The Excavation of Hob's Barrow ( PC (Steam) – Adventure – 2022 ) + TRAILER

Sometimes you crave a traditional P&C adventure game and stumble upon the likes of The Excavation of Hob's Barrow. An archetypal representative coming from a torch bearer of the genre in modern day or studios working under their patronage - Wadjet Eye Games. Whether that's positive or negative will depend entirely on your outlook, however. I do have some opinions on the game itself.

We're brought to a later point when Thomasina Bateman, our intrepid heroine, returns to her ancestral home so she can seemingly visit her ailing father, and conveys the events of her adventure to us after the fact. It would appear our charming antiquary's invitation to village of Bewlay for excavation operations, in case the title wasn't a dead giveaway, did not go as smoothly one usually expects considering the nature of the work. Arriving by train, Thomasina is quickly warned by antagonistic villagers to steer clear of Hob's Barrow, if they even deem to talk of it. There are personal stakes involved and one ally means our girl will persevere, though.

If you ask me I think the script rubs it in a bit too blatantly with something supernatural afoot. You can't really dismiss certain imagery as anything but. This is then juxtaposed with mundane chores you'll be engaging in for most of the game. Considering you ARE actively working the investigation angle and trying to get on some people's good side, like the elderly gentleman on who's land the Barrow is and you need his approval to start digging, it does make sense so I can't slight it too much. Real issue is The Excavation of Hob's Barrow goes off the rails in the very last act. If there was a train involved I'd be able to say literally and proverbially, but alas. I'm not sure what happened there but we reach an escalation followed by climax I don't think the meandering story up to that point has really earned. You're going more based on second-hand information and events preceding the game with just handful of scenes really setting it up. Ending befits the kind of, well, Lovecraftian turn of events, but I can't say more beyond that.

Leaning on the above. If there's a sister foundation stone to P&C adventures next to the writing it would have to be its puzzles. Once again, we're seeing a mirror situation - some very simple "item you need is two screens over" and "basic information gathering from characters" turns it decent puzzles in the final act. You finally get to use all those mysterious stones and play a jig, but unless you've played the game in entirely doable one sitting, you may be left stumped. There is also some light trial and error, but overall even those challenging puzzles can be brute forced. Shock comes more from game pulling a 180 on you without the customary ramp up to prepare you.

I like to leave it last and in this case production most certainly warrants attention. Hope you like brown and green locales because that's what you're getting with foreboding dose of purple. Former works in creating a very dank atmosphere fueling this mystery story as you realize just how isolated Thomasina really is. People will debate endlessly about chunky sprites, but I like them. They have character and just enough detail to leave the mind wondering. It helps when your game is enhanced with occasional cutscenes for that extra cinematic feeling. Since we're on the topic characters should be mentioned. Every adventure game has its stand outs and you need a varied, if not strong, cast to make an impact. The are a few here of which the children were especially amusing. They all play second fiddle to Thomasina herself, though. Stupendous performance for which I was glad to hear Samantha Beart received notable attention. Portrayal of a woman engaged in excavation wearing PANTS in an era when women did anything but takes certain finesse without coming across as obnoxious, something I'm pleased to report indeed is the case. By necessity of the story we get to see much more of vulnerable Thomasina than you may expect.

Very mixed write up, but would I ultimately recommend The Excavation of Hob's Barrow? If you're not expecting a masterpiece and want a moody, rural mystery with a twist.

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Welcome to the Karoshi Club ( PC (Steam) – Visual Novel – 2023 ) + TRAILER

There's that something when a game you started playing on a whim ends up resonating with you on unexpected level. Welcome to the Karoshi Club turned out to be such a case. Not because it spoke to ME specifically, but rather due to the way it broaches such a universal modern day theme.

Opening with a disclaimer decrying the state of layoffs in the video games industry of 2023, at the time yet blissfully unaware said practice would continue well into next year as well, we see one Kenji Haishima. Ex-developer out of a job for a good while, he receives a fortuitous phone call from a certain company offering him the position of Sales Specialist. His dilemmas start as they've seemingly contacted the wrong person and you're left with whether you tell the truth or lie and play along for personal gain. Visuals seem to capture the 1990s Japan during its Lost Decades economic crisis, but subjects explored are timeless.

