A point and click adventure with moody pixel art, fully and well voiced cast and story that grips you from beginning to end.

I really enjoyed this folklore story with Lovecraftian vibes in it. It's based in this small English town of Bewley that has something off in it and slowly you learn more about the people who live there and the history of the town.

On the gameplay side this feels just perfect size for an point and click game. It's not too big of an area so you feel lost but it still requires some thinking what to do next.

near-perfect graphic adventure, great atmosphere, good puzzles which made me think but I never got stuck on.

lost half a star for some jank; sometimes things would change in the game world as per time passing, but only because you'd completed an unrelated task, which meant whenever you did something, you had to check all of the locations again in case something had arbitrarily changed.
Also, there's no option to heed the villagers advice and just.. not excavate the barrow for an alternate ending, which is what I would have done (and then gone back in for the real ending).

Ok per chi alle prime armi con un punta e clicca, se pur anche a scopi iniziativi ci sono titoli di gran lunga più interessanti. Secondo me, in vari punti il racconto e i personaggi si perdono pe strada. Il commentario da parte degli sviluppatori attivabile in-game è pressoché inutile, non offre un gran numero di informazioni circa le loro scelte artistiche, di design e via dicendo. C'è anche qualcosa che non mi convince della pixel art di tanto in tanto, così come dei background e dell'effetto parallasse. In generale non saprei inquadrare bene il motivo, ma ricordo distintamente tutti i momenti poco convincenti. Belli i primi piani, fin troppo poco sfruttati

It's clear from the very start that Thomasina Bateman's curiosity is leading nowhere good. Her mission to dig out a long-sealed barrow, whose last excavation years ago caused multiple deaths and more broken lives, is so obviously a terrible idea. Of course, few things are as frightful or as compelling as an obviously bad idea followed through.

The dread of The Excavation of Hob's Barrow is thick, tangible, it seeps through the greys and browns of every corner in Bewley. The small Yorkshire settlement exists underneath a perpetually overcast sky, with residents as drab to match. It's an unpleasant and hardly inviting place, but also richly realised. Like Thomasina, you can't help but be intrigued by the locals, and the game does an admirable job to play with expectations of who is actually to be trusted, and who are what they claim to be.

It speaks both to the excellent writing and acting that Thomasina remains likeable despite repeatedly handwaving away red flags at every turn. She is not unlike James Sunderland in Silent Hill 2 in that regard. As a player, we're not taking the role of Thomasina so much as we are her drive, her need to go into the darkest depths even though nothing good can come of it.

And nothing does. Hob's Barrow takes its time to get to the horror but the oppressive atmosphere never relents. At key moments, the game will break from the usual point-and-click perspective to play out especially gruesome or revolting scenes with animations that have a sickening fluidity. These moments cut through the sombre unpleasantness and reminds you that something truly wrong is about to happen, and you're about to be the one to make it real.

As with many horror stories that focus on atmosphere and bad vibes, Hob's Barrow can feel narratively slight. The story is peppered with red herrings and dead ends, which make the resolution feel somewhat underwhelming. The end of Thomasina's story is nonetheless as gruesome as it was inevitable. She just couldn't leave well enough alone, but then again, neither could I.

The problem with Hob's Barrow is that it doesn't know when to get to the point. It builds suspense successfully, but then fails to build to anything meaningful until the closing hour or so of the game.

Inevitably, this means the ending is disappointing, because it tries to cram too much "stuff happening" into too small a space.

Combined with far too few puzzles spread out over too long a running time, this means Hob's Barrow is a pleasant enough diversion while it lasts, but it can't sustain itself and won't stick long in the memory afterwards.

I love all these retro-style point ‘n’ click adventures that keep popping up everywhere recently, it feels like re-living my childhood with them. I’ve had my eye on this one for a while, too, and luckily, I wasn’t disappointed at all.

You play as a young brunette who comes from a privileged British family, and decides to follow in her father’s footsteps to become a famous archaeologist, but meets unexpected horrors that she needs to overcome. No, no, her name is not Lara Croft, and believe me, this is where all the similarities with the Tomb Raider franchise end! Instead of fighting your way through countless enemies, you need to solve puzzles – and let me tell you, some of them will be quite challenging even for adventure game veterans (I should know, I consider myself one).

