Modron
Arcane
- Joined
- May 5, 2012
- Messages
- 11,162
Here is your bunch of equivalents right here, I didn't even remember him because he's not much more than part of the background in a location you visit once and not for very long.
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The Excavation of Hob's Barrow (formerly Incantamentum) - folk horror adventure set in rural Victorian England
- Thread starter LESS T_T
- Start date
Played the game about two years ago and generally enjoyed it, but as others have already said in the thread, the experience was somewhat marred by the ending.
Thomasina may be obsessed with her father, but I still didn't buy the sudden switch from rational investigation to mindlessly completing the ritual; especially since evidence found in game and that Thomasina is aware of (as far as I recall) shows completing the ritual is not going to accomplish what she hopes.
I get the devs were going for a feeling of inevitable doom to wrap up the story, but what works in a passive medium like movies und novels, where we aren't in direct control of the characters whose stories we follow, does not necessarily lend itself to the medium of games. Without any convincing reason for me, as the player, to follow through or at least to understand the how or why of the sudden shift in Thomasina's mindset, I pretty much disengaged mentally during the ending sequence and just completed it to be done with the game. As such, the whole ending fell flat for me and all the buildup throughout the game came to nothing.
It felt a bit like the specifics of the ending were already decided on, but when designing the how and why of getting there after learning the truth, dev resources were running thin. "How do we motivate Thomasina and/or the player to complete the ritual?" "Dunno, guess she just goes crazy after learning the truth or something."
I remember feeling pretty disappointed when I completed it years ago. Might have to give it a spin again to the see whether I would still come the same conclusion or if, on a second play through, I might spot some hints or foreshadowing I perhaps overlooked the first time around.
Thomasina may be obsessed with her father, but I still didn't buy the sudden switch from rational investigation to mindlessly completing the ritual; especially since evidence found in game and that Thomasina is aware of (as far as I recall) shows completing the ritual is not going to accomplish what she hopes.
I get the devs were going for a feeling of inevitable doom to wrap up the story, but what works in a passive medium like movies und novels, where we aren't in direct control of the characters whose stories we follow, does not necessarily lend itself to the medium of games. Without any convincing reason for me, as the player, to follow through or at least to understand the how or why of the sudden shift in Thomasina's mindset, I pretty much disengaged mentally during the ending sequence and just completed it to be done with the game. As such, the whole ending fell flat for me and all the buildup throughout the game came to nothing.
It felt a bit like the specifics of the ending were already decided on, but when designing the how and why of getting there after learning the truth, dev resources were running thin. "How do we motivate Thomasina and/or the player to complete the ritual?" "Dunno, guess she just goes crazy after learning the truth or something."
I remember feeling pretty disappointed when I completed it years ago. Might have to give it a spin again to the see whether I would still come the same conclusion or if, on a second play through, I might spot some hints or foreshadowing I perhaps overlooked the first time around.
Denim Destroyer
Learned
I played through this game today only stopping for meals. My obsession stems from a desire to uncover the mystery rather than enjoying the puzzles which were too easy with one exception.
Even the latin puzzle near the end was a cakewalk on account of basic deduction skills and I don't even speak the language! As a side digression the ancient Greek puzzle is not accurate. You need to press the "Epsilon" button but the character representing it is that of capitalized sigma. this threw me off for a moment before realizing the developer made a mistake.
Overall an alright game but not one that will be a classic due to easy puzzles and poor finale.
I spent an hour trying to find the tower key.
I did see complaints about the ending and how it is unnatural for such a rational woman to suddenly partake in the supernatural "hogwash" as she likes to call it. This development makes sense when you understand that the only things she cares for are her work and her father. Something the game hammers into you early on. Still I felt that the ending sequence was overtly blunt with how real the supernatural was. What I would have done was allude to the entire barrow dungeon being a figment of the main characters imagination. Have her awake inside the barrow which is missing flowers and a pit. Allow Lord Panswyck's chapel to be finished but remove the segment of people walking in for its evil services. I would keep the ending segment inside the hospital.
Overall an alright game but not one that will be a classic due to easy puzzles and poor finale.
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When I think about it now, she reminds me of agent Scully. Always the sound and logical mind, forever a skeptic, even when abducted by aliens and what not. I guess Tomasina fulfilling the ritual was because she could just not believe any of this supernatural hogwash, even if it’s happening right in front of her eyes.
You may want to let the developer know about the mistake about the Epsilon and sigma.
Also suggest spoiler tagging your suggestion for the alternate ending.
Wouldn't say so myself, she's very much succumbing to the low oxygen air filled with eldritch fumes and being manipulated by Saxnot to pursue her father - as always, in everything she does
AndyS
Augur
- Joined
- Sep 11, 2013
- Messages
- 604
Just played through this one. I liked it well enough, although I have to agree with comments about the ending. It's always awkward when you're controlling a character in a game and you realize there's a discrepancy between how you see things and how the character sees things (or doesn't), but the game takes the character's side because they've got a story to tell and booting your ass out of the experience is necessary to get the conclusion they want.
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