Obsidian (video game)

Obsidian
Developer(s) Rocket Science Games
Publisher(s) SegaSoft
Engine mFactory media creation suite
Platform(s) Microsoft Windows, Mac OS
Release December 1996
Genre(s) Adventure
Mode(s) Single-player

Obsidian is an adventure video game developed by Rocket Science Games and published by SegaSoft for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS.

Based on a game design outline by VP of Development/Creative Director, Bill Davis, and written by Howard Cushnir and Adam Wolff, the genre of the game was a first-person 3-D graphical adventure game, with a large puzzle element. The puzzles were designed by Scott Kim, Howard Cushnir and Adam Wolff. The soundtrack was developed by Thomas Dolby.

The game spanned five CDs, and featured pre-rendered environments, audio, and full-motion video (both live action and CGI). The strategy guide included numerous small essays throughout the book, providing background on such subjects as nanotechnology, Jungian psychology, and the nature of artificial intelligence.

One of its notable puzzles was a minigame which used a "twenty questions" algorithm (similar to what would eventually be used in 20Q). The game came preprogrammed with a set of guesses, but after losing it would ask the player for criteria that would have led it to a correct guess—and then recorded that information into a text file. Because of this, the game was able to (theoretically) "learn" how to become so good as to beat the player every time.

Storyline

The year is 2066. The player controls scientist Lilah Kerlins. Lilah and her partner, Max, have just launched the Ceres satellite into orbit around the Earth. The satellite is designed to release nanobots into Earth's atmosphere in order to counteract depletion of the ozone layer and air pollution. Because the satellite has been endowed with a powerful artificial intelligence, it is thought that all further control may safely be ceded to the satellite itself. Thus, Lilah and Max go on vacation in the woods of a mountain (one of the first areas to be positively affected by Ceres).

While checking Lilah's e-mail on her PDA at the campsite, the player hears Max scream in the distance. Running to check on him, she discovers a large black outcropping on the side of the mountain, the Obsidian for which the game is named. The glassy structure opens, and Lilah falls inside, leading to the beginning of the game itself.

Ceres' artificial intelligence has become sentient. In an attempt to figure out who she (the A.I. refers to itself as female) is, Ceres has used her nanobots to create a world. She seems to be discovering all the faults and downsides of humanity, and asking herself whether or not the Earth wouldn't be better off without people on it.

Unlike other Artificially Intelligent supercomputers, Ceres was not made conscious by learning about humans directly through a central device, but instead through the growing complexity of her nanobots, creating a distributed intelligence, akin to that of a beehive or anthill. In order to communicate with Lilah and her partner, the nanobots constructed a female android known as "The Conductor", with a white porcelain, human head with silver eyes and a bizarre electrical halo cap on top. Every time this android speaks, her (or its) mouth does not move, but instead the sides of her face flash light blue with every syllable.

During the complexity, Ceres, for unknown reasons, thought of her two creators as mother and father, begging for approval, yet able to change the world completely on her own. Max, suspicious of this, was imprisoned within his own invention: The Programmable Molecular Assembler, despite the fact that the PMA was the very thing that created her. Why the guide addresses Ceres as "The Conductor" is unknown, though the meaning could be understood in one of the game's endings.

The game is extremely linear until the end, although two realms involve areas that can be accessed in a number of different combinations. At that point, the player has the option of either talking Ceres out of destroying humanity, or ceding that she is correct. Depending on the choice made, the game plays one of two endings. One ending shows Ceres destroyed and Lilah returning to the original world with Max. The other ending shows Lilah return to a world which has been "rebooted" by Ceres, who in its misguided urge to cleanse the planet has erased the source of the pollution, mankind, leaving Earth in a bleak, primordial state, which Ceres considers decontaminated. The final shot of the second ending, in which Lilah stands on a cliff overlooking a wasteland, is identical to a painting seen earlier in the game.

Environments

The environments in the game are all pre-rendered computer-generated backdrops and movies, similar to those found in Myst or Starship Titanic. The visuals are very abstract and 'illustrative', resembling the work of the surrealist painters. Each of the four environments reflects the main characters' subconsciousnesses, as well as shedding light on the overall story through the use of symbolism.

The first area, exploring the character of Lilah's subconscious, deals with the themes of bureaucracy involved in getting the Ceres project funded and realized. At first, Lilah cannot be helped due to the bureaucratic protocols of the realm, as well as the main inhabitants, sentient CRT Monitors known only as "VidBots". However, as she progresses, she eventually figures out how to use the cramped and confining protocols to her own advantage.

The second area explores Max's subconscious, and directly references the creator's role in its creations- in this case, it deals with the paranoia and reality of the creation, Ceres, attaining a life of its own to a point where Max, the builder, is no longer needed. Many Bible-like symbolic references are made here about its various components—electricity, oil, air (for pneumatic components), and metal—in sermon-like fashion, complete with church-like organ music.

At this point, The Conductor gives a monologue to the player, then transports him or her into the next realm.

The third area explores Ceres's own subconscious and its need for a purpose in its newfound life. Here, Lilah helps Ceres understand the concepts of inspiration, life, and creativity, much like the theme of breaking bureaucratic bonds in the Bureau realm and power of machines over humans in the Spider realm. However, Lilah discovers that Ceres, in its own childlike creativity and thinking, has deduced from its base programming that humans are a threat to Earth's environment, and to save it, everything must be reset anew in an environmental cleansing. (The complete destruction and genocide of everything and everyone on Earth.)

