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Incantamentum (by Cloak and Dagger games) is now The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow
That sounds great. Although the problem with cpts is that they usually last for weeks, and playing a 1-1.5 hour chapter per week isn’t very encouraging. Hob’s Barrow probably needs a more balanced approach in case it wins.
I had to withdraw my vote for obvious reasons. I will still play the game if it wins. You need to dig up a few more participants. Not having played it, I can’t tell whether it would work, but if each chapter took two weeks, I think that would be fine for a lot of people. Plus it would give you the 6-to-8 week CPT you seem to be looking for.
Your reason for withdrawing your vote, Tim, is not obvious to me?
My interpretation of Doom’s comment was that a 1 - 1.5 hour chapter per week would be too long?.... but I might have misunderstood ..... only Doom can clarify that.
I was actually meaning the opposite, that 1 hour of playtime per week (not to mention 2 weeks) is too little, especially for a story-driven game) I know myself and I would try to peek into the next chapter as far as I can. I was thinking that maybe 4 days per 1 chapter or 2 chapters per week would work better. Then again, 8.5 hours sounds reasonable. That’s why it’s a good idea to have a lead or a developer who knows the game from start to finish.
PC means personal computer
I think I expressed myself wrongly there in that my meaning was that taking a week to get through 1 - 1.5 hour chapters was excessive.
Yes, ideally 4 days, at the most, per chapter would be what I think is a more reasonable pace to start with.
I do recall some chapters being longer than others….
The 8.5 hours is what it took me - you can click through the dialogue which I did as I listen /read quickly so it could take more. I’m dubious about being able to get through the game in 6 hours unless you know exactly what to do?
Your reason for withdrawing your vote, Tim, is not obvious to me?
Hmm. It seemed obvious to everyone else. Lest anyone think I brought up the topic of abandonware in order to sabotage Neverhood, and thus enhance the chance of EB winning, I chose to eliminate that thought by withdrawing my vote. As to BB’s comment regarding how could anyone think I was that devious, well quite a few might think that actually. So I decided to remove that thought from the equation as well by withdrawing my vote.
For whom the games toll,
they toll for thee.
I don’t know about everyone else, but I feel that making assumptions that everyone on the forum might be suspicious of a user because of their comments and hidden motivations is not conducive to a friendly and open atmosphere. I also feel it’s not respecting those you are accusing of suspicions by withdrawing a vote without allowing them to voice their opinions. I think if the question had been asked in the CPT thread “does anyone feel I have hidden motivations here?” the most likely outcome would have been similar to BB’s response, and everyone would carry on without incident.
AKA Charo
I feel that making assumptions that everyone on the forum might be suspicious of a user because of their comments and hidden motivations is not conducive to a friendly and open atmosphere.
Well, if you haven’t noticed comments about suspicions and motivations already, welcome to the club.
For whom the games toll,
they toll for thee.
Ive just completed the game and I absolutely loved it, even more so after the recent bitter disappointment of Return to Monkey Island. Everything here was what I had wanted from that game; an expertly told and engrossing story, memorable characters with superbly written dialogue, exploring locations which feel like real, tangible places to explore and as such, burn themselves into your memory, like a fondly remembered holiday abroad. More importantly, I was left in awe and sheer admiration for the developers as the closing credits rolled, unlike with Return to Monkey Island (which was pretty much the exact opposite). It was a wonderful surprise to be so quickly reminded of why I love this genre of gaming so much, after being so recently and thoroughly disillusioned.
If I were to be critical of anything, then it would likely be that some of the “puzzles” were too repetitive and easy (there’s far too many instances of using your trowel or knife on objects) and the village which the game takes place in is fairly small and involves an awful lot of backtracking around the same few locations (though a handy hotkey map feature goes someway to alleviating this factor). However, those really are relatively minor complaints when the rest of the game is so brilliantly executed.
On the subject of puzzles, despite the aforementioned issues, on the whole I found the difficultly to be just about right for what is primarily a narratively focused game. I was never stuck for longer than 10 minutes or so, figuring out what I needed to do to achieve my goal, which I feel is appropriate when furthering the story is central to the overall experience. I particularly enjoyed the last act within the titular barrow, with its very Fate of Atlantis, tomb raiding style puzzles.
