Barrow Hill Review

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            Barrow Hill

Review by EnigmaOctober 2006

There’s a menace out there somewhere, and it’s close. As you tramp through the dark, damp woods, alone, or crunch down the deserted road, you can feel the thing, whatever it is, that menace, looming just out of sight. Sometimes you can hear it—in the pay phone, on a tape recording. Oh yes, it’s there.

“We’re Off Down the Rabbit Hole”

So says Emma Harry, your friendly local DJ, as you watch a car drive along a country road in grainy black and white film reminiscent of a “B” horror flick. Emma says that it’s September 21st, the autumnal equinox, and who amongst us doesn’t know that meant something to the ancient Celtic pagans? The car stalls and suddenly everything’s in color, and there you are standing by your inoperative, inaccessible car. Turn around and you see two tall stones flanking the road. Try to walk through them and—oh my. Something very strange happens.

So you walk down the dark road in the other direction, hearing the sounds of your footsteps and, maybe, hearing something else moving in the woods. That sound, that rustling in the foliage, it isn’t in sync with your movements, quite. Is someone following you?  Look to the right and the left and you see steps going up the hill, a dark stone structure, some intriguing mushrooms. Keep going down that dark, dark road and you come to an island of light, a small service station with a café, three motel rooms, restrooms and a garage. There’s a car idling by the petrol pumps. But where are the people? Enter the café and you’ll meet Ben, who’ll talk, or rather, babble, to you through the office door. Ben has locked himself in the office and he won’t come out.

What’s got Ben so scared? Could it have anything to do with the Stonehenge-like site that’s the area’s tourist attraction?

That’s what you’re going to find out in one of the most immersive pure adventure games I’ve played. Barrow Hill has two massive strengths as an adventure game: its atmosphere and its puzzle(s).

Lonely, Lonely, Lonely, Night

The entire game takes place at night, and you seem to be mostly alone. Except for Ben and the voices on the radio, no one else seems to be around. No one human, that is.

Much of the time you’re in silence, with only the sounds of movement in the woods—your own movement, you hope. That silence in the night enhances the atmosphere. I won’t call it “spooky,” but it’s clearly unsafe. When something significant happens, you’ll hear just the right touch of sound or music. Nothing’s overdone.  It’s just there, like that thing that might be stalking you, and it multiplies the tension.

There are a few jump-in-your-chair surprises, but I’ll let you find out about those on your own.

You’ll just have to put up with that off-balance feeling as you work your way through the mystery of Barrow Hill.

Clues! Real Clues!

The game is essentially one large, elegant puzzle built of many layers. All of it is logical and real-world, well, as long as you buy into the supernatural force with which you’re dealing in the game. When you want to light a match, you have to strike the match on the matchbox. Plenty of items can be manipulated, but only some are useful. Some of the appliances work, but you won’t need them all. Not only the final, game-ending puzzle, but many of the embedded puzzles that are part of it come in many layers. Because the game is essentially nonlinear, there’s almost always something to do, so you probably won’t experience many “stucknesses” in the game. It’s so nonlinear, in fact, that you can even decide to do the final puzzle piece by piece, or save up those pieces and do it all at once. Personally, I found the piece-by-piece approach more satisfying.

Most importantly, Barrow Hill gives you clues. Real, actually helpful clues to each and every major puzzle in the game, often more than one clue to each puzzle. If you explore everywhere, examine everything in good adventuring style and take notes, you shouldn’t have too much trouble piecing it all together. I did it without a walkthrough and later learned that I’d missed the clue to one major puzzle, but I was still able to hack my way systematically through it.

I’m calling these “puzzles,” but these aren’t the 7th Guest or Shivers type. These include finding items, choosing from those the thing(s) you need, combining some things, and figuring out the right place to put the resulting stuff. All of it is so well thought out that it fits together seamlessly. You wander around and find something else—ah! That makes sense! Now I know what to do! Meanwhile, you’re also looking for combinations to locks—patience, patience, you’ll find them—finding journal entries scattered about, getting into new areas of the game and exploring those places, and dealing with the odd little surprise that comes your way from time to time.  And, of course, all the while you’re trying to figure out what’s going on.

