I finished this in around 13 hours and I like to play these calm games without stress as some meditation. I finished Kholat (the creepy Russian game) a couple of days ago, and wanted more of that kind of stuff. This was basically what I was looking for and it's what I got. It bugged me a bit that sometimes I did not understand who was talking. It was the same color on the text, but it was not really clear what voice was what person. I mostly played it for the atmosphere and the puzzles and that was the purpose of the game. I enjoyed almost all the puzzles, and I did not need to use that many hints from the build in hint page (I really like those kind of sections). Only a few places I used the hints just to conclude that what I already tried to do was what I supposed to do. It was a good level on the puzzles and they made me feel quite smart. The puzzle boxes annoyed me so much though. After I got like 7 photos, I just skipped opening more puzzle boxes because that one was too tedious and boring. It was quite fun the first three times. Never re-use a puzzle more than three times! However, since I finished the whole game - it was a nice game. I was using an Xbox controller on PC so it was a little bit annoying to light all the super small candles and lights all the time, but I just wanted them to be lit to get the cozy atmosphere. I don't want to complain more. It's good if you want some nice puzzles and meditative feeling between more rough games.
This took me 7 hours and 47 minutes to finish. It was super atmospheric and I was scared most of the time. I really enjoyed just walking around feeling lonely in these mountains. And sometimes after only trees, snow and rocks, you saw something interesting and it all got more exciting. However, one thing that really annoyed me was the balance between daylight and night. Act 1 was my favorite with that beautiful looking train station and that lovely singing. It really made me want to keep playing the game immediately. Then it was all night the rest of the game. I was really looking forward to see the daylight again at some point, but noo. The compass was a bit hard to read at first, but it also felt quite realistic. I got used to it after a while. I did not totally get the whole plot though, but I suppose that was the point with the game. I would have put 5 stars if it was a bit longer + some more daylight and maybe a proper outro with some more explanation of the story and maybe some more time on that train station. But yeah, it's a good game for sure. I've never seen anything like this before.
I bought this on a sale for a cheap price and I was expecting some 5 hour beautiful puzzle game. But what I got was some combination between Cuphead and Metroid. I was so proud that I finished Cuphead a while back since I thought it was the hardest game the last decade. But, I may have been wrong. This was definitely as big challenge as Cuphead, and some parts was even harder (Geez, that White Palace drove me nuts). Now I sit here 76 hours later and 102% game completed and I'm feeling this kind of Cuphead proud again. Hollow Knight is super well balanced and for the first time in my life, I kind of use all items in the game and all spells. Usually I find something that works and stick to that until the end, but in this game, I really had to try every single charm at least twice because it was kind of required. The only thing that bugged me was that I was playing this with an Xbox controller on a PC and there seem to be some kind of input bug in this game while using xbox controller. A little bit now and then, I suddenly see the start menu bar on Windows overlapping my game, waiting 5 seconds with that menu, the game minimizes itself and it's impossible to start it again and it freezes and crashes. Makes me have to restart the game. So I was always super nervous that it would happen during some complex scenario (which it did a lot of times and I had to do it from last bench save). Some kind of solution was when the start menu appears, click all possible buttons on your controller at the same time and 50% of the time it disappears and you can continue playing the game. Kind of destroyed the whole gaming experience. But, I kept on playing even with this bug since the game was so good!
I started the game and got hooked immediately because this was exactly the kind of game I expected to play. It has that nice small team indie feeling around it. Someone who wants to tell a nice story. The puzzles were good and I only had to google up a hint at one single place (Goober outside hospital thing), but I was expecting the game to be at least double the size of length to go deeper into the storyline and reveal more facts that would have surprised me. When I thought I was somewhere in the middle of the game, it was actually close to the end. So it was not really clear "where" in the game I was. But since I played it from start to end without being annoyed by very much, I have to give it 4 of 5.
Since I was expecting this to be more like an interactive movie than a game, then I had that mindset from the start which is probably required if you're going to play this game. If you enjoyed Dreamfall Chapters (The third game in The Longest Journey saga), then you will love this game. It's not hard, it's just very very very cozy and exciting. I love the mix of regular high school drama combined with soft guitar music, and influences of the supernatural. That is totally my cup of tea. I would not stand this game if it was just high school drama and nothing else (that's why I don't really dare to play the second game currently). Well, if it wasn't for playing this game together with my GF, it would probably have brought me into tears. I loved it and I kind of want to come back to this game in 5 years again to pick some other dialogue options to see how the history goes. Max rating from my side in its genre!
This feels like a combination of all MMucas Flem PnCs and I have waited 3 years to play this. I bought it to play it immediately, but did not have the energy since I wanted to replay Monkey Island and the other games instead of starting a new adventure. Which I kind of regret. I started playing this three years later and it felt just like "lol, are they really trying to do something that will be even close to the old 90s PnCs in greatness? This feels just like some lousy ripoff, please try something new". But after 10 minutes, it was more like "Ok, it's quite interesting after all. I may like this a bit". Then after an hour I was "Wow, this is really something". After 2 hours I felt confident within Ron Gilbert's hands, he did it again. Another masterpiece. I just finished the game and wow, what a plot! I'm very much impressed and my hat is off forever when it comes to Ron Gilbert future games.
I thought this was a hidden gem, but it wasn't. Maybe I gave it too little time and it may actually be good? I played the first 45 minutes but I never got hooked. If only the fighting part would have had more "feeling". I want to smash my sword against an enemy so that the enemy flies away with a nice and nasty sound. But there was not even any "on hit" sound effects? And the enemies did not react at all when they were hit?! Only when they died. I did not get the attonments at all. If I'm going to play this game, then fix a normal skill tree and also what I mentioned above. I'll uninstall the game meanwhile. Music and graphics was good and I saw a great potential, but no. Not finished.
I've been a great fan of these kind of games ever since I played Darkness Within for the first time. Barrow Hill is not totally different and that is what I wanted. Imagine playing Myst/Riven, but with haunted house theme, then you have Barrow Hill in a nutshell. I just finished it and I was very satisfied since I did not cheat at all and could still finish it out in 10 hours. Now I'm going for Barrow Hill 2!
