When Obduction was announced on Kickstarter a few years ago, it was on the 20th anniversary of Myst, Cyan’s classic adventurous puzzle game. Being a spiritual follow-up of sorts, Obduction’s successful Kickstarter bid showed the unwaning legacy Myst has as one of the most renown videogames of all time—visuals, polarizing puzzles, and all. On October 31st, Cyan made another step in accordance to a different anniversary. They released their Oculus Rift-compatible virtual reality update for Obduction on the day of the 19-year anniversary of Myst-successor Riven, another classic in its own right from developers Robyn and Rand Miller.
When Obduction was released this past summer, some found it resembled Myst in the best ways possible, but modernized for a new audience. Where its puzzles felt intuitive, and not needlessly frustrating in the ways The Witness, Jonathan Blow’s recent puzzler, often did. And its visuals always a breathtaking sight, as Myst once was in its heyday.
Obduction’s VR update comes nearly three months after its intended launch. For the VR version, there’s both teleportation (a common movement style in VR) and free walking. Luckily, since movement in Obduction is so slow, motion sickness is rare even in free mode—but it makes backtracking cumbersome. Also, since Obduction is a visually stunning game, Cyan has added NVIDIA HDR and Ansel support, giving players the opportunity to take 360-degree, panoramic images in VR. Essentially giving players the tools to become professional VR photographers.
Obduction is available now for Oculus Rift on the Oculus Store, Steam, and GOG for $29.99.
