Game 15 of 2024 - The Excavation of Hob's Barrow

The Excavation of Hob's Barrow

Developer: Cloak and Dagger Games
Publisher: Wadjet Eye Games
Platform: PC
Genre: Adventure, Horror

Difficulty: Easy
Hours: 6

Finished: Yes
Final Rating: 8.6/10

Check out this fuckin' guy.

Give us a kiss love, eh?

That's Arthur. He's a bit of a dipshit. We first meet him as he stumbles, drunk, out of The Plough and Furrow, and accosts our heroine for a kiss. Despite this borderline sexual assault, Arthur actually becomes one of your closest allies in your quest.

Thomasina Bateman arrives in the fictional town of Bewlay to excavate Hob's Barrow. She's an antiquarian like her father, who lies comatose after a mysterious accident years before.

I'm a sucker for this art style.

Players will notice immediately that this bucolic little hamlet has sinister undercurrents. Thomasina, a highly educated and rational individual, soon has the limits of her rationality tested as the tale unfolds, transforming from a historical adventure into a folk horror tale with it's origins in the Bronze Age.

Sweet, sweet, rest.

The Excavation of Hob's Barrow plays like a pretty standard point-and-click adventure games. The puzzles all make sense for the most part, and there aren't any irritating pixel hunts like in lesser games. What really elevates it is the story and the performance of the voice actors. There were times I felt like I was taking part in a period drama rather than playing a game. I'm a big fan of the genre, and this is probably one of the best examples in recent memory.

Kudos.