Hob

Hob is a beautiful Zelda-like puzzler with fun combat elements that takes place on an enchanting world where nature and machinery alter the landscape as easily as a twist of a Rubik's cube. The wordless approach to the story creates some confusion and the fix camera sometimes results in unnecessary deaths, but never does the time spent with Hob feel wasted.

Intricate and ingenious, Hob is a true spiritual successor to A Link to the Past.

A gorgeous world eager to be explored with satisfying puzzles and fun, if occasionally clumsy, action.

Hob delivers meaningful, wondrous exploration in an alluring and enigmatic world, but the combat and technical issues hold it back

Hob is like a beautiful example of how to make a third-person action game.

Hob tries to do a lot of things within its beautiful world but never does any of them very well. The platforming feels janky and slow, combat is basic and meaningless, and the puzzles will make you wish you were back in 10th grade listening to your Geometry teacher explain proofs for the millionth time. A great game was not too far away from what eventually was delivered, but outside of the stunning visuals and world design, Hob falls frustratingly short.

Were Hob a tightly-scripted action adventure that guided the player from point to point and told them exactly what was expected of them, it wouldn't be nearly as magical an experience, and certainly not as personal. Making my own decisions (and my own mistakes) makes the impressive, world-changing moments feel like something I did.

Hob is an action adventure with a stunning visual style, engrossing world and enjoyable combat. It is a standard bearer for what the genre can achieve at this level.

Though it pains to proclaim such a promising title as this — given how obviously ambitious its world-building stands, how undeniably strange-but-enticing its organic-mechanical aesthetic is or how inviting the otherwise isolating ambience of its sound design is — Hob may well be one of the more disappointing showings for the genre this year when all is said and done.

Over the course of ten to fifteen hours, Hob will test your patience and strategic thinking in a casual action-platformer that offers players a story open to interpretation. The game world isn’t particularly vast, but its vertical diversity makes it incredibly interesting, with many hidden nooks and undiscovered secrets. The game suffers from minor technical glitches and a fixed isometric camera that will surely elicit more than a few curses. Despite this, Hob has plenty to offer and has more than a few surprises up its sleeve.