Obduction, the highly rated first-person adventure game from Cyan, the makers of Riven (1997) and Myst (1993), has been available on traditional monitors for quite some time now, but what virtual reality enthusiasts have been salivating over is the pre-release VR version we got our hands on back in late August. Now you can rest easy, because Cyan has just announced on their Kickstarter page that the Oculus Rift version of the game is coming on the 31st of October, the 19th anniversary of the release of Riven.

High marks went to Obduction (8.5/10) for injecting the game with its familiar brand of visually stunning environments, and brilliant mix of cerebral, and often times impossible puzzles. Although we wished we could have given it a higher score for its immersive gameplay, some object interaction in the VR version was clearly still in need of TLC. Considering the game hinges on object manipulation like dialing phones and other fine movements, 100 percent reliable clicks are a must if you don’t want to tear your hair out of your head after incorrectly inputting a 15-digit code into some arcane number pad and missing by a single number.

This is however something Cyan said would be fixed for the upcoming VR version’s release, which if true, will leave many in shock at just how good of a game Obduction really is.

Cyan maintains the VR version will give you the choice of playing either in VR or on traditional monitor. There is still no official word on whether a SteamVR-compatible version or Oculus Touch support are to follow.

The studio will start sending out Oculus Store codes early on Friday, October 28th for Kickstarter backers, delivered via Humble store. While the PC version of the game is currently available for $29.99 on both Steam and Humble Store, it’s unclear at this time if Oculus Store codes will arrive alongside versions of the game purchased from outside the Oculus app ecosystem.

SEE ALSO
'Obduction' VR Review, Now with Touch and Vive Support

After a resounding success on Kickstarter in 2013, amounting to $1.3 in backer funds, Cyan issued its first delay of Obduction from its initial June 2016 launch to July citing Unreal Engine updates and some Oculus Rift support polishing requirements. The game was then pushed back to late August, and with the caveat that the VR version would be “coming soon.”

The bright side to the delay? At least there’s plenty of strategy guides out now if (read: when) you get stuck.

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Scott Hayden
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.
  • RavnosCC

    I’m waiting for them to sort this out and make VR version available on Steam for Vive… then they’ll have my money for sure :)

    • Ghosty

      Yeah notice they made no mention of Vive support… Forget Mac and Linux until you have Vive support… I agree that although I want to play the game they will see no money from me until it works on my Vive!

      • peteo

        think they said earlier that vive support would be coming later: https://www.reddit.com/r/Vive/comments/4wltc8/obduction_is_getting_vive_support/

        • They better get VIVE support! I bought it and returned it, super irritated that “VR-Support” didn’t include the VIVE.

          • CeeAitchEe

            The game was Kickstartered in 2013 with Occulus support as a Stretch Goal. Vive wasn’t even announced until 2015, when the game was already running ‘late’. So which areas of content they had already committed to should the company of about 20 people have dropped, to add support for something that didn’t exist when they funded? If people want Vive support, Obduction needs to sell enough to pay for further development.

      • RogWilco

        Agreed! Though I know they were building in Rift support prior to Valve/HTC introducing the Vive, so no foul play/Oculus shenanigans at least. I believe they mentioned OpenVR (a.k.a. Vive) support would be added once they finalized the Oculus SDK version they had already started. I think ReVive demonstrates that adding OpenVR support should be fairly straightforward.

  • Joe DeAngelo

    Hopefully a PS VR version down the road too.