Genres are birthed, saturated and abandoned all the time nowadays, and you’d be forgiven for thinking The Exit 8 and all those inspired by it were the start of the “Spot the difference” horror trend. However, cast your mind back to 2018 (And yes, that’s almost 9 years now) and you’ll be around for the release of I’m on Observation Duty. The game took all the classic horror channels by storm, featuring on Markiplier and Jacksepticeye and having the Yogscast play a few sessions.
The thing is, the original series never went away. We started seeing more and more “anomaly spotting” style games, eventually culminating in the very prolific The Exit 8. The OG has always been chugging along with new releases though, all of which are still worth playing today. If you’ve been out of the loop for the last decade, I’m on Observation Duty 8 is the latest release, and a perfect place for new players or series vets to flex their observational skills.
A simple premise with a lot of playtime
On the whole, I’m on Observation Duty 8 took me and my fiancé 8.7 hours to finish all missions on Normal. Levels took between 45 minutes (for Office) to almost 2 hours (for Fashion Show) but successful or near-successful runs don’t feel as long as they actually are thanks to the constant mental engagement. The levels take place across the globe in varied environments and they do a great job of seeming intimidatingly difficult at first while still all reliably taking around 90 minutes to complete in the end. It’s a clever bit of design that goes a long way to make the game feel fresh over multiple sessions.
This playtime also included getting a bunch of the rarer encounters and finding all the hidden items needed for a little bonus scene when you finish the game. For the price of entry, almost 9 hours of playtime for a Normal playthrough is fantastic. That’s even without the Hard mode, and without mentioning that I’m on Observation Duty works well as a party game – that is, you can group up on the sofa, turn the lights off and all pitch in to spotting (And trying to convince everyone that lamp was definitely always on, come on guys).
With full controller support you can experience I’m on Observation Duty 8 either alone at your desk, fully immersed in the role of the BOARDAC member you play, or huddled on the sofa on the big screen as a group. There’s not many games that provide a co-operative local horror experience that actually brings the whole room into the gameplay, but I’m on Observation Duty 8 manages to make everyone feel involved.
New ways to interact with anomalies
Beyond just the playtime, the actual gameplay elements have been freshened-up. Each game (I should know, I have played them religiously on release for many years) adds its own flair to the series. We’ve had levels that don’t need you to choose an anomaly type, just a room. We’ve had games that have anomalies spottable across multiple rooms. We’ve even had a first-person foray in the earlier days of the series (Which was abandoned, and the likes of The Exit 8 would eventually fill that gap).
Developer Notovia isn’t shy about tweaking things, and in I’m on Observation Duty 8 there are two main additions.
Firstly, there’s a new anomaly type called “Local Anomalies”. When you first spot one they’ll look like an Extra Object anomaly, but when you finish selecting the item it will disappear right away and provide a counter in the corner of the screen:
Local Anomaly: 1/5
Suddenly you’re scanning the screen for more bananas, or post-it notes, or whatever it was you spotted at first. This provides a reason to stay on one screen for longer, really scanning the area instead of flicking to the next after a report. It also leads to situations where finding one item in the local anomaly is easy, but then you get stuck on 4/5 and feel the precious seconds ticking away as you search. It’s a nice new way to engage with the same mechanics you’re used to in the series.
The second way I’m on Observation Duty 8 changes things up is a more defined difference in difficulty modes. In fact, just a day or two after release Notovia patched the Normal and Hard modes to be more separate. The idea is that new players to the series who aren’t familiar with all the usual tricks can still play and enjoy Normal mode, while Hard then ramps up the challenge with new anomalies, a “reset” period for getting reports wrong, and timed / interactive anomalies spawning more often.
Adding new content without rocking the boat
Speaking of the anomalies themselves, there’s only so much you can do in a small 3D environment that keeps the game feeling fair. Obviously you’ll be looking for the usual array of “Missing Object”, “Object Movement”, “Object Replacement” and more but there’s also the more interactive anomalies such an “Intruder” or “Abyss” which both have time limits. However, if you go in expecting this to be some sort of overhaul with brand new content types, you might be disappointed. I’m on Observation Duty has a simple premise, but every single game executes it so well, and usually better than the last. I won’t deny that the idea can sound a little tame. “Spot the difference videogame” doesn’t exactly exude hype…
But between the social aspect of only needing one copy to entertain a whole room of people, the new Local Anomalies and the tried-and-tested level design (With 8 unique levels in this one!) even a simple idea can create an engaging game. I’m on Observation Duty 8 is, as its predecessors, a sequel in the truest sense. It takes what makes the series great and gives you more of that. More levels, more anomaly interactions, more difficulty changes.
Hours of solo or group gaming for a pittance
I don’t want to talk about any specific anomalies, despite how awesome they are, because the entire premise of the game is you don’t know what to expect until it happens! Realising anomalies can behave a certain way or change a certain thing is part of the joy.
Whether you’re new to the genre, have seen the endless parade of “spotting” games like The Exit 8, or you’re a series veteran then I’m on Observation Duty 8 is a spooky indie worth your time.
I’m on Observation Duty 8 is available digitally on Steam, PlayStation and Xbox Consoles
