I wondered why you never hear about this game compared to Pony Island and Inscryption, and the reason is… it kinda sucks, comparatively. It has a really cool setup and I think it squanders it a bit, nevermind that making a game where you play games and then just failing completely to actually represent half those genres in terms of gameplay is... weird. I mean things like the shooter or the RTS clearly had a lot of effort put into them, but the platforming or "fighting game" gameplay are kind of a joke. Still I feel like its biggest issue lies in the ending, which I can't really explain without spoiling. Still, the game is enjoyable, just not great.

Very tricky to rate, this one. I played this after both Pony Island and Inscryption, so I had some idea what I was getting myself into, and yet the game still ended up surprising me.

In general, I'd say it feels less coherent than Mullins' other titles, and it has by far the most obfuscated storyline of the three; I found reading up on it after playing greatly enhanced my appreciation of this one, which seems like an odd thing to say about a game that I am recommending... Overall it feels like by far the least accessible of the Mullins trilogy.

I was a bit worried that it was going to turn into a reference humour / gaming industry celebrating itself kinda affair after the first couple of chapters; there is a bit of it, but by the latter part of the game the theming has moved onto... something else. I found much of the first half of the game quite weak and a bit cringey with the reference humour; the game actually does a fantastic job of justifying its early weaknesses later on, but this doesnt do much to improve your experience of these bits on your first playthrough.

All in all, it's a game you have to be prepared to push through the beginning of to get to the Mullinsy goodness within. I can recommend it but it's /definitely/ not for everyone.

English | Español

A very original metagame that honors (or parodies) games themselves, from concrete games to the industry as a whole. One of those very particular experiences that Daniel Mullins always offers.

Un metajuego tremendamente original que homenajea (o más bien parodia) a los juegos en sí mismo desde títulos concretos hasta la industria en general. Una de esas experiencias muy particulares que siempre ofrece Daniel Mullins.

Completed with the 'true' ending and all achievements unlocked. From the developers of Pony Island comes this wonderfully subversive follow-up. Set in an old bar with six video game protagonists - from a sorceress to an anthropomorphic weasel - coming together, a mysterious phone call warns of an upcoming murder - and the game proceeds from there. You'll take control of each character in turn, with gameplay following the style of the games from which they originate - 2D platformer, XCOM-like tactics and more. The mechanics of these segments aren't particularly extensively developed - but the 'point' of the game comes really from its plot, with frequent fourth-wall-breaking and a satisfying tying-together of the disparate backgrounds of the characters. I'll not go into more detail to avoid spoilers, but suffice to say, The Hex gets a strong recommendation from me.

Creo sinceramente que le sobra una horilla o asi de mecanicas y cosas que, personalmente, me han aburrido un pelin. Sin embargo, juego xulisimo y


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fuck Lionel.

Another fantastic game by the brilliant Daniel Mullins. The Hex covers the mystery that surrounds many different forgotten game characters. I can only imagine the pains this must have been to code. It's a platformer, fighting game, RPG, top-down shooter, and more.

While I adore this game, I do think some parts of it drags on for a little longer than needed. Especially the RPG part. You could argue this is a commentary about how turn based RPGs usually are very long, but I personally found this part of the game fairly boring.

That said, other than that the genre bending game is incredible. The gameplay and commentary on games as a whole in very interesting, fun and overall an experience you can't get anywhere else. We'll all keep buying Daniel Mullins games.

The Hex: A love letter to (and some critique of) video games, a story that simply cannot be told in any other medium. There are hits and misses here, but there's no denying Daniel Mullins is quite the creative... and he needs help ending his games.

The Hex is a lot of things in one, I guess I'd describe it as a meta-narrative puzzler at its core. The “meta” and “puzzle” parts are pretty solid (though “puzzle” gets too absurd), but the “narrative” could use some work.

For meta, expect references galore. There's direct references to older games like Mario, Sonic, and even Tapper, and then some to newer games like Hotline Miami and PUBG. A pompous developer makes light of crunch culture, you'll see a Twitch chat and Steam reviews while you play, and GameShark-like cheat codes will help you even the odds. You, the player, will be referenced and spoken to directly. This is clearly a favorite concept for Daniel, I think he's 3 for 3 with this.

