Steam: The Excavation of Hob's Barrow on Steam
Premise
Take control of Thomasina Bateman, a Victorian antiquary who has been invited to a remote village to excavate a burial mound. Upon arrival, the sender of the dig request is nowhere to be found.
Good
- The atmosphere is amazing. The pixel-art, the ambient noises, and the voice-acting all gel together perfectly to recreate the feeling of an English countryside.
- As stated above, the voice-acting is very good. The voice-actors have nailed the local accents, the choice in vernacular, and the general delivery of their lines.
- The puzzles are straightforward, but do require some degree of logical reasoning. If that fails you, you can also drag and drop items on top of one another to see whether or not they interact.
- The general narrative is crafted very well, and really captures the essence of rural folklore horror.
- Short and sweet. The game doesn’t overstay its welcome.
Neutral/Bad
The game doesn’t offer much choices. While linear narratives aren’t bad, here it’s a problem as towards the end, the protagonist makes certain choices that goes against her character. While the ending isn’t bad, there’s no denying that the game would have been much better had the player been offered greater agency over the protagonist’s actions.
Closing
I played Hob’s Barrow before The Crimson Diamond. While the former definitely has a superior plot and atmosphere, the latter is the better game due to much better mechanics.
I still recommend that everyone consider playing Hob’s Barrow as the game is pretty good despite its shortcomings. Moreover, it’s probably one of the handful games that even attempt to capture the feeling of exploring a remote English village.