The second thing that surprises is that it also says something about Zelda, about metroidvanias and that with it Runic Games, creators of the outstanding Torchlight saga , have managed to distance themselves.
We are talking about a game of exploration and action in which the camera, elevated and in the third person, does not know what modesty is and does not hesitate to constantly show us panoramas that overwhelm and impatience the most curious player.
We guide a hooded individual, solitary and with a certain mysterious air for this melancholic world and, as we soon discovered, dangerous. A purple substance infects our arm and we lose it. Luckily, we have a protector: an automaton that does not hesitate to shed its own mechanical arm to implant us. Then the cakes begin. We moved from those green lands full of helpless and confused ruins to begin to see that there is something that we have to resuscitate: the buried heart of something very old and forgotten.
Before us, a semi-open world in which powerful abilities await us, sword fights and the vestiges of that world of yesteryear hidden behind a puzzle whose resolution changes whole areas of the map. Although we have a map that indicates the objective,
Hob manages to show us the way to follow the design of the stage, but it also allows you to hide secrets and improvements in less visible areas of the map. With this, although the control of the prota is not the most polished, the exploration is very grateful. Especially on occasions when thinking that we deviate from the “obvious main road” we end up finding “the true main road”. Anyway, every detour always has a good reward, and that’s a good reward for the player.
A very special world
On the other hand, the game sins in short words . We love the stories that are transmitted through the experience as much as you, but the problem is when interacting with the environment, as players, it is not clear to us if we can not advance because we
Throughout the experience we find objects that improve our ability with the sword.
When we discover how Hob’s world really is and how to move more efficiently, we come across a vast complex scenario worthy of admiration. Towards the middle of the game we started to generate an intuition about what each button does, but we ha
ve the feeling that the game lacks clearer indications of how our interactions with the world affect. As much as we move for this fantastic world, and however much we like its design, we do not just feel attached to it. Maybe it’s the camera’s fault, that out
of our control. Being a third person game with parts of platforms, it is highly uncomfortable and causes unnecessary deaths. We get used to it, of course, but what we do not want to get used to is the tugs that the rate of frames per second …
Hob is an action and adventure game, but above all exploration
The game has “viewpoints” to enjoy the design of the stage in all its splendor.
Although the protagonist does his job well, what most falls in love with Hob is the world we inhabit. The artistic work is excellent, but not because of the caricature style or the animations, but because of the coherent and attractive represen
tation of the world . Intersections of leafy forest with stone parts, technology and rusty machinery that, as we said, seem to be below everything we see on the surface. Regarding the action and the combat, although it is in the background with respect to a
Zelda, most encounters are usually resolved by waiting for the enemy to attack, dodge and counterattack with the sword or mechanical arm. Throughout the adventure we are finding new skills, but nothing that brings essential novelties to combat mechanics.
The artistic work is excellent
If Hob is a beauty in the purely visual sense, in the sound part he seeks to contribute to the atmosphere although in a more discreet and less grandiloquent way. There are good scores, but the compositions are somewhat simpler and contrast, precisely,
