Orten Was The Case
Get ready to step into the (non-existent) shoes of Ziggy – an unexpected hero from a fictional Swedish neighborhood. Together, you’ll take on the daunting task of foiling a sinister scheme that could potentially devastate the entire world.
Ziggy wakes up one day with a strange mark on his hand, clueless of what happened the night before. After a couple of minutes lost amongst the familiar streets of his suburb, Orten, an explosion brings him back exactly where he woke up moments before… He’s stuck in a time loop.
With no shoes or recollection of the past, he goes on a mission to discover what the hell is going on and how to avoid the destruction of his city. This won’t be easy though, cause the more he snoops in the wrong places, the more he learns that his hometown has a lot of secrets hidden. His weird neighbors become weirder, and he can only rely on his friends, and on his highly reliable brain.
If the day repeats over and over, then how can one progress? That’s the catch: Knowledge is your key to progress in Orten. Each loop you go through, you will learn something new that will let you progress the story further. You’ll retain clues, notes, timeline events and eventually know how you can change the future in just 12 minutes on a casual Sunday.
Who are they? The Midnight Council, I mean. They seem to be the only ones that are one step in front of you. What really happened in this town 40 years ago and how do you escape the time loop and death?
Follow the clues, solve puzzles and explore the enigmatic suburb of Orten in this hand painted, intriguing, mystery adventure game!
Game Discussion
Steam User 24
I was fortunate enough to try this game throughout development and I couldn't be more excited with the end result.
Hat off to the developer for delivering a truly great experience. This is a must-buy if you are at all into timeloops, mysteries and/or a fan of fictional Swedish suburbs.
Now I'm off to FINALLY see how the story ends!
Steam User 15
Orten Was The Case är nog en av de bästa indie-spelen jag någonsin spelat. som bekant i hur det är att växa upp i ¨Orten¨ var det oväntat nostalgiskt att starta det och se alla unika karaktärer och deras interaktioner.
Till de av mina vänner och andra som älskar pusselspel och att behöva tänka ut hur du gör saker i spel, skaffa denna guldklimp!! Jag ser fram emot (och hoppas) att få se mer liknande ifrån Woodhill. 10/10 från mig!
Jag kan sitta och ge så mycket komplimanger till detta spel men jag måste ge lite ris också, Jag spelade igenom på Svenska och märkte av flertalen fel/misstavningar. Ibland ku nde menninggar se u t såhär, vilket inte förstörde spelet men det släppte immersionen lite. Men absolut, skaffa Orten Was The Case! jag vet vad jag ska köpa till folk i julklapp!
Steam User 9
With just 2,5 hours of gameplay 'Orten Was The Cause' captured my interests quickly, without the need for any tutorial (which is good). The storyline is engaging enough to make me want to see the game thorugh to the end.
The level design is a smart utilization of time loops, feeling fresh and innovative.
The puzzles strike a perfect balance of difficulty, while the combat mechanics are surprisingly well-tuned for a puzzle game.
This game not only draws me in but also keeps me eager to explore more of the world.
A special highlight is the game's comedic language (atleast when played in Swedish) - Highly recommended for Swedish speakers!
Steam User 7
Orten Was The Case is one of the best games of 2023. The best comparison I can think of is Majora's Mask meets Psychonauts...meets Dark Souls. It's a time-loop-Adventure game!
You have at most 12 minutes per loop before the world ends. You start the game remembering nothing and have to piece together what happened to you, what is causing the apocalypse, who is involved, and how you can stop it. Progress is demarcated by "Topics". Some milestones count as checkpoints you can come back to later, and you can exploit this to save yourself a lot of real-world time while you try to figure out how to progress. You are expected to solve at least one objective related to one topic per loop, and the game does a good job making it clear what that is via Journal entries. You need to be in the right place at the right time or employ lateral thinking to find critical late-game clues. Most of the puzzles require you to just be observant during the time loop, and these are the most interesting, fun, and rewarding to solve. There are also some logic and math puzzles that aren't terribly hard but some players might find an unwelcome distraction (i.e. rotating pipe sections, choosing numbers for a formula that will sum to a specific number, etc).
The best thing about this game is just how mysterious, weird, spooky, and funny it is for the entire playthrough. You are constantly discovering cool new secrets about the world. You are constantly rewarded for trying new things, exploring with new cutscenes, new shortcuts, new items or clues that help you make progress, and even just knowledge of new mysteries you didn't know existed yet. There are multiple endings and a super-puzzle to get the best ending.
You will love this game if you enjoyed Majora's Mask, Psychonauts, Hollow Knight, Disco Elysium, Grim Fandango, Outer Wilds, Minute, Tunic, La Mulana, or similar games.
Orten is not exactly a Metroidvania, but has everything I look for in one. Among other such games I've played, I would rank it:
RANKING
S
Hollow Knight
La Mulana 2
Salt and
Sanctuary
Tunic
A
Blasphemous
Bloodstained:
Ritual of
the Night
Death's
Gambit:
Afterlife
Ender Lilies:
Quietus of
the Knights
Grime
Guacamelee!
Guacamelee!
2
The
Messenger
Orten Was
The Case
There is
No Light
B
Astalon
Axiom
Verge
Axiom
Verge 2
The Last
Faith
Death's
Door
Deepening
Fire
Kingdom
Shell
Lost Ruins
Moonscars
Steamworld
Dig 2
The
Vagrant
Vernal
Edge
Vigil:
The Longest
Night
C
Greak:
Memories
of Azur
Haiku,
The Robot
Hunt The
Night
Last Night
of Winter
Momodora:
Reverie
Under the
Moonlight
D
Apotheon
Chasm
Ori
and the
Blind
Forest
Ori
and the
Will of the
Whisps
F
Salt and
Sacrifice
Sundered:
Eldritch
Edition
Momodora:
Moonlit
Farewell
Steam User 6
I cant stress how much i love the artstyle of this game, its so cool. That and finding the small hints scattered across the world is amazing. Everything has its own purpose in this game, in some shape or form.
The one thing i dislike is the somewhat janky combat mechanics. I feel as if the game would be better without it, but thats just my opinion.
Vällingby centrum simulator 10/10
Steam User 5
Orten Was The Case is an excellent time loop game.
The majority of puzzles works as such that they require player knowledge, knowledge they gain throughout multiple loops to piece together how to stop the literal destruction which occurs in 12 minutes. These 12 minutes are in real time, giving you a bit of time but still a race against clock to fix things.
In addition, the main character retains some information from previous time loops, giving you access to some options based on knowledge (such as telling a cop about an ongoing crime to distract him).
Every loop is consistent, every character and event that occurs in story will happen at same time unless the player interferes with said event/character. This makes it so timing for solving some puzzles will always be the same so practice pays off.
To help avoid some tedium, there are a few specific missions in game which once completed give a checkpoint. These can later by overriden by completing same mission in a later loop or used to reload and save time to avoid redoing certain steps.
From a knowledge check point of view, you can beat the game on the first loop assuming you know exactly what you're meant to do. However it is unlikely (if not impossible) for a player to get it on first attempt due to not knowing enough to get there.
The art style of the game is also very unique which is another plus.
Steam User 5
Fantastic Game! Great Storyteller adventure puzzle game with unique mechanick, this game gives me vibes from my childhood time "Oddworld!" also have different endings and its interesting for speedrunners.