Posted on: December 20, 2022
Dohi64
Games: 425 Reviews: 58
back to hotk1-2 roots in a shorter game
hotk is a series of charming point & click / resource management / hidden object games without a timer. they're pretty much identical, and since changes in hotk3 got a lot of flack, the devs went back to their roots. no more respawning enemies or resources, constantly breaking items (they still break sometimes), mindless grinding or other nonsense. it's a prequel story, brent is a kid, presented exactly like hotk1-2. not much new to say, you're still exploring forests, mountains and caves, doing fetch quests, sleeping or eating to regain strength (hearts) to carry out most actions, looking for mushrooms and eggs, hunting animals, fishing, and now farming. merchants have a new interface if they offer multiple services or have quests, but they're not accessible from the map anymore, which was one of the very few excellent improvements in hotk3. sure, the world here is smaller and it takes about 4 hours to finish, but still. camping anywhere isn't possible here either, use firewood at certain locations to regain a measly 10 hearts. still no way to skip repetitive animations, but food consumption is instantaneous, can be done any time, and crafting 5 or 10 items at a time is possible now. as much as I like the series and I'm fine with more of the same, it's getting a bit stale. move on to new and more varied environments instead of generic forests and such, add some new mechanics without turning everything upside down, etc. in the meantime, if you like the series, it's a no-brainer, more of exactly the same, no surprises. and if you're a newcomer to the series, this might work as a first game, as it's a prequel story-wise, the cheapest (and shortest) of them all, and as always, there is a demo to try and see if the general gameplay loop is something you'd like.
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