Oh, and special mention has to go to those drop dead gorgeous close up shots peppered throughout the game; just spellbinding in how beautiful to behold they are. The music was also excellent and the game was suitably unnerving and creepy for a horror title. However, the plot was fairly predictable, I felt, though I’m not sure how much of that is a result of being a life long horror fanatic who grew up watching films such as The Wicker Man as a kid.
Oh, and one last major positive; CATS! Lots and lots of cats! Far too many dogs in gaming. Never enough cats, but this game contains the most cats I’ve ever seen in any game ever!
I’m on a high right now, having just completed the game and I don’t really care to give a final score at this early stage. Critical apparels take time to fully digest and formulate. Having said that, as of now I’m more than happy to award this game a 10/10 and believe me, it’s highly uncommon for me to be so high in praise for anything. I really did love the game that much! That score will likely lower over the next few days, once I’ve had time to truly mull things over but there’s absolutely no way that it would drop below (a very high) 8/10. It’s genuinely a great game and joins the ranks of the greatest adventure games I’ve ever had the pleasure to play.
Ive just completed the game and I absolutely loved it, even more so after the recent bitter disappointment of Return to Monkey Island. Everything here was what I had wanted from that game; an expertly told and engrossing story, memorable characters with superbly written dialogue, exploring locations which feel like real, tangible places to explore and as such, burn themselves into your memory, like a fondly remembered holiday abroad. More importantly, I was left in awe and sheer admiration for the developers as the closing credits rolled, unlike with Return to Monkey Island (which was pretty much the exact opposite). It was a wonderful surprise to be so quickly reminded of why I love this genre of gaming so much, after being so recently and thoroughly disillusioned.
If I were to be critical of anything, then it would likely be that some of the “puzzles” were too repetitive and easy (there’s far too many instances of using your trowel or knife on objects) and the village which the game takes place in is fairly small and involves an awful lot of backtracking around the same few locations (though a handy hotkey map feature goes someway to alleviating this factor). However, those really are relatively minor complaints when the rest of the game is so brilliantly executed.
On the subject of puzzles, despite the aforementioned issues, on the whole I found the difficultly to be just about right for what is primarily a narratively focused game. I was never stuck for longer than 10 minutes or so, figuring out what I needed to do to achieve my goal, which I feel is appropriate when furthering the story is central to the overall experience. I particularly enjoyed the last act within the titular barrow, with its very Fate of Atlantis, tomb raiding style puzzles.
Oh, and special mention has to go to those drop dead gorgeous close up shots peppered throughout the game; just spellbinding in how beautiful to behold they are. The music was also excellent and the game was suitably unnerving and creepy for a horror title. However, the plot was fairly predictable, I felt, though I’m not sure how much of that is a result of being a life long horror fanatic who grew up watching films such as The Wicker Man as a kid.
Oh, and one last major positive; CATS! Lots and lots of cats! Far too many dogs in gaming. Never enough cats, but this game contains the most cats I’ve ever seen in any game ever!
I’m on a high right now, having just completed the game and I don’t really care to give a final score at this early stage. Critical apparels take time to fully digest and formulate. Having said that, as of now I’m more than happy to award this game a 10/10 and believe me, it’s highly uncommon for me to be so high in praise for anything. I really did love the game that much! That score will likely lower over the next few days, once I’ve had time to truly mull things over but there’s absolutely no way that it would drop below (a very high) 8/10. It’s genuinely a great game and joins the ranks of the greatest adventure games I’ve ever had the pleasure to play.
Glowing review, im really going to try to get to the game b4 Halloween
I just bought it and can play for a couple of hours today excited to share my thoughts.
well I played a little over 3 hrs and beat the prologue and the first chapter or day one and… I like it but dont love it. First the positives
Positives
- The pixel art is gorgeous, I love the art and the backgrounds. Especially the up close portraits
- music is also good, I dont think it is as great as some do
- The voice work is great especially the main protagonist, I do find all the kids voice work to be grating though. Reminds me of shenmue lol.
