HOB: The Definitive Edition made a good jump to the Nintendo Switch, a system that needs more than first-party titles to make it a legitimate contender late in this generation. HOB is a cornucopia of genres in one title that focuses heavily on action-RPG than puzzles, which means you will be moving and shaking more often than stopping and thinking. It is entertaining, engaging, motivating with its intentions, while slightly flawed in its design. It’s definitely worth looking into, though, if you’re looking for something to fall into without a huge commitment needed.
In the good spirit of total transparency, I’m not the type of gamer who enjoys puzzle-driven experiences on consoles. Typically, I avoid them at all cost. My attitude on gaming is that while I want a cognitive enriching gameplay journey, I honestly would rather just have a game that takes me away from my day-to-day work life. I want a game where effort is given, but not too much effort is needed. In comparison to film, where dramas and documentaries are supposed to put your emotions to the test, I turn to entertainment, especially gaming, to take me away for a little while and get my mind off stressful things.
This is a long-winded way of saying I simply don’t the main focus of my gaming experience to be dedicated to solving problems. That gets in the way of enjoying the experience.
I’m setting this up for you because HOB: The Definitive Edition is certainly driven by the idea that it wants you to solve your way out of a situation. Be it punch through walls, find a path to get through, or simply take out an enemy to move on. At its core, it desires to be a puzzle-driven experience. But the good folks at Perfect World Entertainment didn’t seem complacent to stop at that genre, rather they mixed together an action-RPG pair of genres to take away the puzzle pain.
Let’s begin, shall we?
HOB is a title that features an exploring protagonist, who looks like the lead from Journey — before the full wrap, that is accompanied by a very large robot (at least at the start of the game). The game introduces you to the pair through simple and silent storytelling. You understand that our hero is in need of progressing through a dangerous landscape, though the extent of that mystery isn’t revealed until later. He is limited in his capabilities, and thus is more of a side-kick to the robot than a leader. You find this out in the opening act, as the robot leads the way through a small technology-laiden Aztec-like jungle that the folks at Bungie would be proud to include in Destiny 3: We’ll Get It Right This Time. Anyway, the robot’s function at the beginning of the game is to simply show you how the jungle works because the second part of this experience, and from that point on during the game, is going to have you controlling and calling all the shots.
Anyway, the robot leads you to a point in the game, where your character is attacked and poisoned by one of the wildlife plants in the jungle. The attack is so bad that the robot has to remove your left arm, which will be replaced by the robot’s own arm to save your protagonist’s life. It’s a little shocking, grotesque, yet very emotional for a game that doesn’t speak a word. This part of the game is really the jumping off point for the rest, as the robot’s repairing your arm, you get a nice title sequence with credits, and you get sent out into the world armed with a Hellboy like fist that can break walls, charge electric currents, stun enemies, and that’s not all (you can find the rest out on your own).
Part of the joy of gameplay design in HOB is that while it still requires you to solve puzzles and get from point A to B, it wants to motivate you to not only explore in its limited linear world but also to take chances in order to get rewarded with upgrades. That’s quite the mix of genre elements in one title. As I have always said in my game reviews, if you can motivate your players to keep going, then you have yourself a good game.
HOB motivates the gamer through currency. The currency comes from accomplishments, such as taking down medium-to-large enemies, as well as discovering certain robot-fist activating spots. The currency acquired builds up over time, and you can use this currency to purchase upgrades for your sword, shield, or other character-improving options. While I would have loved to see a bit more complicated ways of upgrading, maybe some tier level Skyrim design, I get there is enough here in the package to make the experience far deeper and push further beyond just a puzzle moniker. At the very least, this is a Phantasy Star (the first one) motivation, where doing more equals out to earning more, which equals out to getting better gear and being more dominant. It’s a very standard RPG design, but fun and motivating/engaging nonetheless.
