Orten Was the Case: Saving the world by reverting time

Orten Was The Case can be difficult to understand at first because it’s like nothing seen before, perhaps only comparable to Disco Elysium for its surreal type of narrative that is directly affected by the gameplay.

Despite lacking superpowers, Ziggy finds himself in a race against time to prevent a catastrophic nuclear explosion that threatens to eradicate life on Earth, including his hometown of Orten.

Ziggy awakens with no memories and, by piecing together clues from the people around him, he slowly begins to unravel the mystery. He only has twelve minutes to stop the explosion, but he can restart the time loop to acquire more knowledge from the town folks and unlock more options to prevent the apocalypse.

To start off, it’s important to remember who you were and what you were doing as Ziggy. After waking up in an empty bus, you’ll need to take notes by interacting with the items around you and gathering important information like passwords.

Your first objective is to locate and assist your friend in Orten and the game offers multiple solutions for approaching this task. Although the game lacks interactive gameplay, it requires critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Some solutions may lead you to crucial information on how to save the world while others will only waste your time (sometimes in a fun way).

Through the demo I played, I was only able to explore part of the town. Some parts were inaccessible while some actions made the demo end instantly, so it’s currently impossible to value how big the town of Orten really is.

Orten Was The Case is a surreal puzzle-game with limited guidance

Understanding what to do next in Orten Was The Case may sometimes be confusing, as the game doesn’t hold your hand and can certainly be unwelcoming to new players. The game’s premise is revealed through the discovery of additional information, but without any sort of explanation or proper tutorial.

Visually speaking, the game uses a pretty unique mix of 2D/3D art style to depict the dark and gritty Swedish town of Orten and its citizens. The ambient soundtrack complements the visuals, creating a surreal experience that changes as you move through different parts of Orten. The PC version seems greatly optimized, but moving Ziggy around the environments can be a bit glitchy and confusing, especially when jumping and climbing.

marcoleo

I’m a passionate guy who loves videogames, movies, anime and comics. I like to talk about videogames and share my opinion with the world.