The Excavation of Hob's Barrow

released on Sep 28, 2022

The Excavation of Hob's Barrow is a folk horror narrative-driven adventure. Explore the isolated moors of rural Victorian England as you uncover the mysteries of Hob's Barrow. The answers lie in the soil...


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One of the best point-and-clicks out there. Really scratched that itch from my preteen years, where I played the shit out of games like Monster Basement 2 or Exmortis. This one's vibe is very much its own, but the feeling of gruesome unravelling is very much present, and done in such a beautifully attentive way... When you glimpse the horror, it's already much too late. Great ending as well, I just can't praise it enough.

There's something about using horror in adventure games that just works. The notion of a character trying to hold themselves together while they solve some grotesque puzzles results in you soaking up the atmosphere as a matter of course.
I've somehow got myself into working backwards through the Wadjet Eye catalogue, But I can't really complain.

I didn't realize Wadjet Eye was producing this until it released yesterday. Despite knowing nothing about Cloak and Dagger Games, I picked it up immediately and put the other games I was playing on hold. That was, of course, the correct choice.

I wanted to write a well-crafted essay about why I like Hob's Barrow, but I'm just not in the right mindspace for it right now. I'm just going to dive in.

Frankly, the game has a fairly weak central narrative. It has the "Lovecraftian" tag on Steam, so I expected as much. I also expected that the game would have wonderful voice acting given Wadjet Eye produced the game, and I was correct there as well. The quality of the world building, characterization, pixel art, story composition and direction, and general ability to create mood all took me by surprise, though, by being a notch above the high quality I was expecting. I really enjoyed getting to know the citizens of Bewley and slowly coming to understand some of the odd behaviors they exhibited at times. I was also particularly impressed by the narrative direction -- the inserts of narration from the main character's future perspective, animated pixel-art scenes, and flashbacks to punctuate the events unfolding via normal gameplay were absolutely on point.

It's great. You should play it.

This review contains spoilers

Writing of the game was pretty good, but I have a narrative complaint. About 2/3 through the game, your protagonist learns about the plot conspired against her. Despite discovering what fate awaits her at the Barrow, the protagonist proceeds forward and spills her blood to fulfill Saxton's request. This doesn't make any sense. We do not see any inner dialogue from the protag to hear her reaction nor do we see any sort of explanation for her decision. She hears from Arthur what will happen to her, and instead of fucking off out of there, it's like she didn't learn anything at all. I think the ending of the game really hingers on the player not thinking too hard about this detail.

I'd also say there are some cosmetic issues with the game. Lots of the textures of characters, items, scenery etc blend in with each other too well, making the visuals super flat. Pixel art requires a delicate balance between hi and lo resolution which is understandably difficult. Sadly I feel like the artist doesn't have a firm understanding of pixel art arrangement (or possibly just hasn't found their particular identity in the medium yet). I can tell the artist is traditionally trained, but that does not always translate directly to the notions pixel art requires to not only be legible, but stylized. Dialogue selection / UI text is under-designed and seems to have been neglected by the design team. This is one detail that could have easily been given more personality and overall "juicing" up the game in a meaningful, more immersive way.

I think this game has great bones and clearly a dedicated writer. The cutscenes stretched towards something cinematic but could not quite reach it, perhaps they needed more time to linger in their unsettling effects. If this game had more time in the kitchen, it could be something really unique. I can tell the devs care about this game, I hope they continue on to improve from here.

How a game like this can keep me TUNED IN for it's entirety, making me shiver and question and be surprised, in ONE sitting? Again, Wadjet Eye bringing us fans of the genre the best of the best.

This review contains spoilers

quickly became one of my fav bad endings ever lol....she kinda had it coming tho ignoring literally almost everybody telling her not to dig that place. still, thats what her whole life had been building up to so cant really blame her either. hoping for a sequel where her brother adam covers up/destroys the barrow for good and takes revenge for her sister.