the game, so I vaguely remember some puzzles) and am currently stuck trying to get the laser cart to Kaptar, but can't reach the lever from ether side of the cart

It'a been a while since I played Obduction, so I'm not sure if it's a bug or I need to solve more puzzles on Hunrath and/or Kaptar before this one would work.

On Hunrath I connected electricity, got rid of the red beam and opened the garage. Didn't connect the tree yet, got tower elevator to work or swapped the sphere

On Kaptar I connected the pistons, but that's pretty much it.

Do I have to jump through more hoops on Hunrath before I can get the teleporter to work, or it's a bug?

TIA!

UPDATE: You can kinda-sorta turn inside of the cart by pressing space bar and arrow keys at the same time. It doesn't work all the time and will produce a lot of unwanted screenshots, but it worked so I'm not complaining :) Not sure if it was designed like that or a bug

So I’ve encountered that famous "glitch" where the cart just jumps into the rocks by the waterfall. I’ve looked around, and can’t find if it’s been fixed. Help!!

I'm at the garage, and honestly: What's the point of giving us a calculator if you can't make it read 80085 or 5318008?