What Welcome to the Karoshi Club really is happens to be an extremely lightweight Visual Novel letting you choose how you Kenji presents himself as framed by TRUTH or LIE binary options. At its very core game is about, albeit exaggerated for effect, his inner turmoil of dealing with stress and expectations induced by job searching. Our protagonist comes to the verge of being paralyzed by his own thoughts and over-analyzing hypothetical scenarios. Coming from someone who has done modern job seeking it is a dangerous trap to fall into and one that almost feels comforting in its wrongness. Yes, down to receiving three different endings game offers for replay value.

There are no real life achievements, however.

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Midnight Fight Express ( PC (Steam) – Action – 2022 ) + TRAILER

I'm not against action games at all, but beat 'em ups specifically tend to not be my area of expertise. Which makes Midnight Fight Express an interesting case. On one hand it's not another tough-as-nails title this genre seems to breed like crazy, and on the other there's quite a bit of replay value provided challenges are your thing. Let's not rush ahead of ourselves, though.

You know I'm a story-first kind of guy, but in this case I'll state it plainly - narrative just gets in the way. Is it because of presentation since you're working with dialog boxes hitting that pause button on action or, at best, distracting from what's going on so you're mashing MASHING to get through? Most likely. As short as they were I did appreciate cutscenes aplenty. So what's the story we're dealing with here? You're Babyface, a badass dude interrogated by two cops as they're piecing together exactly who you are and how you landed yourself in this situation. You'll be returning to that question room between missions told in a flashback. You wake up with a case of amnesia and nothing but seemingly intelligent drone to guide you on your mission to bust out. Whatever it is you've done that has lead everyone in the city, from gangbangers to special forces, to want to kill you needs to be finished by sunrise.

Good news is action system is very solid. It's your basic press a button for light and hold it for heavy attack, with another button for counter management. Needless to say you'll be expanding your repertoire beyond that and using clutter, as temporary weapons or just something you throw at enemies, plays a surprisingly big role. When you add increasingly prevalent firearms towards the end you have another aspect of combat to work around. Even better news is as you play through 40 missions the game has you'll unlock skill points, and Midnight Fight Express handles upgrades in the best possible way by giving you entirely new moves and maneuvers rather than some statistical bonuses. Going from having no counter capability to five possible ways of countering certainly adds to your moveset. That very same design ethos applies to everything else as well. In fact, I wasn't sure if I was going to continue playing the game after the first few missions, but steadily unlocking more ways to dispatch enemies and control the scene endeared it to me.

Playing the game is akin to controlled chaos you adapt to over time. Game continually introduces new enemy types and they're more than just re-skins as you have to factor in what weapons they use, aggressiveness of their AI or specific approach to take down. It's a testament to how much I enjoyed the experience that only couple of enemies really got under my skin and certain "insta-kill if they get close" can go die in a fire. Thankfully they're relegated to one level. That is, unless you want to play around in a sandbox mode which lets you fine tune everything from enemies, weapons present and down to your own available skills in order to test yourself. I didn't bother much with it as playing through the campaign on Normal, where you can still try to complete myriad of challenges or go for achievements, was just enough for me. I wish levels lasted longer than single-digit minutes, but we can't have everything. There is the occasional break from clearly offices and warehouses of goons when game introduces a unique level, but locales did get somewhat old for me. With camera drawn just far out to give you clear view of the action you don't register low polygon enemy models clearly assembled using the same customization system you can also use to dress up Babyface with the funds acquired from mission completion.

Since I've touched on the production briefly I have to say the soundtrack is incredible. I'm not 100% sure, it sounded to me each level had its own accompanying track for maximum effect. More than level layout, more than whatever story was going on it was the soundtrack that stood out the most. And yet it doesn't overpower incredibly kinetic sound effect coming through from every punch and thrown glass bottle.