HOB is something hard to describe. Everything in the game is communicated without a single line of dialogue. Even the instructions to us as we make our way through this vibrant and living world are communicated with absolutely no on-screen text. Though the gameplay structure of HOB isn’t something completely unique — heck, it’s been done before in other games like Secret of Mana, The Legend of Zelda and even ICO — what separates it from its predecessors is actually in the way it presents itself.
The story is simple: Hero loses his arm, and his friend Giant bequeaths upon him his own magical one. Having been given this magical arm, Hero is launched into an amazing journey through a mysterious world. The game presents two very simple ideas, “who am I” and “where am I?”, and has us slowly ponder these questions as we make our way through. The Giant points in a direction, lets out a few beeps and boops, and we are on our way, headed towards a marker on our overworld map.
As soon as the adventure starts it begins to introduce mechanics that will end up accompanying us throughout the game. Hero has the ability with his giant hand to move, slam and punch blocks or platforms in this world. But, what sets HOB out from other adventure games is that anything we move has a place that it belongs to and chemistry to go along with it. This is very apparent in situations like when Hero moves a metal object and it snaps into place like a puzzle piece, but when that conductive metal is hit with electricity it eventually opens up a door. Or, depending on its location, can act as a lightning rod to protect him from getting struck.
The adventure is filled with moments where it makes us feel like we were putting together a broken world, fixing it from some crazy calamity that had happened in the past.
Along the journey Hero finds green orbs to level himself up, sword shards to build a new sword and heart pieces to add a new digit of health, all of which are obtained through battle with monsters. The combat system in HOB is comparable to Zelda, but with more weight and thought behind it, with the necessity to roll or block at the exact right time to unleash a combo onto the deformed creatures. The combat isn’t the main highlight of the game but it is definitely a nice layer within it.
Almost everything in the experience feels refined and thought out. When Hero rolls, the sounds of his hand and sword clicking against the stones sound honest and realistic. The way he swings his sword and grunts a bit sounds genuine. When there are monsters around, the way they vocalize is genuinely exciting to hear. Even Hero’s actions are a reflection of his character, with movements that feel tight and even a walk animation true to his nature. Actions do speak louder than words and HOB is an amazing way to show how games can portray many emotions without having any word spoken.
The team behind HOB, Runic Games, has crafted a solid and creative experience. Everything in the game feels like a beautiful love letter to the medium, highlighting the best of each separate craft. It’s an adventure that is both magical and able to wrap whomever touches it in its warm blanket of cozy exploration.
This Hot Take review is based on a Steam code sent to SideQuesting by the publisher.
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