I loved the beautiful pixel art graphics, the music, the voice acting… so everything, basically. Of course, probably the most important element of this genre is the story, but I wouldn’t want to give too much away about it, so let’s just say that, in my opinion, they’ve managed to create the perfect balance of humour, drama, mystery and horror with a spot-on atmosphere to boot. My only complaint is that they leave us with too many loose ends (or they weren’t loose at all, maybe I just didn’t pay close attention, I’m not sure), so I would really love a sequel where we get at least some of the answers. And it wouldn’t hurt to make that one a bit longer, either.

Anyway, highly recommended for adventure fans!

I don't like to say anything bad about indie games, but this was kinda bad.

It's a point-and-click game with very Lovecraftian influence. So Lovecraftian, that effectively nothing happens in the story until the very end, which is predictable and disappointing, albeit the best scene in the game.
It reminds me of Darkseed somewhat - a fairly middling-looking game intersperced with close-up animations, which, unfotunately, were mostly spoiled in the trailer. And of course H. R. Giger didn't design anything here, unlike with Darkseed.

About a third of the game is a fetchquest that could be cut with no issue and is clearly there to pad out the game.

Despite the fact that your protagonist appears smart no amount of choices will save them from fumbling down the dumbest path by the end.

The puzzles are either dumb or require outside knowledge, which is baffling. None of it is incredibly niche, but the game expects you to know some greek alphabet and a few latin words.

Truly a Lovecraftian game in that it's boring as hell. At least the black man wasn't demonic.

Hob's Barrow é mais uma preciosidade encontrada no meio de tantos lançamentos e eu estou genuinamente feliz por ter dado uma chance.

O jogo tem seus problemas em relação a disposição de enredo, mas isso é rapidamente engolido pela ambientação, caracterização dos personagens, dublagem e estilo de arte, o que torna o jogo uma experiência que merece ser apreciada.

Espero que esse seja só o início de um futuro promissor para os amantes de jogos point and click com terror

Formerly known as Incantamentum before being picked up for production by industry leaders Wadjet Eye, Hob's Barrow is a fine folk horror tale in which an archaeological expedition goes awfully awry for Victorian protagonist Thomasina Bateman as she explores a rural England village that quite clearly doesn't want her there.

The game will remind you of Shadow of the Comet, as well as its main inspiration, the original Wicker Man, at every turn. It builds an effective sense of unease and paranoia, without giving in to cheap caricature. It succeeds in placing the player in a position of not knowing who to trust, if anyone at all.

The presentation is beautiful, both in regard to pixel art and music, with elegant writing, the best voice acting that Wadjet money can buy and logical puzzles throughout (if a bit easy sometimes, especially towards the end, when they are a tad too spelled out by Thomasina's diary), along with a quality interface including a fast travel feature which is as useful as it is uncommon in such games, all gel into a quality product throughout.

The one real gripe is the linearity of it all: this is a game that absolutely aches for a moral decision near the end; instead all the player can do is witness the unfolding of the events without any say in the matter. It's not a huge issue, but you will be wishing for some agency at the climax.

Another solid entry in the ever more rejuvenated point & click adventure genre: easy to recommend.

Overall a great point and click adventure, but it does feel a bit tedious at the end as it devolves into all puzzles and little narrative. The puzzles in the game are pretty straight-forward, nothing ground-breaking, but the focus of the game was mostly on the narrative, which is engaging and elevated by some wonderful voice acting.

There is only one ending for the game, which was fine for me as the gameplay did not make it seem like it would be a multiple endings/choices matter game. I didn't love the conclusion of the story, but overall it made sense and maintained a consistent tone with the prior story.

The Excavation of Hob's Barrow define como pocos lo que entendemos hoy como folk horror, una introducción al terror rural. En forma de aventura gráfica tradicional, implementa elementos como los entornos naturales, recónditos y pocos explorados, sumados a un terror asociado a lo antiguo e inexplicable en un mundo controlado por el orden y las jerarquías que nos sirven de brújula.

