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 itin 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 andoh 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 woodsyour 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 elseah! That makes sense! Now I know what to do! Meanwhile, you’re also looking for combinations to lockspatience, patience, you’ll find themfinding 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 sightswell, 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 Verdict
The Lowdown
Developer: Shadow Tor Studios Publisher: Got Game (North America) Release Date: September 2006 (North America)
Available for:
Four Fat Chicks Links
Screenshots
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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I hate QTEs, but Heavy Rain is sitting in my Amazon cart waiting for me to push the button. I don’t even own a PS3, but I plan on buying the game anyway. I do have a good friend who’ll let me play at his house. Of course, I’ll have to drive 100 miles, one way, through the snow to get to his house. His chat-happy birds will cheerfully chirp thereby completely disrupting any atmosphere, but I can play.
What!? Heavy Rain is full of QTEs? I totally did
notsee that coming.The whole dad experience thing sounds intriguing. I’m already getting odd looks from my girlfriend for exclaiming over cute kids on the bus or at the mall, something like what you described might send my biological clock over the edge.
My sentiments exactly David!
Mat has been playing the Heavy Rain demo for a while now, and although he admits he is intrigued by the story, he does constantly complain about the control method.
R2 + Analogue stick to run? *scoff*
@Lew: DEMO?! PS3 DEMO?! *runs off to PS3*
That sounds like the Batman: Arkham Asylum controls – Crazy Bonkers Design. The sort of design that puts pull handles on push doors.
@Steerpike: “I despise children. They are disgusting and annoying. They knock things over. They interfere with everything. They’re not useful until they’re at least 13, when you can get them to mow the lawn and stuff. But you can pay a service to do that for just a few hundred bucks a year and the service won’t vomit on you, shit in its diapers, grow up to resent you, or otherwise suck. Don’t flame me and don’t post comments to the contrary: kids are repulsive. Why anyone would want them is beyond my feeble imaginings.”
HAHAhahaha- I er, – hahahaha – you’re as outspoken as me about
demon spawnchildren.Yeah its been on the internet for weeks and weeks Greggi. I think you have to do a couple of online puzzles etc to get the appropriate code or something.
Search on Kotaku, they first ran with it IIRC.
The puzzle code was for early access before it hit the PSN Store. It’s been available to all since last week.
Regarding the demo, it took me around 3 or 4 attempts at it to appreciate it. First time around I couldn’t have been more dissapointed by it, but after the 3rd or 4th I decided I wanted to stick with it. I don’t think the demo is a particularly great example of what the game supposedly does best either – choice. I also HATE the control scheme and some of the voice acting is so wooden. Creating an immersive, realistic game is fine but having characters stumbling into tables and fridges because of the ham fisted controls, and listening to French voice actors impersonate Americans does remove that realism a little!
Still, I rushed out to buy it this morning and will rush home from work to play it in about an hour!
@ Toger: I don’t own a PS3 either, and it’s not like Heavy Rain seems to be “that” game which makes you run out and buy one– like Bioshock made me run out and get a 360– and it’s also not like this game looks groundbreaking in any way, because it really doesn’t. It’s just got me curious…and people tend to do crazy things the week after they get their yearly bonus. Soooooo yeah, who knows; maybe I’ll own a PS3 soon, but like hell I would admit that it was for Heavy Rain. Psh. I’d tell people it was because I wanted to watch BSG on blu-ray; though anyone who knows me would see right through that lie since I am an avid non-format-upgrader: I’ll switch my BSG collection from DVD to blu-ray the day I upgrade my copy of Jurassic Park from VHS to DVD. (Hint: never)
@xtal: I’m in no hurry to upgrade my meagre DVD collection to blu-ray either, but I have to say the movies I’ve watched on my friend’s PS3 are absolutely stunning. Blade Runner was simply breath-taking in blu-ray and it made me want a PS3. I don’t think Heavy Rain will be a system seller for me, but I’m betting the game from the Ico team will.
A game from the Ico team, you say? Hmmm. I’ve been making rounds on Kijiji and Craigslist looking for a copy of Ico (eBay prices are so shudder-inducing) for a few days now. I really need to play that game after my experience with the indescribable Shadow of the Colossus.
It’s good to know they haven’t died some Interplay-esque death in the meantime.
Nope, they’re a small team that works within Sony. Fumito Ueda is the lead and he’s got like ten or so people who’ve worked with him on all his games. Sony pretty much lets them do what they want.
The Last Guardian is the game that’s coming up from them. It looks more like Ico and less like Shadow of the Colossus to me, which is to say it appears to be focused on platform elements. If I didn’t already have a PS3, it’d be the game that sells it.
@Toger: Ooh, Blade Runner on Blu-ray, gorgeous in all its gorgeosity. In 5.1 it sounds incredible too.
I bought my PS3 for Team Ico’s unnamed-at-the-time game, Heavy Rain (back when it was just a teaser), LittleBig Planet (yes, yes, I know), Dead Space and Motor Storm: Pacific Rift which sort of pushed me off the fence.
Gregg, oh yes. The surround sound was spectacular. Did I mention my friend’s HDTV is 72″ (obscene, isn’t it)? It’s like being at a high-class theatre: better food, pauses for bathroom breaks and no one talking through the movie.
Is Trine up on PSN, yet? If so, that might be my tipping point: Last Guardian, Heavy Rain and Trine.
*spits tea out, despite not drinking any*
O_O
72″?! I’m speechless. I can only imagine how awesome that is. Size does matter.
Not so sure about Trine… hang on. I think it is.
I think it is too, Toger. I’ll check.
To be honest, though, I doubt you’d be disappointed with the purchase even if Trine’s not there yet. I’ve been way happier with my PS3 than with my 360. Demon’s Souls, Valkyria Chronicles, Uncharted, Folklore, even little games like Flower – I’ve had more concentrated fun with the PS3 than with Microsoft’s console, which tends to gather dust for months between game releases.
72″???? I thought size didn’t matter!
Size doesn’t matter. 😀
In my friend’s defense, it was a great deal: opened box, itty-bitty scratch on the case, not a dead pixel to be seen and it was less $$ than the 60″ he originally wanted.
Thanks for checking guys. I’ve played a tiny bit of Uncharted, but I’m horrible at the combat. Flower intrigues me. As does Demon’s Souls, but I know that game will crush my soul.
There were certain moments in Flower where it just totally succeeded in conveying a feeling that I can’t say I’ve had in many other games, usually when rushing across a field through the grass or through a canyon or just skimming a pond, but it was never anything to do with collecting bloody petals or fulfilling some rudimentary puzzle. I think my problem with it was that it felt like it was trying to be this deeply emotional piece but in the end there seemed to be too many concessions to being a game rather than just running with the emotive side of the experience. One thing I am sure about though, is the trophies. Don’t get me started on the fucking trophies…
One of my favourite little games on the PS3 is Everyday Shooter. It’s got a brilliant soundtrack that suits its raw visual style and I love how each level requires a certain tactic or strategy to survive it. It’s a very satisfying game in small bursts.
Unfortunately Cage mucked up the ending yet again. The problem is that the mechanic of the game forced them to have to cheat in order to prevent spoiling the mystery of the game.
There is also a red herring that makes no sense and is obviously put there to misdirect the player.
90% of the game is awesome, the last 10% while not as bad as the indigo prophecy, is still sloppy.