Developer: Runic Games
Publisher: Runic Games
Rrp: £14.99 (Gog.com, Humblebundle and Steam)
Released: 26th September 2017
Available on: Gog.com, Humblebundle and Steam
Played Using: An Xbox 360 Control pad
Approximate game length: 10 Hours
I find it interesting that more and more games seem to be appearing that try to tell their story and world lore without using words. I can definitely see the practical benefits of not using words to convey the story, such as avoiding language localisation beyond the menu screen and options. However I can only imagine how difficult it must be to execute.
From the developers of the Torchlight series comes Hob! Sadly this was the last game that Runic ever made.
So what is Hob? Well its a third person action puzzle game which, as you may be able to tell from the above paragraph, doesn’t use words to communicate be they vocalised or written.
You play as… well I presume the player character is called Hob, sadly the game never tells you. To be honest the game doesn’t really tell you a lot, you get quest markers and maybe a hand gesture and that’s about all you get for direction.
Anyway you control Hob (we’ll just got with that) and solve puzzles in what seems to be an attempt to fix the world after some kind of long ended war. I say seems because its not exactly laid out for you, what happened in the past and what your characters motives are are left to the player to attempt to interpret.
As you wander the world and solve the puzzles the world becomes larger and more complex. There’s something wonderful about turning a dial and watching a empty void become filled with interesting scenery. Beyond solving puzzles there are also a number of collectibles to find that can aid you, such as upgrades for your weapon and new abilities or at least the currency to activate them once you find the aforementioned upgrades.
Of course this world has its dangers, you have traps, large falls, carnivorous fish and of course enemies. And with enemies comes combat, which is a fairly simple affair all things considered. Sure it does become more complicated as you go on as enemies start equipping armour etc. However for the most part combat boils down to hit your enemy either with a standard attack or with a special one that has a wind up and dodging out of the way of your enemies strikes. There isn’t much feed back with the combat and quite often I found myself wishing to be able to skip it as it had grown a bit tedious.
Unfortunately no game is without flaws and Hob has two fairly small flaws (three if you count the slightly lacklustre combat). The first flaw that has to be
mentioned is the camera. The way the camera changes angles at times reminds me of an old game called Ecstatica. Although sometimes the camera goes into the scenery which can cause some issues when your exploring the world.
The second is invisible walls, its a pet peeve for me to find one in a game especially one such as this that encourages exploration. You don’t find them often but when they do appear is can be quiet Jarring.
Definitely a fun little game, I got quite a bit of enjoyment out of this game, although it should be mentioned that my own playtime was actually longer than
most peoples would be simply due to some puzzles stumping me completely.
If this appeals to you perhaps try;
Abzu
Submerged
Teslagrad
