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Obsidian

I wasn't too impressed with Obsidian's demo. It was a nice looking game but the puzzle was one of those you could solve just by futzing around with the mechanism (my puzzle-writing friend says he solved this accidentally and purposely went back to solve it the "right" way). But I heard the game was rated number one by Games magazine so I got it anyway. And it turned out the puzzle in the demo was one of the least interesting ones in the entire game (it's like a bad trailer for a good movie).

Obsidian is one of the all-time great adventure games, a geekier, more machine-like version of Riven: The Sequel to Myst. Here you are entering a nano-robot creation and solve cool, hard-core puzzles. The environment is harsh and beautiful: bureaucratic mazes, spider-like machines, churches of logic. In a way, this seems like the ultimate hard-core gamer adventure game. Puzzles are logical, but sometimes the deductions are way beyond me (the game comes with a cheat book, which I used a good deal, although my puzzle-writing friend solved the whole thing on his own). This game has a sci-fi-geek-genius feeling to it, with a surreal sense of humor. Probably the most imaginative and original game I've seen.

-- Charles Herold -1998

Related Links:
web site of one of Obsidian's designers
shockwave puzzles of the Obsidian sort
Official web site