The Excavation of Hob's Barrow (formerly Incantamentum) - folk horror adventure set in rural Victorian England

[Modron]

How old are we talking, some of the scenes could be disturbing, cursing is pretty rare, and I don't know why you would think this has nudity.

 

[agris]

gonna pass on playing this one with my kid, thanks

 

[GandGolf]

In one of the Kickstarter updates about voice acting didn't they say that the kid got all excited because they learned that they could say a swear word? What that word was that they said was not mentioned.

 

[JarlFrank]

to anyone that played it: how appropriate is the game for a young kid? swearing, nudity, violence, that kind of thing. my kid has enjoyed adventure games in the past, and the fact that this one is fully vocalized helps.

Too creepy to play with a young kid, it goes into Lovecraftian horror especially in the later parts, and has a downer ending.

 

[Maxie]

just bought it on sale. i sincerely hope the 'you go grrl' attitude the starting section had was just my hallucination

 

[toughasnails]

You are generally offered multiple dialogue options. You can have the main character acting as an obnoxious bitch rather than a pleasant young lady all the time, but you don't have to. And while there are obviously no multiple endings or anything, you are better off not acting as an obnoxious bitch.
The question here is why have you selected just those options, hm. You want a waifu that would treat you as a sadistic man-hating mommy would, or do you perchance want to be one yourself?

 

[True Ukrainian]

The entire game is a rejection of the you go girl attitude when the BRAVE and STUNNING woman gets involved in something way over her head.

 

[Maxie]

You are generally offered multiple dialogue options. You can have the main character acting as an obnoxious bitch rather than a pleasant young lady all the time, but you don't have to. And while there are obviously no multiple endings or anything, you are better off not acting as an obnoxious bitch.
The question here is why have you selected just those options, hm. You want a waifu that would treat you as a sadistic man-hating mommy would, or do you perchance want to be one yourself?

sorry king but so far I'd wager around 3/4 of all acts of indignation are scripted, not optional, and the way this womyn of intellection has to suffer the feral primal folks from oop norf is truly inspiring and empowering. you go, grrl.
yes i'm aware she'll be brought down a peg, dunno in what manner specifically since i've avoided spoiling myself

 

[Maxie]

now wasn't that last section a little stressful
i certainly enjoy the atmosphere as it places what's evil and primal in the soil, as befits good euro mythology, rather than resorting to some disgusting lovecraft-invented sea fantasies
otherwise it's painfully clear it's a game by the sumatra dev, uninventive and overly reliant on retrospections

 

[Verylittlefishes]

Not many adventure games with endings so grim, can you name more?

 

[Maxie]

Not many adventure games with endings so grim, can you name more?

sam & max hit the road
eco terrorists win

 

[asfasdf]

ending is gay

 

[toughasnails]

The ending is great. It's nice to have a horror that isn't afraid to be horror. Even the better recent folk horror media is prone to the sort of ambiguity that allows one to read it as narratives of liberation and/or return the natural... If there is any ambiguity to the ending here, what is certain is that however you take it the protagonist is left with nothing to stand on and with no exit. Horrific experience isn't a road to some sort of opening and transcending of oneself, nor is her failure that she lacked courage to go far enough. She honestly wanted "truth" after all, it is just that the truth is horrific and that is the end of it.

 

[ds]

The problem with the ending isn't that is an unambiguous tragedy (games could use more of those, agreed) but that there isn't a good motivation for Thomasina (and more importantly for the player controlling her) to go through with the excavation and then actually break the seal in the end. Instead you are given plenty of warnings but no option to act on them. While you can argue that Thomasina is already being magically influenced by the big bad and unable to act rationally by that point, that still doesn't make this a good ending for a game where there is a (hopefully not completely retarded) player making choices on behalf of the character. If you are going to force the player into choosing a "bad" ending, at least make an attempt at motivating why that is the choice the character must make.