Esta obra elabora un lenguaje poderoso para hablar de algo tan antiguo como evidente: el mal aciago, elemental, poderoso, convertido en símil de la naturaleza humana. Una obra donde la arqueóloga Thomasina Bateman recibe una intrigante carta que la cita en el pequeño pueblo de Bewlay, escondido en la remota campiña. Al llegar, las personas que allí habitan no parecen tomarse muy bien nuestra presencia, pues estamos ante una comunidad rural totalmente hermética.

Al final, a través de un precioso pixel art compuesto de tonos decadentes, una puesta en escena al servicio del relato, varios acertijos como motor de la historia y un trabajo de voces simplemente espectacular (íntegramente en la lengua de Shakespeare), The Excavation of Hob's Barrow logra transmitir una atmósfera asfixiante y llena de psicodelia donde los contrastes de los protagonistas con la comunidad generan una sensación de misterio y terror.

Análisis completo: https://www.ningunaparte.com/analisis-the-excavation-of-hobs-barrow/

i wanted to like this more than i actually did. My main issue with it is the disconnect i felt with the protagonist after a certain point.
Stories where a character becomes obsessed with something, possibly influenced by some dark force from that something, slowly becoming insane, depend a lot on how this process is told, on how gradual and bit by bit this crash in reality is, and this is where i get a bit annoyed with Hob's Barrow. It just didn't feel like this character was ever reaching a breaking point, sure, she kept making stupid decisions, but because of the acting and the writing, they felt more like dumb mistakes, and not the red flags of someone becoming more insane.
It's a weird nitpick, i know, but the madness of obsession is the whole point of these types of stories. The gradual thinning of the borders of reality, madness and the supernatural should be a slow build up, but a build up still. Meanwhile we have our protagonist in an underground graveyard with magic plants and goats made of shadows, but acting calmly and chill (till the last cutscene at least). Quite a fumble for a folk horror that seemed so cool

The Excavation of Hob's Barrow follows the footsteps of Thomasina Bateman, an archeologist from London who specializes in barrows, which, she'll explain, are a type of tumuli. After receiving a letter from a Mr. Leonard Shoulder telling of a most unusual barrow in the outskirts of the city of Bewlay, she takes the train there to investigate and, hopefully, excavate the place and uncover its secrets. The inhabitants are quick to tell her to turn back, warning that nothing good will come out of this excavation, warnings that Thomasina, ever the rationalist, ignores and presses on.

Before jumping into the game, I read a single review on it: that by Christian Donlan on Eurogamer. Aside from a strong sentiment that the game is best enjoyed as blind as possible, they mentioned how it would linger on their minds for hours after the credits roll. Having now played it myself, I agree on both counts: first, Hob's Barrow is something of a narrative puzzle, best experienced without being aware of how it's constructed, so if you're a fan of psychological horror and/or point-n'-clicks, consider just jumping in blind.

In fact, if you are a fan of horror games, the second point should come at no surprise: this is a story that's built to eat away at its spectator with the many gaps in its events and the insecurities it instills. In that sense, the game has definitely escaped its intended bubble, as many of the complaints leveraged at it from players boil down to "game vague and ending bad", which are baffling takes. This is a work that presents very specific themes, under a particular type of framing, and that is also going for a very well-known style of horror, and a lot of the players coming out dissatisfied are doing so due to refusing to engage with any of those things in more than a surface level.

The Excavation of Hob's Barrow deserves to be given more credit than that: it's a beautifully created game. Every scene is meticulously crafted, every narrative decision is deliberate and purposeful. The town of Bewlay is surrounded by an unnerving atmosphere reinforced by both its eerie sound design and its visuals, the latter shifting between a bread-and-butter pixel art style and twisting, uncanny rotoscoped animations. It also enjoys fantastic voice acting, of a quality and extent that is hard to find, if not unheard of, in an indie game in this price range.

One could say it's much easier to find fault in the mechanical aspects of The Excavation of Hob's Barrow than in its artistic choices, but even then, it's no trivial task. The typical point-'n-click puzzles fit neatly into the setting and escalate alongside the narrative, never getting in the way, and being almost entirely free of the famed Moon Logic that often plagues its genre. The UI is also modern, with interactions and items working in a streamlined fashion, a to-do list helpfully explaining the next goal -- great for hopping in and out -- and a map function that makes exploring Bewlay much faster.

Thomasina's adventure is just, overall, a fantastic experience, a hidden gem I hope to see get more recognition.