- The story is good but I dont think it is great yet, im interested to find out more about hobs barrow, but it has not truly hooked me yet.
- I like how characters move around throughout the day
Negatives
- The puzzles are NON-EXSISTENT so far. minus one distraction puzzle on day 1. I am sorry I do not count picking up one item a screen away and using it on something extremely obvious, a puzzle. This has become a huge issue for me with all wadjet eye games, rather self published or published for other developers. The last games that had any real consistent puzzles was probably technobabylon or resonance.
- The story while interesting to a degree has not hooked me yet or spooked me at all. I feel the game needed more of a punch or hook to get it going.
- Once again I HATE false choice in games, especially adventure games. and no I dont count different trophies or achievements as true choice differences, if the story plays out the same. For instance There is a drunk character you meet right at the start of the game and I feel like your relationship will play out the same rather your mean or nice to him. Please correct me if I am wrong
- Im not really connecting to any of the characters besides the MC, and the drunk. it is just one exposition dump after the next, with very little character work thrown in for the NPCs. at least so far, besides the town drunk.
- Not a fan of the flashbacks bc I hate the voice of the child actor and they are glorified cutscenes with very little interactions.
For the record I do like the game I just dont love it yet. After 3 hrs I would give it a 7/10 mostly bc of the lack of gameplay/puzzles and bc the story has yet to really get its hooks into me yet.
The puzzles do get more existent, if never actually puzzling or challenging. Well, there were actually a couple of good ones, but yeah, like I said in my review, it’s pretty much a Humongous Entertainment game wrapped in a grown up story. Just like, as you say, so many other adventure games these days. Still, I think you’ll enjoy this one more and more as you go. Curious to hear whatcha have to say later on.
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The puzzles do get more existent, if never actually puzzling or challenging. Well, there were actually a couple of good ones, but yeah, like I said in my review, it’s pretty much a Humongous Entertainment game wrapped in a grown up story. Just like, as you say, so many other adventure games these days. Still, I think you’ll enjoy this one more and more as you go. Curious to hear whatcha have to say later on.
I hope so, like i said i do like the game but dont get the overly glowing reviews so far. Nothing has been remotely spooky or creepy yet to me. I find the flashbacks to need more going on for me to care, so far it is dad was good but, mom was the bad parent, black and white. But my biggest issue is the complete lack of puzzles so far. Also the writing and dialogue is very meh to me. Most conversations go something like, “have you heard of hob’s barrow.” And the npc replies with some variation of no lol. Rinse and repeat.
Played like a week and change ago and I thought it was solidly enjoyable. The voice acting is probably the strongest I’ve encountered in a Wadjet Eye game, it breathes a lot of life and character into the game compared to when I played the voiceless demo.
The horror is more a slow build of unease rather than anything grotesque or shocking, which I felt worked for the story. It’s a lot of off kilter exchanges where you get the feeling something is being hidden from you that you can’t quite pin down. I appreciated that the game took it’s time, focusing on character work heavily, but I did feel it dragged at a certain point. A couple of times, actually. It wasn’t ever too long before something odd or intriguing would happen to capture my interest. But, I remember thinking, in the game’s middle chunk, that enough time was spent posing questions and it was half past time for some answers.
Graphically it’s a great style of pixel art and the dreary color palette captures the feeling of a damp and murky rural town well. Gameplay wise, it’s very simple puzzles for hours of the game, at the end there’s somewhat tougher ones, which are more “riddle-ish” than “item-ish.” Sometimes that can go really wrong, in Hob’s Barrow they were my favorite puzzles of the bunch. The game bills itself as a narrative adventure game and that’s what you’re getting, even when the difficulty increases a bit at the end it’s still fairly simple stuff.
I think it’s a testament to how many games I’ve enjoyed this year that Hob’s Barrow isn’t in my top 5, and perhaps not even my top 10. But that being said I did enjoy it and would give it around a 7, or a 7.5 maybe. If you had to play one horror adventure this year, my money would still be on Nightmare Frames. But you can do a lot worse than Hob’s Barrow.
