Every now and then you get something that eschews the normal rules of traditional gameplay. A game that doesn’t really care how you decide to operate within its world, instead opting to present you with a room of doors, and it’s entirely up to you which one you open.

Hohokum represents this perfectly. Its hands-off approach to gameplay means you can take your time to search through each level, probing your surroundings for the tiny details of flair that give the game a sense of innocence and charm. Everything you see is doused in a beautifully vibrant aesthetic, and the world itself is populated by wondrous creatures that look like they’ve been ripped straight from your wildest dreams. Strange towers with eyes, U-shaped bees, and large-headed people playing violins are just some of the sights that can be found within the game’s picturesque dream world. There’s always the feeling that for every elephant creature or hat-making villager you find, you still have more to see, and there’s just no way of knowing what creation will appear next.

Perhaps the weirdest creature of them all is you. Your involvement with the world comes in the form of a giant snake-like creature with one singular beady eye placed at the head of its long, twisting body.  You are, for lack of a better word, a magical flying Cyclops. And as a magical flying Cyclops, you have the freedom to weave through the world, exploring its features and completing tasks along the way. The creature controls as you would imagine, with the thumbstick used to control the direction of the head and the body propelling it forward. Using the Square button slows you down for precision movement; whilst holding X lets you build up momentum to travel much faster across the landscape. Neither function is relevant to any of the game’s tasks, but they go a long way towards helping you experience the world at your own pace. Slowing the speed down can be especially helpful if you’re trying to examine some of the finer details of the world, as the creature is in a constant state of momentum, which can make it hard to get a good look at the environment and its inhabitants.

As for what the goal of the game is, well that’s somewhat debatable. There’s a large emphasis on exploration within Hohokum which is made clear from the lack of guidance it gives you. When the game starts, you’re shown a delightful display of several creatures that fly alongside you as they playfully weave across your screen. Eventually you reach a middle point in the world, and the creatures disperse in all directions leaving you all alone in this unknown dreamscape. From what I can gather, this is the start of some crazy inter-dimensional game of hide and seek, but the game never really gives you any explanation or prompts about what is happening, instead leaving you to your own devices in the hope that you’ll figure it out in the end.

At one point, I entered a world full of hollowed logs that seemed to go on forever. Each log was just like the last, and despite being able to go through them, there didn’t seem to be any real interaction to be had with these scattered pieces of timber. And so I searched, across the edges, and throughout the middle of this forest of logs, at first quizzically and then desperately, struggling for a revelation as to what it was this zone actually wanted me to do, only to go away empty handed and frustrated. And to this day I still have no idea what the goal of this room was, or just what I had missed so blatantly.  Unfortunately this issue persists throughout several of the worlds, and what at first feels like a whimsical canvas to explore soon turns into a hastily wrapped tussle as you desperately scan the horizon for a hint or a clue as to what the game actually wants from you.

These worlds are what Hohokum is made up of, and each one seems to serve as its own separate puzzle. In one instance I entered, I was greeted with a trio of elephant men wearing water tanks. As I sailed past them, they boarded my snake body and began to collect globs of honey that was floating across the skyline. Below them rested a giant mechanical labyrinth of pipes and tanks, and the goal of this world was to gather up enough of this honey to fill the main tank, which in turn gave me access to climb inside the machine and reach a blocked off area. After accomplishing my task, a creature like me – one of the several we saw at the start of the game – emerges, and I’m treated to a mini cutscene of strange creatures doing strange things. This world is seemingly complete, though I’d never know for sure.

The portals are an intertwined series of pathways; each one offering access to another land with each one representing its own distinctive motif. On one occasion I found myself stumbling across a water park filled to the brim with partygoers. There was excitement and life as far as you could fly, and the entire zone was alive with activity. That is, until I travelled below the platforms and festivities. Passing through a seemingly unimportant gap in the rocky underside of the structure caused the world to pulsate, and all of a sudden things took a strange turn. The party was over, and the once active water slides lay in ruins.  The platforms that were so alive moments ago had now been reclaimed by nature, and the overall tone had instantly shifted to something more serene. It’s these moments, of sheer intrigue, that carry Hohokum above the leagues of a simple puzzle game. In the blink of an eye, the simple act of passing between two rocks revealed a new world, and as far as I’ve seen this mechanic is unique to this specific zone. And there’s plenty of other seemingly unobvious triggers scattered across the game that offer these charming little nuggets for you to experience, and it’s fair to say that this is the true heart and soul of the game.

To say that Hohokum is a puzzle game would be doing it a disservice. While it is true that there are goals to achieve, these are not strictly the main aim of the game. Instead, you’re given this colourful playground full of imaginative creatures and interactions, and you’re simply told to go and play. However, when the time comes to progress through the game, some of the puzzles present themselves in the most obscure ways imaginable, often leaving you flying around in circles wondering just what the game is trying to tell you. Those of you who like a clear cut challenge should probably avoid this title, but if exploration and colourful dream-creatures are your thing then I would strongly recommend diving in.

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆ 

What does this score mean?

This review is based on experiences from the PS4 version of the game.

© 2014, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Late last year I had the pleasure of reviewing Buddha Finger, a charming kung-fu themed game for the iPad and developed by Lady Shotgun Games. The writing and music for that title was handled by Katharine Neil who is about to release a game under her own label, Cheap Drunk Games. That game is Alone in the Park and I had a chance to get my hands on an iPad preview build. This text-based/graphical adventure game hybrid impressed me with how the game is structured and the casual feel of playing it. I’ll save a full review for when it’s released, so for now here are some relevant facts and impressions about what to expect.

