I am a creature of habit. I tend to play the same handful of games over and over till I know the mechanics so well I can exploit them harder than mega corporations exploit blue collar workers. But I make it a point to try and branch out every now and then and add something new to my repertoire, and the most recent addition is Devolver Digital’s Observation.

Observation is a humble experience that doesn’t try to be more than it can handle, and focuses on doing what it can handle, very well. It’s a sci-fi thriller that brings to mind films like Event Horizon, Gravity, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Interstellar.

Aesthetically it’s beautiful, creating a very believable environment that makes you truly feel like you’re wandering around an international space station. Occasionally you can see some pixelation poking through, but the game does such a good job crafting visual atmosphere that when you do notice it, you’re not bothered. The only visual disappointment of Observation was the animated faces of characters, which is forgivable, but still a tad irksome. Faces are hard guys.

The voice acting is absolutely top notch, and more than makes up the difference with the slightly janky animated puppet heads. What you can’t necessarily see in the faces of characters, you can definitely hear and feel in their voices.

Combined with a very strong soundtrack that evokes just the right emotions at the right times, Observation is a masterclass in building atmosphere.

This brings me to the biggest let down of the game however: the gameplay. While the ideas behind the gameplay are perfectly functional, and even a little creative, they are however hampered by a good deal of chug. We’re talking slow moving camera panning that feels thicker than a mouthful of peanut butter. I’ll admit that for the first hour or so I was terribly engaged. The gameplay fantastically imagines and puts into a player experience what it would feel like to be an AI system on a space station. Unfortunately I have a threshold for the number of weeks it takes to find Waldo in a tiny space station compartment before I become bored.

Once the novelty of the gameplay wore off, the only things that sustained me were the gripping mystery of the storyline and the brief feelings of pride and accomplishment attained whenever I solved a puzzle without resorting to an online guide. The latter was hollow succor to the experience and wouldn’t have kept me engaged, but the story? Oh lord the story!

Before I lick boot, allow me to say that Observation’s story isn’t overly original. Like most tales told in modern times, it has very few elements that weren’t clearly inspired by other sources. However, the delivery was so brilliant that the content could’ve been a Kale smoothie and I’d have still slurped it right up. A slow building mystery thriller that never overplays its hand and keeps you locked tight to your seat is alright in my books.

Observation is a brilliant way to lose a few hours. Barring the times you might get stuck on a puzzle or frustratingly lost in the labyrinth of different-but-still-similar-enough-to-confuse-you corridors it sets its pace at a firm stride and reaches its conclusion within only a handful of hours of play.

Overall Observation gets a strong recommendation from me. While the gameplay won’t change your life, and the total runtime means it won’t eat away two whole weeks of your otherwise humdrum life, the time that it does have you for is gripping and lovingly crafted.