Hob PC Review

There’s a certain sense of height and danger to certain areas in Hob. Having to traverse a narrow, curved stone path on top of tall columns with multiple levels of ground far below made me consider movement extra carefully. Not once in an AAA title, which usually shove danger and adrenaline down our throats by announcing such moments from miles away, did I feel so genuinely afraid that my character might take a wrong step and fall off a platform as I did in Hob. There’s power to the little guy that you control, as your actions raise entire sections of land before you, but the world doesn’t shy away from reminding you that you can be one step away from going *splat* or one swing away from being turned into gory mush.

You obtain your gauntlet after a short introductory sequence, only to then be left free to explore. While you know little about the robot companion that briefly joins you, at times pointing in the vague direction of where you must go, a bond is established from the first couple of moments. While objectives are marked on your map, figuring out how to get there and what must be done is all up to the player. The gauntlet can punch through walls and foes, teleport, when on special platforms, and grapple using certain spots found in the levels. The gauntlet is also that which allows you to press buttons, and rotate platforms which end up having tremendous impact on the world. The puzzles in Hob are intuitive and moving from one to the next has a very nice flow to it. While I did get stuck on two different occasions, it was rather due to my not noticing of important elements right under my nose, than the game’s fault. Connecting things together, only to press a button and have mechanisms rumble as they move whole swathes of land, or larger platforms, around is astonishing to see, giving a sense that the mysterious world once fit together, yet, for some reason it does so no more and you have to rearrange it.

What’s even more interesting is that even so, there are areas where you’re simply an observer to what’s going on, such as an underground complex where stone robots see to their tasks as you go on your way. The intricacy with which these giant platforms are built deserves to be commended. As pleasant as the platforming and puzzles are, the star in Hob is its world. The sight of whole areas popping up right in front of you after you’ve explored sewer, cave and green outdoors alike is quite stunning. And yet, no matter how intricate your platforms, your bits of world that move around shifting, connecting with one another may be, after a while, things become a little too similar. It’s simply too clear that, yes, while the gauntlet is a tool that helps you a lot, all you’re doing, after all, is jumping around, pressing and pushing things. And it’s the same type of things over and over again. A bit more variety in the puzzles would have been desired. The issue could have been also helped by the narrative, especially in the latter portion of the title, when a refreshed sense of purpose could have kept the tedium that set in, for me, at bay.

I was actually intrigued to see how Hob handles its wordless narrative because it’s the kind of thing that, when done right, is able to give the story a sense of uniqueness. Letting the world tell its tale through what you see in your journey can give it a primordial feeling and, especially in a title like this, it would have worked quite well. For the most part, you’re alone, dealing with different contraptions. Occasionally, the robot friend pops by, pointing at where you need to go and “speaking” a few phrases in a strange language. Aside from this, there’s the occasional innocent creature you must save and corruption that needs to be cleansed. All these elements tie into the story, with optional lore rooms adding to the world’s history in a fairly cryptic, yet appropriate manner. Sadly, the narrative did nothing for me.  If at first I was spurred on by the need to discover what the character can do and how the world reacts, as time passed I was left exploring for the sake of it. That’s not to say it doesn’t work for a good while. It very much does. There are a handful of revelatory sights; however, they’re too few and far between.  With the similar nature of puzzles and lack of any significant new abilities past the point you gain your grapple, the need for a story that’s more fleshed out made itself felt without ever truly materializing.

Despite being an exploration/puzzle focused title, Hob gives combat some attention as well. Your character makes use of a sword that can be strengthened at the forge, provided you collect appropriate pieces from the world. Then, the gauntlet can also be used for punching stuff. The basic sword combo can be empowered via an upgrade. Through upgrades, a sprint attack, empowered gauntlet punches, a stunning warp and a shield can also be obtained. Enemies also employ different type of attack patterns. Those with heavier weapons swing them around with more weight and deal more damage. Spearmen may use shields as defense before they try to poke you, while agile flies spit at you from afar, hopping away when you get closer. Hob’s combat requires both making use of speed and slowing down to check whether you can exploit the surroundings. Enemies are damaged by environmental sources, as well as each other’s attacks. Early on, I was facing a foe that took a bit to weather down. While dodging its swings wasn’t particularly difficult, it also had two smaller creatures helping it. Until it squashed them in an attempt to get to me, that is. Similarly, getting an enemy to roll off the edge of the world means it won’t be coming back any time soon.  While these possibilities were always great to have, later on I found myself mostly running by foes, as that’s also an option. The only real reason to defeat them is to gain green orbs that help with getting different upgrades which I didn’t feel I needed after a point. The combat falls prey to the same thing as the puzzles: it becomes very much the same after a while, with foes only receiving tougher armor that needs to be chipped at before the fleshy bits are exposed. Even if the upgrade system is meant to diversify it, I didn’t find the upgrades, save for the shield, to be game changers. While a gamepad is heavily recommended by the developer, I beat Hob using keyboard and mouse. It takes a bit of getting used to as the character’s movement feels a bit floaty, but it’s certainly doable.

Hob’s aesthetic makes use of a mixture of gray and gold, to emphasize the melding of stone and mechanical parts that its world is made of. On the surface, grass and overgrowth carpet the ground in green while corrupted purple matter covers certain areas. Against this, your red cape comes off as contrasting, singling you out as a foreign element. There’s also an ounce of cell-shading thrown in there adding some nice contour. While visually unique, the closer I got to the end of Hob, the more it became tiring to look at. As for Hob’s soundtrack, it’s largely ambiental and does a good job of maintaining a proper atmosphere for the act of exploring a mysterious world. The music enthusiast in me also appreciated how at times synths and strings gave way to a bass guitar that handled melody duty using high notes. Overall, there are moments when the music gives quite an ethereal quality to the experience.

For the most part, Hob ran really well. There’s a great amount of fluidity to the main character’s movements which was always nice to see. Furthermore, the game’s camera shifts around from an isometric perspective to different other angles and, thankfully, the game looks good and moves as fluidly in all of them. There were a handful of times when the camera angle was a bit odd, but nothing really noticeable or consistently frustrating. Be that as it may, Hob did come with some sudden frame drops upon entering different areas and a set of crashes. The second patch the title received made the remainder of my gameplay crashless, so the issue seems to have been addressed, at least in some respect. I also noticed the character’s footsteps sound not slowing down in sequences when it was walking, a small number of checkpoints that require a bit too much backtracking and keys that are non-rebindable. As far as keys go, you have two control schemes which only change whether your right mouse button is assigned to your shield or to moving the character. There were also a few number of times when jumping out of the water threw me right off the map, despite there being more than enough ground for me to land said jump.

Raising and cleansing Hob’s world was, for the most part, a good time. Nicely-flowing puzzles and platforming with a massive result in literally shifting the world around, coupled with combat encounters that were sensibly placed made sure of that. This persisted until the final third/quarter, where things started feeling too alike and its mishandling of its wordless narrative became evident. To be honest, for that portion of the game, I was left without much purpose and the conclusion, well, it did little to change anything. I really wish Hob had managed to keep me engaged until the end, be it through more varied puzzles, mechanics, encounters or more significant discoveries. With that in mind, the game does have enough things going for itself to make it worth the time of those who raise an eyebrow at the thought of exploring and awakening a mysterious world using gauntlet, brain and, sometimes, brawn.

Adam also journeyed through Hob's world in the PS4 Pro version of the game. Check out our Hob PS4 Pro Review.

Bogdan Robert, NoobFeed
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