 

[Maxie]

The problem with the ending isn't that is an unambiguous tragedy (games could use more of those, agreed) but that there isn't a good motivation for Thomasina (and more importantly for the player controlling her) to go through with the excavation and then actually break the seal in the end. Instead you are given plenty of warnings but no option to act on them. While you can argue that Thomasina is already being magically influenced by the big bad and unable to act rationally by that point, that still doesn't make this a good ending for a game where there is a (hopefully not completely retarded) player making choices on behalf of the character. If you are going to force the player into choosing a "bad" ending, at least make an attempt at motivating why that is the choice the character must make.

there's at least one reason
she's positively obsessed with her father (or her idea of her father, as others point out), and under the impression Saxnot will make good on the bargain

 

[Jenkem]

the fact Maxie bought this over dreams in the witch house for his le spoopy adventure game de année is quite telling.

 

[Jenkem]

codexers: Point and click games puzzles make no sense, it's moon logic shit! Why can't the puzzles actually make sense and be logical?
also codexers: This point and click game's puzzles made sense and were logical. It's shit and too easy!

 

[True Ukrainian]

A game having easy puzzles is fine. What's unacceptable is when a game actively prevents the player from failing. Like in Norco where at one point you need to buy drugs as part of a puzzle. And the way it's set up, it's possible to fail at this puzzle. But the game then provides an impossible to fail fetch quest that accomplishes the same thing.

 

[Darkozric]

Jenky, when I posted about coprophiles I wasn't referring to you, but if the shoe fits...

In the end, it's just a woke casual game for faggots made by virtue signaling twatterturds, case closed.

 

[agris]

just finished this, it’s easy and pleasing. felt like a bit of art with the ending shaking out the way it did, certainly not a crowd pleaser.

i do wish we had the ability to nope out of things after Tillet’s reveal, but this game is ultimately one that tells a story with a fixed end. I can accept that.

edit: for those saying it makes no sense that she completed the ritual, did you not pick up on her obsession with her father? she thought she was saving him, as her mind was slipping away. to call this game woke is a stretch, unless I missed the sexually ambiguous dangerhair’d barista next to the post man’s warehouse.

 

[Alienman]

Been a while since I played it, but isn't she constantly warned about stuff going badly? I can accept the obsession to a degree, but going suicidal.

 

[GandGolf]

... to call this game woke is a stretch, unless I missed the sexually ambiguous dangerhair’d barista next to the post man’s warehouse.

From the way people talk about it being "Woke" I would expect her to be spouting feminist ideology or at least more modern/liberal thinking than what was typical at the time, though I havem't played the game my self so I can't know for sure. Maybe the people griping about it being woke are just mad because she wears pants instead of the old timey dress that most women were expected to wear in those days.

 

[Maxie]

... to call this game woke is a stretch, unless I missed the sexually ambiguous dangerhair’d barista next to the post man’s warehouse.

From the way people talk about it being "Woke" I would expect her to be spouting feminist ideology or at least more modern/liberal thinking than what was typical at the time, though I havem't played the game my self so I can't know for sure. Maybe the people griping about it being woke are just mad because she wears pants instead of the old timey dress that most women were expected to wear in those days.

it's not lamplight city woke, it's a laughable late 19th century feminist woke. you spot these characters in period prose.
let's just say that she's overt about it in a way april ryan or kate walker (in s1 and 2, at least) weren't

 

[Be Kind Rewind]

to call this game woke is a stretch

They wanted to go for The Wicker Man (1973), but shoved a bunch of niggers, or equivalents, into the supposed far away and isolated British community. It's not a stretch at all to say kikery is afoot and the writing must reflect that also.

 

[agris]

... to call this game woke is a stretch, unless I missed the sexually ambiguous dangerhair’d barista next to the post man’s warehouse.

From the way people talk about it being "Woke" I would expect her to be spouting feminist ideology or at least more modern/liberal thinking than what was typical at the time, though I havem't played the game my self so I can't know for sure. Maybe the people griping about it being woke are just mad because she wears pants instead of the old timey dress that most women were expected to wear in those days.

I am not familiar with the customs and mores of the period any more so than someone who is generally interested in history and lives in the west BUT she struck me as a pampered aristocrat that both thought herself above the superstitious religious rabble and resented the expectation of a husband to anchor her life.

Doesn’t seem too far afield given that she’s raised by a scientist who instills in her that worship of rationality, while being part of the aristocratic class which has always been given to eccentricities while holding themselves apart from cultural expectations.