Just beat the 2nd day and my playtime is 6 hrs. Im guessing im on the final day and total playtime will be around 8 hrs. I have had next to zero troubles with puzzles, which leads me to believe those with 4 hr playtimes must have been clicking through dialogue like crazy, or fast traveling everywhere. I mostly walk bc the game is small and I enjoy doing it. All together day 2 was a lot better but still far from perfect.
Positives
- Art is still great and I enjoyed the new locations and characters that were unlocked.
- there is a sense of real geography in this town, you can tell where each character lives and how they go about their day. It is nothing spectacular but I do really love the small details
- There are actual puzzles in day 2. Dont get too excited they are not very hard at all but some do take a little thought and are more than one step.
- I love everything about thomistina as a protagonist, even though I feel choice doesnt really matter, I will say they let the player flesh her out and its a joy. Dave Gilbert did great in casting her voice actress.
- the writing in general is better than day 1 and feel like at least some more characters got fleshed out. I really like what the writers did with the woman who bakes the pudding and answered a question I had about the cobblers store.
- I dug the song at the end of day 2.
Negatives
- Puzzles are better but still really kind of dumb. Objects appear only when they are to be picked up when certain story events are triggered.
- all puzzles are rpg fetch quest so far aka trade you a flower for some medicine type deal. They get repeated constantly, I see why they did include fast travel. It very much is a checklist, go here to collect that, to go there to trade for something else.
- I feel like I see what the ending will be from a mile away, I hope I am wrong but I doubt it.
- Im also getting really annoyed at all the missing animations. the missing animations were also there in day 1 but they are everywhere in day 2. The screen CONSTANTLY fades to black whenever there is supposed to be lots of animations or details. I drug saint kotar through the mud for this, and it is just as bad here.
overall day 2 was an improvement from day 1, story and character wise. but I cant move my score much bc of the negatives, especially the lazy way they avoided animating stuff, but the puzzles are a little better 7.8/10 for day 2.
Played like a week and change ago and I thought it was solidly enjoyable. The voice acting is probably the strongest I’ve encountered in a Wadjet Eye game, it breathes a lot of life and character into the game compared to when I played the voiceless demo.
The horror is more a slow build of unease rather than anything grotesque or shocking, which I felt worked for the story. It’s a lot of off kilter exchanges where you get the feeling something is being hidden from you that you can’t quite pin down. I appreciated that the game took it’s time, focusing on character work heavily, but I did feel it dragged at a certain point. A couple of times, actually. It wasn’t ever too long before something odd or intriguing would happen to capture my interest. But, I remember thinking, in the game’s middle chunk, that enough time was spent posing questions and it was half past time for some answers.
Graphically it’s a great style of pixel art and the dreary color palette captures the feeling of a damp and murky rural town well. Gameplay wise, it’s very simple puzzles for hours of the game, at the end there’s somewhat tougher ones, which are more “riddle-ish” than “item-ish.” Sometimes that can go really wrong, in Hob’s Barrow they were my favorite puzzles of the bunch. The game bills itself as a narrative adventure game and that’s what you’re getting, even when the difficulty increases a bit at the end it’s still fairly simple stuff.
I think it’s a testament to how many games I’ve enjoyed this year that Hob’s Barrow isn’t in my top 5, and perhaps not even my top 10. But that being said I did enjoy it and would give it around a 7, or a 7.5 maybe. If you had to play one horror adventure this year, my money would still be on Nightmare Frames. But you can do a lot worse than Hob’s Barrow.
I have some problems, with the character developments as well. Without getting too spoilerly it was obvious who two of the bad guys are. Unless there is a twist at the end.
Didn’t have time to write a super long detailed post but I will say that I agreed with your point about the fetch quest-y feel of certain puzzle chains. It definitely started to feel like that on the day the market comes into town. Eventually the puzzles start to feel more naturally embedded into the narrative again, though.
I also agreed that Thomasina was a very strong protag, she was a large part of the game’s appeal to me.
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