The puzzles are almost all inventory-based, and the inventory system is the easiest I’ve ever used. Just move the cursor to the bottom of the screen (or the top in some instances), and there are your items. Click on the one you want, and the game uses it automatically.  No right-clicking needed, just a simple click and you’re done. Icons on the screen tell you when you need an item. Sometimes you’ll have it already, sometimes you’ll have to wait until you find it or look around for it. You can turn on or off descriptions of the inventory items. “Off” makes the game more difficult, especially if you choose to do the final puzzle all at once.

The game plays fair. If a machine is missing some parts, they’ll usually be close by. There’s the standard turn-on-the-lights, get-the-phone-working, open-the-door type of puzzle, and then there’s that mystery you’ve got to figure out from those clues. The clues are scattered everywhere: in the usual journals, in letters, and in other places. Explore, touch, read, take notes, think, and keep your eyes open until it starts to make sense.

“Indie” Means “Imagination”

Barrow Hill comes from England, developed independently by Matt Clark with significant input from Jonathan Boakes of Dark Fall and Lights Out fame. Boakes, in fact, even provides the voice for the hapless Ben and four other characters, and he helped with the sound, filming, and concept development. Barrow Hill probably does fall into the “horror” category, although you won’t see any ghastly sights—well, not up close, anyway. You’ll just experience sinister sounds, unsettling silence, and delve into something mysterious that seems to have killed several folks and just might be after you, too.

The voice acting, although done mostly by Boakes and, apparently, the entire Clark family with a few helpers, is just fine. Only Matt Clark himself, as the voice of a vanished archeologist, goes a little far with some insane giggles. Had he cut the giggles, his performance would have scored much higher. The voices even provide some humor in cheesy local radio commercials. You’ll find more humor by reading pamphlets and things like the café menu, a nice relief from the worry.

While some indoor objects, especially in the café, could have used one more layer of shading, the outdoor artwork is wonderful.  Even in the night, the things you see illuminated by your weak lantern look really nice. My only serious frustration was that there’s a padlocked door in the kitchen that you can never open. It turned out to lead innocently outside and wasn’t needed, but it made me feel as though I were missing a whole game area. I wish I could have opened the darned thing.

The game comes on two CDs, the first for installation only, the second for gameplay. It’s a slideshow presentation, which, I think, works well for the game. The static screens allow for better hotspot searching, and those spots are plenty big enough. No annoying pixel hunting needed. I’d rather have the cursor move than have one of those awful stationary cursors with the screens spinning around, giving me vertigo. And navigation, especially when tramping through the dark woods, is easier with a slideshow format. It adds to that unsafe atmosphere when you can only see a little bit at a time.

I played on an Intel iMac in XP Home with SP2, and experienced no glitches at all. There are limited save slots, but they’re sufficient.  I’d guess that it took me about 20 hours to play, although I was too immersed in the game to really keep track.

It’s the realism that makes the supernatural elements seem so menacing, the beautifully designed, multi-layered puzzles with their much-appreciated clues, the dark atmosphere, lovely graphics, and the restrained, perfectly pitched sounds that make this game an experience. It’s a thinker’s game, of course. Those addicted to slash, smash and blast won’t find anything here to feed their needs. But if you complain about standard-issue, find-the-hot-spot, just-another-puzzle adventure games, try Barrow Hill. With fewer resources than established companies, by applying imagination instead of dollars (sorry, pounds) Matt Clark and friends have produced a game that reinvigorates the genre. This is real adventure.

Try it. That is, if you’re not too scared to go walking in the woods, alone, at night. The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: Shadow Tor Studios Publisher: Got Game (North America) Release Date: September 2006 (North America)

Available for: Windows

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Screenshots

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System Requirements

Pentium III 450 MHz or better Windows 98se/2000/XP 128 MB RAM (256 MB recommended) DVD-ROM drive (for European release) SVGA graphics card with 32-bit color DirectX 9 compatible sound card

Where to Find It

Links provided for informational purposes only.  FFC makes no warranty with regard to any transaction entered into by any party(ies).

      Copyright © Electric Eye Productions.  All rights reserved.  No reproduction in whole or in part without express written permission.