For puzzles, there's a few layers here. There are plenty of puzzles in the game to solve, including ones that'll have you using your cursor on screen to block lights as though it was a physical hand. Plenty of this sorts of stuff. But linking back to “meta”, if you want to know how far the rabbit hole goes with The Hex, you need to download and play an entirely different game (on Steam) just to find codes that work here. It's ambitious, but I think it's also absurd. I downloaded that other game but then decided I'm not going through the rigamarole, thank god for YouTube. This should be reined in a bit.

I found the narrative to be the least interesting part. Since I don't want to spoil anything, I'll say obviously this game is far more than its Steam page says. Starting with the easy surface stuff, I wasn't super interested in any story to keep me going, more so just wondering what the next gameplay change or meta reference would be. You can go way, way down in the story behind the scenes, and after reading up on it a bit I still don't care very much. It barely gripped me while I played the game, so it's not likely to grip me afterwards.

The ending bit with the walking simulator was a total drag. The voiceover sucks and obviously that's the intent, but knowing I'm not supposed to like what I'm experiencing doesn't help me all too much in these moments. So for the game to just slow way down before an ending I don't care about? I don't know, just not a very strong exit, here. As previously mentioned, I felt this with other games by Daniel Mullins: I don't remember much of Pony Island's ending except for not liking it, and Inscryption goes into this fourth wall-break shit even deeper for a longer time. Really, this may be my favorite final act of any of his games, but I don't like it. So.

The Hex is very interesting in many ways. This kind of game is more of a mystery than most are willing to delve into; layers upon layers and even a companion-piece game is needed to get a semblance of a final picture. You can read on its Steam discussions how far down this whole thing really goes. For me, I simply wasn't hooked enough to get that absorbed.

Check out The Hex if you love games, especially light horror ones that play with your head a bit. I guarantee it's not like anything else you've played, but it's up to you to decide if that's good or bad. I'm still not totally sure, but Daniel? Keep making games, please.

Toda carreira artística carrega um pouco de quem a faz, né?
Como aqueles livros " a vida e obra de fulano" chegam a ser redundantes.
Nossas obras refletem nossas vidas, refletem quem você foi no especifico momento em que deu luz aquela ideia e a executou. Era você ali, apesar de uma versão morta sua.
Sabendo disso, como vai se ver ao olhar nos olhos desses espelho colorido que você criou de si mesme?
A obra se torna viva por essas memórias, por esse pedaço de humanidade que deixamos escapar em cada uma delas (mesmo nas vazias ou industriais), assim sendo como lidamos com ela?
The Hex sabe brincar com camadas do imaginário que acessam essa humanidade nas obras.
Brincar com essa autorreferência é de se esperar do Mullins, mas usar isso para envolver esse conceito de arte viva é convincente e instigante, ainda mais quando lidamos e controlamos (ou vivemos) essas obras e esses personagens, É difícil não sentir que cada um deles tem um pouco da humanidade deixada pelo personagem que os criou no jogo.
Só é uma pena um jogo que em sua camada interna fala tanto dessa humanidade, deixar sua própria humanidade de lado.
Senti falta de uma abertura nesse jogo, de uma conversa próxima, aberta, verdadeira e vulnerável.
No final das contas, uma conversa humana nunca será substituída pela vida e obra de um personagem que nunca viveu.
Fosse esse jogo sincero e real ao seu final em sua humanidade, teria um impacto gigantesco.
Como não é, se torna um jogo hipócrita e que luta para sobreviver nos resquícios de humanidade não intencionais.

I'm fascinated with how Daniel Mullins thinks about games. Pony Island was super interesting, and The Hex even moreso. However, neither game is terribly compelling to play? Especially since important aspects are intentionally obfuscated, or even located in completely other games. I would recommend watching a good stream of this game, but even that would lessen the impacts of the themes found within this game. An extremely hard game to rate, but please play it if it sounds interesting to you.

Very excited to play Inscryption!

