Hob

Game Title: Hob
Released: September 26, 2017
Game Length: 10 Hours
Grade: A

Expectations: About a week ago, I was reminiscing how certain older games left you all alone to play in their giant sandbox. There has been a lot of interesting games like that lately for consoles, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild or The Last Guardian for example, but you'll never see them ported to the PC. That's when I decided to seek out an older game that I might have missed with the same kind of true world-building experience. In among the list of games on the forums, one specific game fit that criteria - Hob. Given out for free from the Epic Games Store in April 2020, I was surprised to see it was developed by Runic Games of all companies - the makers of Torchlight. However, there seems to be a split in the reviews. Some say that the game is boring and has a lot of technical issues. While others enjoyed their time in its beautiful world. There's only one way to find out which one holds true.

Reality: Are you an engineer? Do you want to be one? Hob is the perfect type of game for those who like tinkering with various systems. You start off as a simple being following a giant robot around when something toxic eats away at your arm. Your companion does what he has to do to save your life and proceeds to gift you with one of his arms as an alternative replacement. Now that you have a cyborg arm, you can help rebuild the land. Your many tasks involve turning on the main generator, redirecting electricity to all the nodes, fighting off the local wildlife, clearing away the corruption, reconnecting all of the separated land segments, starting the water pumps, and making sure the water flows smoothly through the pipe system. All of this sounds like a lot of work, but everything is carefully crafted in a long-range of awesome puzzles. The designers also managed to do a wonderful job foreshadowing each of these systems as you bypass inactive currents, wiggling plants, infected wildlife, empty drainage holes, and inoperative robots.

Path: If you are careful in your adventure, you won't run into any trouble. The camera will always pan in such a way that you will always be able to see where to go next. If the camera doesn't move, then there is a good chance you are trying to go some place you aren't supposed to. Getting used to the camera and how your character "snaps" onto ladders can be quite disorienting at first. The trick is to always use your cardinal directions and to sprint across certain gaps only if it feels necessary. If you aren't running or rolling around, there is a good chance your character will "catch itself" when slipping off the edge. I had no trouble figuring out what was required of me. The main objectives and collectibles were always highlighted on the map. Though, I suggest only leaving the game at a pivotal point in the story. Otherwise you might just forget what you were trying to do when you come back the next time. There are a lot of secret things that are not necessary to finish the game. In fact, I never upgraded my sword (since I only found two of the three pieces required) despite there being 12 pieces total. And there are a lot of fast travel points to get you across each portion of the world.

Combat: Surprisingly, I really enjoyed fighting enemies. You don't have to fight and kill every opponent you come across. Only the ones where the system is watching must be gotten rid of to proceed. You can utilize your environment to your advantage too by having two mobile giants strike each other or have someone roll themselves into a wall. You can push people off cliffs or into the water. Eventually the enemies will adapt new techniques which requires you to make use of any arm upgrades you might come across. You can super punch wooden shields and armor, but it might require a magnetic touch when retracting their better metal pieces. You can always retreat and be more like Link in restoring your health from the bits in the high grass. If by sheer chance they shout out in victory over your decapitated body, you will be hastily restored by one of the many checkpoints found in the game. Just try your best by not accidentally killing any of the local wildlife. Nothing is sadder than constantly seeing a poor animal's dead body you struck down because they got in your way.

Ambiguity: Perhaps the weirdest thing about the game is the fact that it leaves a lot to interpretation. There is no dialogue, or text for that matter. The various beings will point and react, but it is up to you to fill in the blanks to what they are trying to say. The map is uniquely drawn in the style of the ancient civilization with various icons to represent each item. Ironically, there is no clear indication what "Hob" is exactly. I've seen theories of it pointing to the robots, the beings, the land, the name of the protagonist, or the act of pulling things together. I don't even know if there is a "bad ending" when both choices to your final action can be seen as the right call. There is a nice comic that kind of fills in what happened before the game, but I suggest waiting to read it and avoiding the trailer before playing. Ultimately, the choice is up to you.

Miscellaneous Notes: This might seem like a silly thing to mention, but I actually liked the number of things they included behind-the-scenes. You can disable camera shake and controller vibration. You can modify the difficulty and turn off the gore. You might not like changing up your outfit to fit a different playstyle, but you might just like reaching all those little exploration locations. There is a point in the game you can hug the little creatures. There has to be a dozen different ways you can step out of those tubes. The splash screen will always show the last place you've been before you start playing. Because of its naturalistic atmosphere, you'll barely hear any of the music in the background (yet it does exist if you turn it up). There is a small issue with enemies sometimes clipping through invisible walls or disappearing all together. Otherwise the only thing I might complain about is that it can be excruciatingly difficult to grab onto something without accidentally climbing on top of it first. Despite its problems, I wholeheartedly recommend this game.

 

12-27-2020