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14 Responses to Fear Factor

  • Fear Factor | Tap-Repeatedly.com | Reality Topics Blog

    […] nobody@flickr.com (graftedno1) wrote a very interesting post today.   Here’s a quick excerpt:My greatest fear is to be trapped alone in a confined space with a blind human, in total darkness. They have a heightened sense of smell and hearing, and. […]

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    Lewis, you made me think of the scariest moments I’ve experienced in gaming, and we’re very similar people.

    Bioshock had two moments – the dentist and the flooded room filled with mannequins.

    Thief had Return to the Cathedral, which was terrifying to me. Thief 3 had Shalebridge Cradle, which is so scary it ought to be fined.

    System Shock 2 kept me on the edge of my seat, but it was more lonely panic than true fear.

    Korsakovia was so scary that I uninstalled it.

    And STALKER. Oh, god, the haunted labs in STALKER. The latter two games don’t have scares like that. Few games do.

    It’s especially rare for a game to have more than mere “moments” – for a game to be scary from beginning to end, that’s a triumph.

    Wonderful article. As if Gregg’s review wasn’t enough to convince me that Penumbra is not something I have the courage to play!

  • DPenn

    I’m with you Lewis … I’m a bit of a puss. I just have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of dread as entertainment.

    Still, I’m drawn to dark stories when they have something interesting to say, whether it’s a game like Thief or a film like, say, Gaspar Noe’s Irreversible. So I’ll push through, sometimes peering through my fingers.

    The trouble with games, though, is that if you look through your fingers, you’re probably just going to have to play through the scenario again. :~)

  • Mike "Scout" Gust

    I wanted to play this game. I downloaded the demo but the controls were just too wonky for me to get my head around. I liked the atmospheric vibe a lot. I think I’m a bit desensitized from an overdose of horror movies in my youth so I don’t so much get the dread thing from these games as a nice creepy vibration. If only the controls were better…

  • Lewis B

    @ Mike, what’s wrong with the controls bud? As someone who despises poor control schemes, Penumbra’s is just like any other FPS, except to examine things you right click on them.  To use things you left click.  I’m not sure that can be considered difficult 🙂

  • Gregg B

    @Steerpike: Yeah my greatest shit-scared moments were with those games too. A few spoilers below people, so beware.

    Bioshock – Haha, I remember the dentist. I didn’t really find the game that scary overall but the bit where you go into the wine cellar and notice a mannequin facing the wall and after upgrading your weapon it’s stood directly behind you motionless and quiet just for a moment before attacking you. I shat a brick. I also missed that bit originally until Lew told me about it.

    System Shock 2 – same as you really, more unremitting tension all the way through rather than specific terrifying moments. Oh actually, theres a bit where you call a lift and it breaks then you realise a service droid is coming to fix it… I do remember having sleep issues after my first encounter with the cyborg ninjas though.

    Thief: The Dark Project – The Sword and Return to the Cathedral and Down in the Bonehoard and well, loads of them. The Sword made me break out into goosebumps though because there was a bit where you could hear this creepy giggling which seemed like it was following me about then it suddenly changed to this horrible throaty noise. What made matters worse was that the EAX (bless you Creative) made my foot steps sound like somebody else was there with me. That level was incredible, a bit too incredible as it seems I missed great chunks of it because I was so eager to leave.

    Thief II: The Metal Age – Trail of Blood where you end up in that opening with those damn tree beasts. God the first time I saw one of those hurtling towards me I actually died shortly afterward. Do you remember that Mechanist child walking around on one of the levels? That was a little creepy.

    Then there’s Penumbra: Overture – quite a few bits but I’m not mentioning them here.

    Oh and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – The brain scorcher lab just because it was so damn quiet. My imagination seriously got the better of me there. Those stuffed animals and heads I’d seen in various buildings led me to believe that those creatures were lurking somewhere in the Zone, specifically that lab.

    @Mike: My control setup was perfect after some tweaking (as well as the simple weapon swing fix). If you ever fancy giving it another go, give me a shout and I’ll let you know my setup.

  • Lewis B

    I’m not sure why guys, but one of my starting paragraphs had gone missing, even though I copied it straight from the original source, and It was fine earlier. 

    Incase you missed it due to some technical issue you might want to re-read just after “Well no she wouldn’t in truth, but in Penumbra: Overture you don’t want to move anyway.” at the very start for those who’ve already read the article. Apologies 🙂

  • Mike "Scout" Gust

    Lewis, it was the weapon swing. It had this terrible, unresponsive feel to it, like trying to hit through molasses. I couldn’t stand using it. I tried the .ini fix as mentioned in the review but it didn’t seem to help. Of course this was the demo…but that shouldn’t have made any difference. I might try the second game instead as I guess they did away with the weapons thing.