No estamos preparados para los juegos de Daniel Mullins... Sus juegos están hechos para personas que viven en Twin Peaks o en el universo de The Black Mirror.
En The Hex todo parece normal: unos personajes de videojuegos se reúnen en una posada para descubrir un asesinato (solo falta Sherlock Holmes y Poirot) Hasta que algo hace clik... bien esa estática incesante de la pantalla, ese ruido que no cuadra o esa pantalla negra, que nos recuerda que algo está mal...
S҉͢͡a̶͢͞d̷͢͡o҈̛͢.҈̡̛e҉̨͞x҈̡͝ȩ̶̛.̸̡͝.̶̢̛.̷̨̕s҉̧͡a̵͢͡ḑ̷͞o̵̢҇.̵̡҇e̴̡҇x҉͢͡ę̵͞.҉̧͠.̷͜͞.̵͢͡.̵̨͠s̸̡͠a̸̧͞d҈̡͠ǫ̶̕.̶̢҇e̶̡҇x̷̨̛e̷͢͞.̸̡̕.̵̛͢.҈̡͞.҉̧҇s̷̡̕a̸̡̕d҉̡҇o̵͜͡.҉̨͡e҈҇͜x̶͢͠e҉͢͠.҉̧̕.̶̧̕.̸̕͢.҉҇͜.̶̧̕.̴̢̕
̶¿̶P̶o̶r̶ ̶q̶u̶é̶ ̶m̶i̶s̶ ̶a̶m̶i̶g̶o̶s̶ ̶r̶e̶s̶e̶ñ̶a̶n̶ ̶e̶s̶t̶e̶ ̶j̶u̶e̶g̶o̶?̶ ̶¿̶Q̶u̶é̶ ̶s̶o̶n̶ ̶e̶s̶o̶s̶ ̶m̶e̶n̶s̶a̶j̶e̶s̶ ̶e̶n̶ ̶p̶a̶n̶t̶a̶l̶l̶a̶?̶ ̶¿̶T̶e̶n̶g̶o̶ ̶u̶n̶ ̶v̶i̶r̶u̶s̶?̶ ̶ ̶

Nos encontraremos con juego-multijuegos, donde daremos rienda suelta a nuestro teclado y ratón en juegos tan diferentes como: Point and click, plataformas, RPG, estratégicos, lucha machaca botones, shoters y un walking simulator. Todo ello adornado con mods, y una especie de "estudio de videojuegos" para ver las tripas de los juegos y cómo se hacen...
̶L̶o̶s̶ ̶p̶e̶r̶s̶o̶n̶a̶j̶e̶s̶ ̶d̶e̶ ̶v̶i̶d̶e̶o̶j̶u̶e̶g̶o̶s̶ ̶t̶i̶e̶n̶e̶n̶ ̶s̶e̶n̶t̶i̶m̶i̶e̶n̶t̶o̶s̶,̶ ̶y̶ ̶n̶o̶s̶o̶t̶r̶o̶s̶ ̶n̶o̶ ̶e̶s̶t̶a̶m̶o̶s̶ ̶l̶i̶s̶t̶o̶s̶ ̶p̶a̶r̶a̶ ̶s̶e̶r̶ ̶j̶u̶d̶g̶a̶d̶o̶s̶ ̶p̶o̶r̶ ̶h̶a̶c̶e̶r̶l̶e̶s̶ ̶p̶a̶s̶a̶r̶ ̶c̶a̶d̶a̶ ̶m̶i̶n̶u̶t̶o̶ ̶p̶o̶r̶ ̶e̶s̶a̶ ̶t̶o̶r̶t̶u̶r̶a̶ ̶q̶u̶e̶ ̶e̶s̶ ̶e̶s̶t̶a̶r̶ ̶m̶e̶t̶i̶d̶o̶ ̶e̶n̶ ̶u̶n̶a̶ ̶c̶a̶j̶a̶ ̶l̶l̶e̶n̶a̶ ̶d̶e̶ ̶c̶o̶l̶o̶r̶i̶n̶c̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶d̶e̶ ̶l̶e̶d̶,̶ ̶e̶n̶ ̶l̶a̶ ̶q̶u̶e̶ ̶t̶i̶e̶n̶e̶n̶ ̶q̶u̶e̶ ̶b̶o̶t̶a̶r̶,̶ ̶d̶i̶s̶p̶a̶r̶a̶r̶,̶ ̶l̶a̶n̶z̶a̶r̶ ̶c̶o̶n̶j̶u̶r̶o̶s̶ ̶o̶ ̶v̶e̶t̶e̶ ̶a̶ ̶s̶a̶b̶e̶r̶ ̶q̶u̶é̶.̶
En este juego conoceremos 6 historias de personajes de videojuegos, todas ellas entrelazadas y con un propósito en común: destapar al asesino, al verdadero asesino de esta trama.