On the action side of things, HOB does a good job of bringing that into play. By offering up the player more options to take out baddies, while at the same time delivering the possibility of taking down big bosses with simple technique, the gameplay design entices to ‘come at me bro’ all the time. For example, you can hack/slash your way through one of the bigger mini-bosses early on in the game. Specifically, you will find a few tiny monsters surrounding a giant one that hovers over a secret area you can’t access. The giant one has a large ranged weapon and comes at you with various attack methods (mainly swiping back and forth with the giant stabby stick). The giant creature does have patterned timing with its attacks, which will motivate the player to chip away at the bigger enemy. This motivation will eventually result in an uncontrollable urge to attack-attack-attack without regard to safety, which is a great mistake (you will die quick). My point here is that the game allows you to take your time, even if you’re lower level and under-equipped, and take down big monsters. There is a lot of freedom there, which I thoroughly appreciate about the design. It makes the action far more entertaining and gives you that sense of ‘do what you want’, which is gold for the genre.
In terms of puzzles, the puzzles are somewhat limited, and I don’t believe they are the main focus of the gameplay experience. Perfect World Entertainment wanted to bring a good mix of genres while focusing on one simple aspect — do not keep the player in one place too long. The fallout for puzzle games not called The Witness is that when I player stays too long on one puzzle, then frustration will certainly begin to set in. The spotlight of the game shrinks away from other aspects that make the game great, and the game simply becomes one-dimensional in design. HOB doesn’t appear to be interested in crossing over into that gameplay design, so the puzzles are more visual in solution and less cerebral in execution. This means that you won’t spend a lot of time trying to figure out what is next, the game will simply point you to ‘next’ through visual cues designed into the level. It could be as easy as a path or just getting used to the environment you’re looking at and seeing the anomaly that doesn’t belong. In short, puzzles aren’t designed to ask too much from you, even though the game certainly fools you into thinking it’s going that direction in the intro. Not all the puzzles are easy, but you should probably ignore the notion of any complicated puzzles pieces and firmly keep pushing forward. You’re most certainly going to get some brain teasers here and there, but you’re going to be swinging a sword and exploring more than anything else.
Again, it’s a good blend of three genres, but may be heavier on the RPG and action more than puzzles. I can accept that any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
Beyond the genre elements, the game does a good job of featuring frequent checkpoints, which fits perfectly into the scheme of the Switch’s purpose (short bursts of gameplay). It has many other complicated elements to it that are integrated into the story, including objects of interest that you have to figure out how to work. It does a good job of suggesting replay value in the experience as well, as you will not catch everything the first time around. There’s a lot of sides to this main course.
Having said that, are there any shortcomings to the game? While there is exploring, the game does rely heavily on linear direction to keep it moving. It’s not quite old school linear that you would find in an action game from the 90s, but the game certainly knows what it wants you to do and where it wishes you to go. I don’t mind limitations, but offering up aspects of exploration gets my fancy going for a larger world. The linear nature of HOB shrinks that world down and makes it less significant in a sense when it should be expanding it and at least faking the girth of the dangerous world being explored. I do think the game makes up for that linear pattern by offering up multi-tier gaming levels that do show how big it can be, but much like a commercial director jumping into film, the space on screen isn’t properly given enough area to play with and show off, which makes it feel smaller and tighter, thus the world seems limited. I know this complaint seems petty, but if you’re going to tantalize the gamer with exploration, let them see the world outside of a huge map, even if they can’t necessarily access it. And before you assume it, no this isn’t a dealbreaker. This is a suggestion for the next go around when HOB 2: The Super-Duper Definitive Edition arrives. I hope it does arrive because this game deserves more story and another adventure — it is quite good.
Overall, HOB: The Definitive Edition made a good jump to the Nintendo Switch, a system that needs more than first-party titles to make it a legitimate contender late in this generation. HOB is a cornucopia of genres in one title that focuses heavily on action-RPG than puzzles, which means you will be moving and shaking more often than stopping and thinking. It is entertaining, engaging, motivating with its intentions, while slightly flawed in its design. It’s definitely worth looking into, though, if you’re looking for something to fall into without a huge commitment needed.