The Ceres Realm is the final area of the game, where Ceres puts its plan into motion, explaining innocently that the cleansing is its gift to Max and Lilah, not realizing its full power. While the Conductor is busy, Lilah finds Max trapped in an electronic prison - the PMA, and frees him, enabling him to sabotage Ceres' control chip. However, The Conductor finishes its work before this happens. At this point, the game becomes non-linear, with one of two ending choices: Lilah can either allow Ceres to complete its work, causing Earth to become a primordial wasteland, or cause Ceres' systems to crash, thereby saving Earth.

Characters

Max and Lilah are the only two human characters shown in the game. The world inside Obsidian is populated almost entirely with "vidbots"—robots with televisions for heads. The two major exceptions to this are Bismuth, a cobbled-together, elf-like robot with a lamp for a head which is capable of shining its light beam great distances, and the Conductor. Not only that, but at the very beginning of the game, before reaching the obsidian, you can watch a couple of videos of other scientists that Max and Lilah work with, including their boss. All are further explained above.

The CERES satellite itself is never seen, but a picture of it on a cake can be viewed briefly in one of the videos.

Development

One such part of the Bismuth realm reveals something which Rocket Science intended as amazing for viewers, but never came to such fruition: The Robot Angels, who are meant to watch over the Church's parishioners, and perhaps grant their prayers, yet in-game, most of their body portions are obscured by large lanterns, and that they look neither like robots nor angels. Even so, these gods are essential for solving a very hard puzzle, and unless a person has the strategy guide, they will only understand what these beings do, not what it means.

Most of Vidbot functionality was never done because of time and money. Initially they were planned to do every kind of function a standard robot could do, such as change the position of their chassis, or have special manipulators. Still, a few advancements can be seen in the Bureau: The "Bridge Repair" vidbot has a dot-matrix printer attached, the "Rebel Control" vidbot has a pair of red and green "YES" and "NO" buttons for each question he asks, Another-the one at the Security Face's entrance-has almost every element seen on one frame, including a key card printer, and several others. The Bureau Chief exhibits an interesting "4th wall" effect where he picks up computer-generated glasses, which appear seamlessly as real ones in the monitor. Originally, the artists were intending to achieve the same effect with a lit cigarette-the concept art of which can be seen in the gallery of the "Bismuth Realm".

Before the final cut, the "Planetary puzzle" in the Bureau incorporated an entire basement which held an entirely different puzzle. It was removed to save time in gameplay.

The moth-plane in the Bismuth realm was meant to be shown flying in third-person, which many playtesters wanted to see, but this too was cut for the sake of time and money, and changed to the player's first-person view from the cockpit.

The "Mother and Father" ambition of Ceres is hinted near the beginning of the game, used as a metaphorical thought discussed before Max and Lilah's vacation. Lilah: "I feel like when it's taking off it's like..." Max: "Like leaving our child." Scientist: "Oh, but she's all grown up now. She's a very big satellite. You're just gonna have to let her go."

One of the vidbots presents an image of Achenar, a character from Myst, who implores you in increasingly desperate tones to bring him the blue pages. The animation before this shows a looping image of the Myst book in space.

Similarly, if this Vidbot is called using the Selectaphone in the Bureau (3rd booth on the left side), he will answer in the voice of Stauf from 7th Guest.

Release

As the game was one of the last ventures by the fledgling Rocket Science and SegaSoft teams (and no doubt because of the popularity of the similar game Myst), Obsidian was released with a flurry of advertising. The motivating phrase in the advertisements was "Your rules do not apply here," (accompanied by e.g. a picture of a lamp emitting darkness) which fit neatly into the storyline and atmosphere of the game.[1] One specific advert (the "Egg Shattering Man" TV advertisement[2] directed by Rocky Morton) won three Gold Clio awards.[1]

Reception

Although Obsidian did not fare well commercially, it was lauded by critics such as those from Computer Gaming World,[3] GameSpot,[4] and PC Gamer.[5] Four Fat Chicks described the game as "A classic...Obsidian may be the most innovative, imaginative puzzle adventure ever conceived."[6] Just Adventure called it one of the true classics of the adventure genre and gave it an A.[7] In the years following its release, Obsidian has developed a minor cult following among fans of the adventure genre.[8]

Obsidian was a runner-up for Computer Gaming World's 1997 "Adventure Game of the Year" award, which ultimately went to The Pandora Directive. The editors wrote of Obsidian, "[W]ith a great story, clever puzzles, psychedelic graphics, and an irreverent sense of humor, this futuristic paranoid fantasy is an unexpected delight."[9]

References

  1. 1 2 "mikeburdick - Personal network". cargocollective.com.
  2. ↑ The video for the TV advertisement can be found at Anatomorphex and on YouTube
  3. ↑ Computer Gaming World, May 1997.
  4. ↑ Soete, Tim (23 January 1997). "Obsidian Review". GameSpot. Retrieved 13 January 2015.
  5. ↑ PC Gamer, May 1997.
  6. ↑ Obsidian review at Four Fat Chicks, June 2002.
  7. ↑ Obsidian review at Just Adventure, undated.
  8. ↑ Tringham, Neal Roger (10 September 2014). Science Fiction Video Games (Illustrated ed.). CRC Press. p. 103. ISBN 9781482203882. Retrieved 13 January 2015.
  9. ↑ Staff (May 1997). "The Computer Gaming World 1997 Premier Awards". Computer Gaming World (154): 68–70, 72, 74, 76, 78, 80.
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