Return of the Obra Dinn

Return of the Obra Dinn is Lucas Pope's first-person deduction game. In 1807 a merchant ship drifts into port with its entire crew of sixty missing or dead, and you, an insurance investigator for the East India Company, board it with a pocket watch that freezes the moment of each death. Your job is to fill in a logbook with every person's name, fate and killer. It suits solo players who love logic puzzles, detective work and stories told out of order.

Players call it one of the best mystery games ever made. Identifying the crew means reading tiny details: accents, uniforms, where someone sleeps, who stands beside whom in a sketch. The game confirms answers only in sets of three, which stops guessing while still letting you lock in progress. Reviewers praise the striking one-bit art, the voice acting and the soundtrack, and many say it made them feel brilliant.

The caveats are minor. A few late identities can come down to educated guesses, walking between scenes gets slow near the end, and the dithered visuals make faces hard to read at a distance. Some disliked the supernatural turn. Expect eight to fifteen hours, played once. An essential purchase for puzzle fans; go in blind and avoid hints.