Hob

Pretty neat little Zelda clone. Graphics are better than what the screenshots make it appear, but need to make sure to calibrate the gamma so the colors are saturated. Like the atmosphere and quiet soundscape, very peaceful world. Combat is no sweat and neither are the puzzles. Just a sublime adventure.

This is almost a good game, but it's flaws add up to something I'd just as soon have not played. Minimalism is all well and good when done properly, but in this case it just winds up being a very thin experience. Combat is extremely basic, mostly perfunctory. Very few different enemy types, all with predictable attack patterns. Lots of sitting around waiting for an opening. Some of them are real damage sponges too, especially if you don't find all the sword upgrades.

Admittedly combat is not the main focus of the game, but the trend of overall "thin"-ness extends to the puzzles, the artwork, and the story. This game has puzzles in the same way that putting together IKEA furniture is a puzzle; it's obfuscated some by the level design, but the entire game boils down to "push button, open path to next button." I'll admit the art/graphics of this game are solid, but again they wear on you by the end. There's essentially one biome in this game so it all looks same-y; expect to see similar sweeping vistas over and over.

Lastly, the game lacks polish on a technical level that leads to a fair bit of frustration. Fixed camera angle + platforming = lots of falling that doesn't feel like your fault, leading to deaths or repeating tedious climbs until you happen to get it right. It's also fairly easy to get your character stuck in the scenery, forcing a respawn and losing progress.

Overall not the worst game I've played by any stretch, but all of its flaws add up to something I'd just as soon have never played.

The story dosent exist. A platform game. But! it can be played!

This game is the definition of a hidden gem, everyone should know about for all kinds of reasons and yet if is completely forgotten. For it has an absolutely gorgeous cell shaded art style and pretty much everything looks incredible. It is essentially a 3D metroitvania, a 3D plarformer, a puzzle game and it even has some sweet combat. The result is a beautiful adventure that is in many ways one of a kind.

This game is very pretty, but also rather buggy. While in combat, you can trigger cut scenes, which doesn't stop the enemies from attacking you. While trying to trigger cut scenes, there is a decent chance that the game thinks you want to attack. Sometimes you will be able to jump down off a ledge, and other times you can't jump down if your life depended on it because you keep grabbing the ledge and pulling yourself back up. Sometimes ladders just let you clip through them instead of you climbing them. Most of the time to climb ladders you point up on the analog stick. Sometimes you don't, you have to point left or right.
Sometimes the giant fish swim over the land instead of only in the water. There are places in the water that you can't actually get out of because the only path out is being blocked by invisible water currents, which just soft locks you (thankfully there is a respawn option in the menu, I couldn't even get to anything to kill me so I could skeleport)

I really wanted to like this game, but it is so frustratingly inconsistent and buggy and honestly it seems to only get worse the more hours I put into the game. Reached a point that the annoyance outweighs the joy of playing

Good game
Could be a bit more polished but gameplay is fine and entertaining

A lovely game about exploring the ruins of a world and restoring it to a semblance of its former glory.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. The visuals were fantastic (the wildlife in particular was strange and wonderful), and the play rewarding as you develop mastery of both the character and your understanding of the world.

My only nit was that one ability (the grapple) was a little janky when platforming, but this didn't meaningfully affect the overall experience.

Overall: fantastic, highly recommended if the visuals appeal to you and if you like platformers.

Awesome game.

Not a bad game necessarily, but I certainly wouldn't call it good either.

I get the inspiration. It's blending the design of Zelda: A Link to the Past with the ideology of Journey. In other words, Hob is a Zelda-like that seeks to tell its story and setting all without any dialogue. Unfortunately, it fails to meet any strides of both inspirations. It lacks the emotional beats of Journey and the design sense of Zelda.

It looks very pretty, and the idea of literally piecing the world together through your actions is a really neat idea. But the lack of dialogue or any words prevents me from knowing or caring about anything that's going on. What is Hob btw? Your guess is as good as mine, and I beat the game! Is Hob the world? Is the player character called Hob? Is the parasitic... thing infecting the world called Hob? We don't know.

And without any labels or map sectors, the game lacks any landmarks to be able to follow its world properly. I swear I had to make leaps of faith in order to progress in places it doesn't seem like I should have.

The combat is actually really solid, and again it does look very pretty. But as a Zelda-like, it can only be described as very generic and uninteresting.

super world building with unique style. it's combine good puzzle + and great action exploring genre. really recommended if you like puzzle game!

