Return of the Obra Dinn

i wish i could wipe my memory so i could play it blind again.
my mom whos never touched a video game in her life, but enjoys crime fiction, is loving it too! she didnt want to play any games at first, but when i showed her the very first death scene, she got really intrigued, thats how catchy the premise is. the soundtrack is incredibly good as well

Imma shamelessly steal someone's youtube comment:

"i would give myself brain damage just to forget this game and play it again"

Most historically accurate 1800s game beacuse you get to a point where racially profiling is a viable strategy.

I'm not sure I will ever again play a puzzle game as unique and interesting as this one.

I previously tried to complete this game once a few years ago, but I let the game slip away from me and ended up too disconnected from the progress I had made to continue.
More recently (a year ago at this point), I had a roommate with whom I played this game to completion alongside. He and I both sat on the couch for a few nights in a row making verbal deductions and piecing together the story--and we were both hooked. By the time it was over, we were both left shocked in absence of its continuation. My roommate was not someone who played games ever and so he asked if there was another title like this to play. Naively I thought we could recapture the magic of investigating the Obra Dinn with another game, but I have yet to find anything that is quite as enthralling as this story. He moved out once the semester was over; this game was the highlight of all the media I had consumed throughout that time.
My recommendation cannot be more glowing. This game is one of the best titles out there--across any genre.

A wonderfully specific experience. If you hunger for a 'detective game' that actually lets you piece things together on your own rather than finding enough 'clue points' to be told what happened, this is that, with an exquisite nautical flavour and a soundtrack that I routinely listen to on its own.
DO NOT spoil yourself by looking anything up about this game. I managed to go into it completely blind and it was a magnificent experience.

If you’ve ever thought, “You know what my life is missing? A monochrome migraine and the exhilarating feeling of failing upwards,” then Return of the Obra Dinn is the game for you. Lucas Pope hands you a notebook, a magic pocket watch, and a ship full of creatively deceased individuals and says, “Have fun, detective!”—then immediately walks away, leaving you to fend for yourself like a confused Victorian gumshoe cosplayer.
The game offers absolutely no direction beyond “figure it out,” which is bold, artistic, and deeply inconsiderate. You wander the decks like an underpaid insurance investigator (because you literally are one), desperately trying to distinguish between sailors who all dress like they shared one communal laundry basket.
Every time you identify a fate correctly, you feel like the world’s greatest detective. Every time you get it wrong—and oh, you will—you feel like you should turn in your badge, magnifying glass, and any pens that write.
The Good:
That intoxicating moment when your deductions click and you briefly ascend into a higher plane of detective enlightenment.
The glorious “I AM THE SMARTEST PERSON ALIVE” rush after solving three fates in a row.
A truly original aesthetic that makes you feel like you’re playing inside an old Macintosh printer.
The satisfaction of finally understanding that one scene you misinterpreted 12 times in a row.
The Bad:
The overwhelming detective pressure of being a big-ass gumshoe with zero training and even less guidance.
Constantly mistaking one crew member for another because apparently everyone owned the same beard.
The notebook slowly transforming into a graveyard of your wrong guesses.
That sinking feeling when the game politely informs you that no, actually, these three fates you “solved” are all hot garbage.
Final Verdict:
Return of the Obra Dinn is a brilliant, brutal, directionless detective fever dream. You’ll succeed, you’ll fail, you’ll confidently identify a man solely by the way he’s standing—incorrectly—and you’ll love every frustrating minute of it. If you’ve ever wanted to feel like both Sherlock Holmes and a lost intern doing paperwork on a haunted ship, congratulations: your dream game awaits.