Obduction (2016), the VR puzzle adventure from Cyan, the studio behind the ’90s point-and-click classics Myst (1993) and Riven (1997), is finally making its way to PSVR today.

Update (05/08/18): The PSVR patch for Obduction is now available, which should automatically push an update to the PS4 game at some point today depending on your region.

Early hands-ons with the PSVR integration have shown that the only locomotion option available is teleportation with click-turn (aka ‘comfort mode’). No ‘free locomotion’ is available. A chief complaint of the PSVR version is also a noticeable downgrade in graphics, although it’s uncertain if the game would make better use of a PS4 Pro’s increased rendering ability.

The original article follows below:

Original article (05/04/18): The game is said to be the full version of Obduction including the bonus content that’s already on the non-VR PlayStation 4 version.

The game, which we played initially when it came out for SteamVR-compatible headsets back in late 2016, offers around 10-15 hours of exploration and intensely difficult puzzles. Check out our previous review here.

Image courtesy Cyan

“When we launched the PlayStation version we were already hard at work on the PS VR version, but we’ve been working to make the experience as good as possible,” says studio founder and CEO Rand Miller in a PS blog post. “It’s especially exciting for us, because there are so many people with PS VR systems who can now experience Obduction in it’s virtual reality glory. VR adds so much of a sense of really being in our worlds.”

It’s uncertain whether Cyan will be selling the PSVR version separate from the PS4 version, which is already available on PSN for $30. We’ll update this article as soon as it’s made clear (see update).

SEE ALSO
'Disembodied' is an Inventive Platformer for Quest That's All About Hand-tracking

Newsletter graphic

This article may contain affiliate links. If you click an affiliate link and buy a product we may receive a small commission which helps support the publication. More information.


Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • MarquisDeSang

    As a fan of the Myst series, Obduction VR is the worst game ever made. Just look for Maze Puzzle on youtube. That simple puzzle will take you 3 hours to complete whith the solution. You have to load levels 2+ minutes for a minimum 30 times.

    • Ian Shook

      I think I’d prefer a hard puzzle game rather than an easy one. Minus the puzzle difficulty, how good of a game is it?

      • MarquisDeSang

        The puzzle was not difficult, but having to load between 2 level 30 times to solve it is stupid and paineful in vr

      • mirak

        It’s not the hardest myst but you won’t find better game in this style in VR.

    • Zerofool

      The worst game ever made? Ever?
      This is not even the worst Cyan game. Not even the worst VR game, despite all of its shortcomings and flaws (which I still hope will be fixed by Cyan some day, one by one).
      I guess it’s a matter of taste but “the worst game ever made”, come on… Comparing it to the tons of shovelware on Steam and saying this piece of art is worse than all of them? You would understand why I can’t take anything you say seriously.

      The loading part was somewhat annoying, yes, but they’re recommending an SSD for a reason. On my system it was never more than 30-60 seconds (if I’m not mistaken, it was a year and a half ago), it was never as horrific as you’re describing.

      Then again… I played the 2D version of the game. I’ll replay it in VR when they implement proper hand interactions, on a future-gen HMD+GPU. The blurring by TAA is just too horrible on the current low-res HMDs, destroys all the details :(

      • MarquisDeSang

        It was the most horrible vr game, because you walk slower than a turtle and the map is huge. You can’t take notes because you are in VR. And the train does not turn you when it turn so you have to turn constantly to look ahead. I would take any VR shovelware over this painful and expensive experience. Finally, the art style is inconsistent. The story and universe was brilliant.

        • neil rosson

          This is one of my favorite vr games. Not even sure if you are being sarcastic.

          • MarquisDeSang

            As the biggest Myst fan, I really wanted to like this game. Even with an SSD the “Loading” puzzle and the slow to crawl walking speed, the lack of any design to compensate for the fact that you cannot take notes in VR made this game the most painful physically and mentally game ever made.

          • NooYawker

            I don’t know what he said because all I see is “this user is blocked” so I blocked him for a reason. It’s safe to assume whatever he said he said it because he’s an asshole and should not be taken seriously.

        • mirak

          You don’t take notes, you take pictures.

    • mirak

      As a fan of Myst series Obduction is really nice.
      I only played it in VR and that’s the best VR game for me.

  • Zerofool

    It would be nice to see how the game performs on the PSVR and if any of the VR flaws from the PC version have been reworked. If so, hopefully they’ll backport them to the PC builds as well.
    @R2VR, do you plan to review the PSVR version of the game?

  • impurekind

    I’ve not got that cash to buy the game but I’d love to see it running on my Rift and step inside the world they have created in VR.