    I’m see your first paragraph just fine. It’s the dialogue, right?

  • jdeuel

    I like the argument that weapons can remove fear, but even loaded to the teeth with ammo in AVP’99 the Marine missions were frightful because the enemy was anywhere at any time.

    As for Penumbra Overture, if the controls are anything like the original Penumbra they need to hack in some Wii-Remote 3d controls. I did not like using my mouse for 3d movements.

  • Gregg B

    @Mike: I’ve read that many people avoided conflict altogether in Overture which incidentally is something forced upon you in Black Plague. As somebody who has been renovating a house over the last 6 months with no DIY experience I can safely say that swinging a hammer is significantly easier in real life than it is in Overture without the fix. The fix balanced that for me.

    I’d highly recommend completing the first Penumbra because it’s one big build up to Black Plague which spoils the ending to Overture in the intro. And it’s a great ending too. Just so you know!

  • Lewis B

    @ Steerpike, those moments you mention are all my worst too!!  Do you remember the Robot labs in SS2? Absolutely terrifying, waiting for robots to burst out on you! 🙁 oh and have you ever player Condemned?

    @ Mike, The use of weapons in Penumbra is different to say HL2, where the player is physically holding the weapon, as in Penumbra it floats slightly infront of you.  However, if you change the control method to normal weapon swing, it’s no different!  Speak to Greggi and he’ll tell you what to do 🙂

    @ jdeuel, AVP the original and its sequal were scary however what type of fear do you think it is? I don’t think it’s anything more than sheer tension.  Having a Smart Gun makes you feel incredibly powerful.  I can honestly say in Penumbra the fear is sheer unrivalled terror, where you actually have to force yourself to play on.  It genuinly is that scary! 🙂

  • Jason Dobry

    It’s so true, an arsenal of weapons and ammo rapidly deflates any sense of horror or uneasiness in any game for reasons you already mentioned. Sakey, I thought Bioshock was more “lonely panic,” while I was pretty much always terrified in System Shock 2. I really, really, REALLY did not want to enter The Many’s nursery, and my weapons were so unreliable and ammo so scarce that I never felt safe.

    Silent Hill was terrifying for the same reasons. Ammo was rare and I frequently had to rely on my pipe for self-defense.  Even when I had ammo, the game mechanics prevented my character from being anything other than marginal with any firearm.

    Fear had one moment for me: I was climbing up a ladder, and as I reached the upper platform, my guy briefly looked down as he climbed off. As my perspective looked up again, that Ring-esque little girl was RIGHT THERE, reaching for me. I screamed and she was gone.

    What else…the original Aliens vs. Predator sent me into a locker room and I could only hear the facehuggers scurrying about somewhere within. I had to go in there. I advanced about three steps before the damn thing screamed and filled up my screen with its repulsive underside as it implanted me with its spawn. My roommate made fun of me for weeks for screaming like a girl child.

    Korsakovia–meh.  I was too annoyed and frustrated by the box rearrangement/jumping puzzles to be scared. I uninstalled it after an hour of play, I think. Maybe the scary parts were later, but I doubt it.

    As for Penumbra, I did play through about half of it before other games distracted me. I remember unease and creepiness, but no sweaty fear. I think I’m to blame here, or, more precisely, my daughter, who was still an infant at the time and generally allowed me only to play during the day for 45 minutes at a time. I was denied total immersion and the fear effect suffered. Maybe I should give it another go after I finish Call of Pripyat since she sleeps through the night now. With any luck, Penumbra will keep me from doing the same.

  • Gregg B

    I played the demo of F.E.A.R. but that ladder scare is the only bit I remember. Christ, that made me jump. I’m not too good with cat scares.

    Also I felt exactly the same about Korsakovia. It was creepy at first but then it began to irritate me far too much and it just soured the experience. I stopped playing as a result. Not to mention, when I realised I could bash those smoke-things with my crowbar they didn’t bother me nearly as much.

  • Online Up

    Great article. I look forward to reading more in the future.

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