Occasionally frustrating (had to refer to walkthroughs on a couple of occasions, and the game is OPPOSITE of handholding) but once you get the hang of it, and make progress, what remains is a really lovely, satisfying game with great puzzle solving mechanics and intriguing level design.

What drew me to the game was Matt Uelmen's soundtrack (composer for Diablo I+II), but I had a terrific time. 10 hours for a casual playthrough.

Basically a puzzle game. Except for the final boss match, the combat is pretty easy, so it's really all about finding the path and figuring out the next steps. Very pretty scenery. Interesting, albeit a bit confusing, story line. And I like the alternate endings - definitely gives you something to discuss when finished.

Tried this game after several years. Very glad that I did.. very nice puzzles..

great game
this is a must play

Chill, kind of cozy 3d platformer game with non-trivial puzzles and some light combat.
I'm generally not into platformers, but since this is coming from the guys who literally made Diablo 1 and Diablo 2,
I just had to try.

The start might be a bit confusing, since you have no tutorial, no map, no instructions, got to get familiar with the map and solve your first "platformer puzzle" to really start the story, but that is also a beautiful way to do the tutorial - you learn by playing, one step at a time.

Absolutely no regrets. The game has a soul.

Seriously so underrated. The atmosphere is incredibly unique.

This game should be played by more people. I love the vibes, world, riddles, and how responsive the controls are. My favorite aspect of Hob is how its world is constructed and how much impact you have on it.

Don't get me wrong it's not a perfect game, I had constant glitches and hang ups throughout, but on a side note the gameplay makes up for that by far. I give it a 7 out 10

A really, really cool game. Exploring the world felt really good and solving puzzles felt very tactile in a way. All the moving machinery felt very satisfying and therefore made me feel engaged and wanting to keep playing. The amount the world changes throughout is crazy and I think that is part of what makes this game so satisfying and intriguing. Absolutely loved it! I think the only problems I had with it was a very random crash, parkour sometimes felt extremely trick due to the camera, and collectables were incredibly difficult to find at the end when looking for the last few because they don't come up on the map!! They didn't take away from the experience too much and it is still a recommendation from me!

Just didn't click with me

Loved this!

It's a refreshing puzzle/exploration game which gives you bare minimum hints and guides. And that encourages you to walk around, and observe your surroundings more.

How the game was really fun and impressive.

The combat part was also quite satisfying and not too hard. Sometimes it took a while for me to figure out the mechanic. If you expect more challenging experience, you could be slightly disappointed. (There is a option for the difficulty in the settings though.)

Since the game itself is amazing, teeny tiny things bothered me, like if you explore backward (ex. from end of the dungeon to the start), or triggering the same gimmick more than once caused a weird behaviour. I understand that going backward is not the expected action, but I wish those possibilities were covered/supported by developers.

All in all, the experience was wonderful!

Realment me gusto el video juego, lo descubri esta semana y a pesar de que saliera en el 2017 puede competir con cualquier indie de este año

Aqui comparto mi video review en el que incluyo HOB

https://youtu.be/lvNT-J885pg?si=0T5_j_qNtZyg2Vro

great one for puzzle-lovers

has some bugs, f.e didn't show the next mission on map (maybe this is not a bug, im not sure)
would be great to have subtitle. i didn't get what the woman says in the end to choose the ending

Nice.

Nice world Explorer

hob is a GEM

very nice game

This game has been a great addition to my library and plays great on the SteamDeck. The puzzles are difficult enough that I need stop and think it through but not difficult enough to look for walkthroughs. Also its been a really nice casual game for "when I get a minute" to jump in as I can quickly recall what I need to do next in its simple map system. Its a really nice "zelda-like" title and would be fitting for young and old alike.

i will start by acknowledging that this development behind this game is not perfect, but you should also start by stopping yourself from looking for that all the time. some games like this and XEL (which i felt this game has a lot in common with gameplay-wise) prove that games can still be so fun without people having to point out that theres bugs once in awhile. just play. and there really is something special here. the way the game world opens up to the player like a puzzle is so cool and i would love to see the developers use it again in the future. im sure this game has not been played as much as it probably should have, but everything in this game has the potential to be a series, it at least deserves a sequel. and it could be just the motivation needed to push the devs a little further, polish up the combat and traversal mechanics a little more, expand on the lore in some way (I cant really suggest my personal opinions without spoiling the game, and its 100% worth experiencing on your own. yes the story is simple but i think the way it presents itself is part of the experience) I played this on PC and Switch and the performance was nearly the same, obviously more customization on PC tho. the combat can feel wonky, but its more from being used to how other games are set up. after awhile you get used to how the timing of the controls is and how the game wamts you to learn how to play it. theres no dialogue, but the game is great with communicating its message and story and the exploration feels more rewarding than usual, as theres not much crafting or healing (besides what you get from combat spoils and grass cutting) so the treasures you manage to find feel more worth whatever you had to do to reach it. theres a lot of cool ideas here. its not quite a "soulslike" but more than just a hack and slasher and its balances all its elements extremely well that i was entertained by this the whole time. well done guys

Great game, despite it's flaws.

