The Excavation of Hob's Barrow

There will be SPOILERS. So I just finished The Excavation of Hob's Barrow, and I will say the atmosphere, the music, the art and the main character were all great. The setting was excellent, and the other characters were also very well done. The plot leaves much to be desired though, as the game relies heavily on building suspense and dread. It is quite obvious to the player that something is very wrong here, and the main character being the "atheist with no fears of hogwash stories" seems to ignore every warning. Near the end of the game, I was a little upset that even though the "promise" was clearly a lie, there was no alternative option, just keep leading Thomasina to her doom. That being said, the story is a mash-up of The Wicker Man and Dagon, with the small town that has its old. hidden religion to some evil, old god (Abraxus Rex... not Rawhead Rex) that the rich Lord Panswyck (basically Christopher Lee) charmingly references as "HIM," but Thomasina never questions what the return of "HIM" could mean. They would worship and sacrifice to the old god for bountiful harvests and riches. Thomasina's father is basically Van Helsing, or the guys from Supernatural, as he bound the evil god with his own blood, which seems to have put him in a 25 year coma. She becomes a barrow digger just like dad, because that was the lie he wanted her to believe. So a new character, Leprechaun, I mean, the Hobgoblin Saxnot (seems like he was a good goblin?) Comes to Thomasina in her dreams and says if you break the seal I will heal your father. She does. Its the old god. He was using the goblin as a proxy and vaporizes him. He then possesses her and makes her kill her father with the very first urn he ever gave her. She ends up in an insane asylum Lovecraft style mad at her mother for keeping her fathers demon hunting a secret. I wasn't a fan of how the end railroaded you into an obvious poor choice and bad ending, but I do recommend the game.

This game is a prime example of a well crafted adventure. The voiceover is beautiful and really takes you to the english coutryside and the atmosphere on the whole leaves nothing to be desired. It starts out slow and kind of cozy, a lot of the horror/mystery aspects build up the more you progress and really get into the fabric of the town of Bewlay and it's inhabitants. Everybody who's ever lived in a small community will find facettes of the typical country life in this game, what makes it endearing...until you get to the frightening parts! There's horror, there's unease and it's hidden behind some tasty riddles that are hard but managable. The gameplay and story progression is old school (e.g. you have to do x to trigger event y), but it all flows well within the story without too much backtracking or running around. The only aspect that kind of irritated me was that we get no clear image of what Thomasina actually looks like. The pixel sprite is very...pixelated, obviously, and you, as the player, add in all the details in your imagination. The character in the close ups/cutscenes clashed with my image somewhat. Still, it's one of the best adventures I've played in the recent years and I hope we get to see a sequel or similar game in the future.

From the moment I started playing, I got immersed into the game world and period. The protagonist is likable and believable, which for some reason has become rare nowadays. The pixel art is beautiful and right on spot. This was probably the first point-and-click game I have played in a long time where I could solve all the puzzles without feeling frustrated. Even the more challenging ones at the end were pretty fair - I was just overthinking them. There is no frustrating backtracking, since every location you have visited is added to the fast-travel map. There is a To-Do list, so we always know what we have to do, and talking to people will give you hints if you get stuck. Your character walks fast, so no waiting for animation frustration either. It's like they thought of everything. The game locations transported me into the game world, making it quite moody and immersive. I really wanted to go places and talk to the local people. It helps that the game is fully voiced, and the voice acting is very good. It also helps that the game tells us when there is nothing else to talk about with specific characters. The occasional visions the protagonist has add tension to the game, adding tension and suspense. Story-wise, it's not very long, but that was Ok with me. Like others have said here, some parts were never explained, while some others were underdeveloped. The end was certainly cast on stone, since we keep receiving so many warnings about it, but when the time comes, there is no other option. Even narration from the protagonist already tells us (repeatedly) that this is how it's going to end, so no big surprise there. I think that was supposed to add tension? In spite of the above, it's a good story, immersive, enjoyable, beautiful, and well done. Most of what we do in the game makes sense. All in all, I recommend this game - probably the best one from Wadjet Eye Games in a while. I am happy I played it.

Fantastic VA Phenomenal setting Interesting story I fell in love with the game in first 10 min of a gameplay. Highly recommend for people that love great story/world building and fans of a genre.

At a time when I am eagerly awaiting some point and click adventures that have been announced for a long time and whose release dates keep getting postponed, this unexpected new release was a really nice surprise. I + A high level of tension, gloom and creepiness runs consistently throughout the game. + Despite the gloom, there are moments where you can smile. + The story is well done and logical. + The puzzles are logical (easy to moderately difficult) and fit well into the story. + The characters are well developed. The protagonist is likeable. + The music is superb and very atmospheric. + The voice acting is excellent and achieves the usual high Wadjet Eye quality. + The game is solidly realised. + There are unlimited save slots and still an autosave. - The graphics sometimes look a bit simplistic and crude without being artistically justified, especially the cutscenes and backgrounds. Overall, the graphics are not of a consistently high quality. However, this is not due to the retro pixel look, which I otherwise like. - The dialogue scenes could have been a bit better graphically. Faces are unfortunately missing. - While it is basically positive that there is parallax scrolling, it is not implemented very well. It seems rather crude, as if backdrops are being shifted back and forth. Even if not everything is perfect and the game may not be at the absolute top of the genre, it is still a good game that I can recommend. The focus is more on psychological horror, on an exciting story and not on jumpscares and gore. Especially the things that you don't see, that are only hinted at, are scary. The game seems to be unspired by titles such as "The Last Door", "Shadow of the Comet", "Kathy Rain" and "Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis" as well as "Gabriel Knight - Sins of the Fathers". If you like these games and generally enjoy exciting, dark mystery and psychological horror adventures, you can't really go wrong with "The Excavation of Hob's Barrow".