I'm on Observation Duty 5

Review

You have landed the spookiest job in the world! It took you several days to accept it, and who wouldn't think twice after reading a job description that would sound something like this. . . . It is imperative that you are not scared of the dark and not easily frightened by weird, unexplained phenomena and intruders. You must have a sharp memory and be able to detect strange activity and then fill in reports immediately. The bit that convinces you to take the job is that you'll be sitting behind a monitor many miles away from the areas you will have to survey. I hope you took a thermos full of coffee because the night will be long in, I'm on Observation Duty 5!

I'm on Observation Duty 5 is a puzzle game set in a black and white environment developed and self-published by Notovia on the 14^th of May 2022 on the Steam platform.

The game consists of 6 levels ranging from 6 to 10 rooms with two types of report systems. For the levels with 6 rooms each (school, metro and market), you will need to specify which room and what the anomalies are in your reports, but for the other levels (apartment, house and the bank), you will only have to select in which room you see the anomalies. It makes sense, as there are plenty of objects to remember per room in these stages.

So, how does the game work? The game will start at midnight (clock located on the bottom left corner of your screen), and you must survive until 6:00 am to beat each level. You will need to find at least two anomalies per hour; if you don't, too many anomalies will be active, and the game will be over.

The anomalies will gradually become apparent during the playthrough, and you will probably miss many of them, especially the small ones, as you flick back and forth between cameras. Small objects that disappear or swap places are difficult to spot. Others, such as different images in frames, room distortion or intruders, are a lot more obvious. There are 12 different types of anomalies in total, and I like the fact that each playthrough is different as the anomalies occur randomly, which is really good. To give you an idea, I lasted until 4:00 am in my best playthrough and reported 15 anomalies. I couldn’t tell you how many different anomalies each room has; it is excellent in terms of replayability.

I did find the game a bit slow, even after getting the hang of it. But that’s how the game is set up, and it’s just my personal view. I like the atmosphere the game creates with the beautiful black and white contrast images; it's excellent, and you feel the spookiness on each level.

Not having played any of the series' previous games, I am very impressed with it. The game has a reasonable price point and offers great replayability. The graphics are good, and your brain will have a decent workout!

Review written by THE CPT FROGGY for Zeepond.com

I'm on Observation Duty 5 Steam Store Page