As the notice says, a controller is really recommended. You have a fixed camera and some angles are a struggle on keyboard and mouse.

Great puzzles, art and music. Some animation sequences are a bit long and repetitive if you die, and there's no skip.
Mob designs are fine BUT the game doesn't teach you crucial mechanics to beat some of them, which I found searching online only. I just evaded those or let them kill each other until nearly endgame when I found out.
There's some chances for you to get stuck, used the respawn button quite a bit in the later sections.
Visibility is mostly fine despite the camera lock, but some areas switch your view so much or have something beyond camera angle it was disorienting.
Overall still enjoyed it, worth a play.

This game is alright. I enjoyed quite a bit of it. I started the game on hard mode and found the combat to be novice level. Open world exploration is enjoyable. At a certain point I became disinterested in continuing to play. Just not enough challenge overall. I do tend to like things a bit sweaty so this may be a really good fit for many players.

Nice game, where I didn't feel I was the main character , but the world was..

I cannot recommend this game enough. It is very much more puzzle oriented than hack and slash. The dialogue is some of the best I've ever experienced. There are no tips, which especially for puzzle games is incredibly refreshing. FITFO at its purist. The levels are flawlessly designed to include enabling shortcuts to prevent repetition. The environment is dynamic and engaging/engageable. Exploration pays off, even accidentally. Lastly, it flows. There never seems to be a stopping point and you can quickly lose yourself in the game, yet with the significant amount of autosaves, you can stop and pick up whenever. Highly recommended.

Yeah, It's very very good.

Great visuals that are accompanied by fluid movement and combat. Exploring and interacting with the world and learning about it is fun

First with the good: art, sound, and no real music but this eerie alien world sound all adds up to a immersive atmosphere. The controls are horrible on a gamepad, you will miss cake jumps and fall of ledges and you basically have to accept that; I didn't even try with keyboard/mouse. There is no direction aside from a few markers that aren't always around; this could be a plus for some people as you really feel the exploration vibe (but the damaging walls are wholly unnecessary and feel like they punish you for no reason). Once you figure it out though, the pattern you follow to make it to each next area is pretty linear. The combat is meh, not hard not easy, but that isn't a big deal as it takes second stage to the puzzle world. 6/10

Ugh, my head hurts, I was using it too much.
It has been a while since I've had this little hand holding in a game. Where to next? Well here's a little marker on your map... how do you get there? Well, find that out yourself, that's what you came here for, right? Near the end there's even a moment where you don't have a marker for a thing :D Okay, to be fair, I'm exaggerating, but it did feel a bit like this :D

Anyway... it's a nice game:
- art style & atmosphere are nice
- platforming is good, although I did fail A LOT because I was using keyboard instead of controller. The "controller is strongly recommended" warning is on place. But if you have patience it can be done with keyboard too :)
- puzzles are decent, I still feel stupid not figuring some out right away but after a minute or 2, especially for some collectables
- combat... um... it's there, but let's be honest, that's not the main point of the game

Got a few bugs, but overall a very fun a enjoyable game

Great game love the solo play reminds me of Odd world

It's a tough call but I cannot recommend this game. I dealt with a lot of late game bugs/glitches where my character got stuck while platforming or fell through the world. Most of these started to occur with the Grapple Glove upgrade.

If it weren't for the glitches, I would recommend this game. Combat isn't the priority but exploration and traversing environment puzzles is.

Very good game! Unique Metrovidian

Super unique and a great single-player experience. The map can be confusing at times but the objective markers help a ton. Great game 8/10

Thought it was nice, but softlocked my game one hour in because I fell off a platform and landed somewhere where I should not have landed. Would have had to restart the entire game from the beginning. Nope.

Good game. The silent narrative makes the plot captivating, there is much that remains unexplained that makes you wonder about what exactly happened before the events of the game start.
Now, the bad: the camera is your main enemy, collisions are very bugged (I died falling through the floor more than once), the game seems to have an hard time loading assets in a timely manner, with bushes popping into existence and A-posing enemies, it's an indie so it gets a pass but you need to know what you're getting into.
It's a very enjoyable game, it runs great on Deck, pick it up next sales.