The Excavation of Hob's Barrow

There's so many reasons why Point&Click games are my favourite videogames in the whole wide world, they are mainly nostalgic reasons, but those nostalgic reasons have been put into my head thanks to Dave Gilbert, Francisco Gonzales or ex-developer Laszlo Pilcz. Sadly these games seem to be non-existent nowadays, but thankfully at the same time some still see the light of day in every year. Unironically the first two names happen to release two standalone games this year.

The Excavation of Hob's Barrow is a semi-Dave Gilbert game. What that means is that he was the executive producer, and the lead-director, so he rather suggested things, than working on them, despite this, The Excavation of Hob's Barrow happened to be one of the best point&game in the genre with its serious tone, occasional humor and weird-love craft heavy art-style/story.

As every point&game since the before times, this one as well starts out with the main character can't do what she wanted in the first place, Thomasina Bateman headed to Bewlay to find and excavate a mysterious barrow that later being revealed as her father's last excavation that keeps her more curious, and finalised into seeking out the truth since her father became ill and incapable to move ever since. 

The game takes place in the course of 4 days, with each one bringing Thomasina closer to excavate Hobb's Barrow. Without much spoiler, it's needless to say that Bewlay isn't the usual lovey-dovey town, in-fact it's rather moody, sinister, and mysterious, with everyone having at least one secret they try to keep. Even though this town is not even close to being friendly, I somewhat loved, then hated, then loved the cast again, only to hate them more by the end, since everyone has their unique personality that even helps you during puzzles. 
"Okay, this guy is a total egoistic unloveable idiot, so he is not going to be much of help", well technically with the exception of one, this description is useful to have before starting your adventures in this English town.

I found the story to be dark, captivating and funny at times, but the ending will leave an acquire taste for sure in people's mouth. It's definitely the weirdest ending a game has, but if you read many folk-horror, or Lovecraft, then I guess you will be used to it, or love it even more than I did, since while I do love the ending of this game, I still feel a little unsatisfied with how things turned out, and it was rather unserious too.

In terms of puzzles, this could be one of the hardest games to get to know the genre, since while lots of the things are clean and straight forward, especially on the last two days even I had to look up things. Many of the puzzles include not only to look at the background, but to know when to look at the background as well. Sometimes it was unclear that out of the 9 things you had to do, what order and where should you start, it would've been also a good choice to remove those points from the map that were only useful for once and then you never have to go back there ever again on that day at least (and I went back to the cottage so many goddamn times for nothing).

At the end I would like to close my thoughts with a praise towards the cast, since the voice actors did a fantastic job (Oh yeah, this game is fully voiced), and also if you really as much of a point&click fanatic as I am, I recommend you to start a new route with the Director Commentary turned on, since the bloopers made me crack up, and the insights were actually quite helpful to know.