The Excavation of Hob's Barrow follows the footsteps of Thomasina Bateman, an archeologist from London who specializes in barrows, which, she'll explain, are a type of tumuli. After receiving a letter from a Mr. Leonard Shoulder telling of a most unusual barrow in the outskirts of the city of Bewlay, she takes the train there to investigate and, hopefully, excavate the place and uncover its secrets. The inhabitants are quick to tell her to turn back, warning that nothing good will come out of this excavation, warnings that Thomasina, ever the rationalist, ignores and presses on.
Before jumping into the game, I read a single review on it: that by Christian Donlan on Eurogamer. Aside from a strong sentiment that the game is best enjoyed as blind as possible, they mentioned how it would linger on their minds for hours after the credits roll. Having now played it myself, I agree on both counts: first, Hob's Barrow is something of a narrative puzzle, best experienced without being aware of how it's constructed, so if you're a fan of psychological horror and/or point-n'-clicks, consider just jumping in blind.
In fact, if you are a fan of horror games, the second point should come at no surprise: this is a story that's built to eat away at its spectator with the many gaps in its events and the insecurities it instills. In that sense, the game has definitely escaped its intended bubble, as many of the complaints leveraged at it from players boil down to "game vague and ending bad", which are baffling takes. This is a work that presents very specific themes, under a particular type of framing, and that is also going for a very well-known style of horror, and a lot of the players coming out dissatisfied are doing so due to refusing to engage with any of those things in more than a surface level.
The Excavation of Hob's Barrow deserves to be given more credit than that: it's a beautifully created game. Every scene is meticulously crafted, every narrative decision is deliberate and purposeful. The town of Bewlay is surrounded by an unnerving atmosphere reinforced by both its eerie sound design and its visuals, the latter shifting between a bread-and-butter pixel art style and twisting, uncanny rotoscoped animations. It also enjoys fantastic voice acting, of a quality and extent that is hard to find, if not unheard of, in an indie game in this price range.
One could say it's much easier to find fault in the mechanical aspects of The Excavation of Hob's Barrow than in its artistic choices, but even then, it's no trivial task. The typical point-'n-click puzzles fit neatly into the setting and escalate alongside the narrative, never getting in the way, and being almost entirely free of the famed Moon Logic that often plagues its genre. The UI is also modern, with interactions and items working in a streamlined fashion, a to-do list helpfully explaining the next goal -- great for hopping in and out -- and a map function that makes exploring Bewlay much faster.
Thomasina's adventure is just, overall, a fantastic experience, a hidden gem I hope to see get more recognition.
Before jumping into the game, I read a single review on it: that by Christian Donlan on Eurogamer. Aside from a strong sentiment that the game is best enjoyed as blind as possible, they mentioned how it would linger on their minds for hours after the credits roll. Having now played it myself, I agree on both counts: first, Hob's Barrow is something of a narrative puzzle, best experienced without being aware of how it's constructed, so if you're a fan of psychological horror and/or point-n'-clicks, consider just jumping in blind.
In fact, if you are a fan of horror games, the second point should come at no surprise: this is a story that's built to eat away at its spectator with the many gaps in its events and the insecurities it instills. In that sense, the game has definitely escaped its intended bubble, as many of the complaints leveraged at it from players boil down to "game vague and ending bad", which are baffling takes. This is a work that presents very specific themes, under a particular type of framing, and that is also going for a very well-known style of horror, and a lot of the players coming out dissatisfied are doing so due to refusing to engage with any of those things in more than a surface level.
The Excavation of Hob's Barrow deserves to be given more credit than that: it's a beautifully created game. Every scene is meticulously crafted, every narrative decision is deliberate and purposeful. The town of Bewlay is surrounded by an unnerving atmosphere reinforced by both its eerie sound design and its visuals, the latter shifting between a bread-and-butter pixel art style and twisting, uncanny rotoscoped animations. It also enjoys fantastic voice acting, of a quality and extent that is hard to find, if not unheard of, in an indie game in this price range.
One could say it's much easier to find fault in the mechanical aspects of The Excavation of Hob's Barrow than in its artistic choices, but even then, it's no trivial task. The typical point-'n-click puzzles fit neatly into the setting and escalate alongside the narrative, never getting in the way, and being almost entirely free of the famed Moon Logic that often plagues its genre. The UI is also modern, with interactions and items working in a streamlined fashion, a to-do list helpfully explaining the next goal -- great for hopping in and out -- and a map function that makes exploring Bewlay much faster.
Thomasina's adventure is just, overall, a fantastic experience, a hidden gem I hope to see get more recognition.