The setup for Alone in the Park is that the player’s character discovers a mysterious letter indicating that there’s a treasure to be found in a nearby park. The location of that treasure is uncovered by finding map pieces through exploration and puzzle-solving. Along the way, the player encounters a variety of oddball characters most of whom will require some sort of favor to be completed in order to gain important information or a map piece from them. Naturally the process of completing that goal isn’t simple, and will often require backtracking to find other clues and achieve other goals in order to progress further.

Uncover new locations and characters in the park through exploration.

Perhaps the most interesting element of Alone in the Park is how it is played. Half of the user interface is a text area used to describe what’s going on and display conversations between the characters. The other half of the GUI is the graphical portion of the game. By default it will display the park map while the player is exploring. The entire map isn’t visible at one time, and key locations in the park must be discovered by walking near them (think ‘fog of war’) at which point they are drawn on the map. The player enters those locations in order to find objects, animals, new characters and in general to help the story progress. Any objects, clues, or characters that are encountered receive an icon in a tray for use later.

Interaction with the characters is handled in a simple, straightforward approach from the player’s perspective. The developer intentionally focuses on not including complicated conversation trees. Instead, the player can drag an image of an object or creature they’ve encountered onto the picture of another character in order to potentially initiate a new conversational topic (only some topics are conversation-worthy to a particular character). It’s in this manner that the plot is developed and puzzles are solved. I couldn’t help but be reminded of my experiences playing the old LucasArts adventure games like Sam & Max Hit the Road. Like the characters in that game, Alone in the Park plays heavily on stereotypes. The characters are pretty one-note like the spiritual healer, the eco warrior, the businessman and so on.  Cheap Drunk gets a lot of comedic mileage out of it thanks to text-based storytelling full of witty sarcasm and a heavy dose of puns and innuendo.

Although the characters encountered are one-dimensional, there’s plenty of humor to be found.

Aside from a bit of nostalgia, what I enjoyed most about the preview build was the leisurely way in which it can be played. There’s a log of all current tasks and the latest progress on them, so it’s really the kind of game that someone can play for brief bursts and come back to with little trouble. The final game will be a short experience (an estimated four hours or so), but that seems well-suited for a casual mystery. Alone in the Park is scheduled to release on June 15th for PC, Mac, Linux, and the iPad. Be sure to check back here at The Indie Mine for a full review. In the meantime, you can find the trailer below.

© 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Lately I have been on a space-faring kick and had the urge to pilot a ship and explore the far reaches of the galaxy. As a result I have come upon Drox Operative, an action-based RPG created by Soldak Entertainment, Inc. The game is set in a randomly created galaxy full of dangerous enemies, unique civilizations, uncharted worlds, and the thirst for adventure. In the universe of Drox Operative you are a member of the titular Drox Operatives, a mercenary group who operate in the galaxy as a neutral entity and work to further their own gains. The Drox Operatives have no qualms over how they achieve their goals so you, as their newest member, have total free reign on how to expand.

You are thrown into the game world piloting your own Drox ship and what happens next is completely up to the player. You can scour the randomly-created galaxy wiping out dangerous monsters strewn throughout the area, gain favor with the local civilizations by aiding them with quests, or simply explore and discover strange anomalies and treasures. My career as a Drox Operative began with the christening of my own ship aptly named the “Space Weasel”. From there on I was plunked into a random jumpgate and thus began my journey into the unknown.

The Space Weasel in all her glory

Much like the abyss of space, the beginning of Drox Operative is very daunting. There is a lot of information you must take in right from the get go. The first time you play, a tutorial help-screen begins and I highly advise that you take a thorough examination of the help screens otherwise you will become easily lost. This game can be a bit unforgiving and simply going in blind will cut your adventures very short, very quickly. After mastering the basics, though, will get you into familiar and comfortable territory, as an RPG the mainstay of the game is loot and there are plenty of loot to be had. The items use a color-code system for rarity and grading much like other dungeon crawlers. You can venture out and acquire better equipment for your ship and with experience comes even bigger and better ships, meaning even more quality loot. Be sure not to dawdle too long, though. Unlike most ARPG’s things happen and progress whether you intervene or not. Monsters will patrol the galaxy and feuds between rival civilizations will ensue. Entire worlds may rise and fall without you even being aware of it. You are simply a pawn in the vast universe of Drox Operative.

Anomalies, monsters, incoming missile, just another day for a Drox Operative

You have an end-goal, multiple ones in fact, that you must reach in order to “win” that current galaxy and progress to the next one. Each time you must ensure that the Drox come up on top via whichever method you choose, be it a decisive military win and destroying all those who appose you and your ally, trading goods and becoming rich with an economic win, using brute force and striking fear into the other surviving races so they will not dare oppose you, or simply become a legend and do legendary deeds by vanquishing vile monsters. The choice is yours to make, as a Drox Operative you call the shots and you win how you want to.

Galactic diplomacy, how hard can it be?

The game has a very distinct feel about its gameplay, it plays a lot like a traditional dungeon crawler and yet has a bit of Civilization or RTS mashed into it. An odd mix, but it certainly does work and has its own unique allure. If you have an itching to pilot your own starship and explore, plunder, destroy, or what have you, Drox Operative will certainly not disappoint. My space-faring career may have just started, but the Space Weasel and her crew will soon be feared by all as we aim to be the top Drox Operative.

Great Game!

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆ 

What does this score mean?

This game was reviewed using a copy provided by the developer for that purpose.

Visit the developer’s page
Demo or buy the game

© 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.