Hiveswap Episode 1 Review – The One You Have All Been Waiting For

By Buckles
8 years Ago

In 2009, a webcomic started called Homestuck&period; It quickly was recognized by people worldwide for its clever writing, interesting characters and concepts, and unique art style using an outdated computer art software and became an internet phenomenon&period; Fans clamored for more content from the creator, Andrew Hussie, and he responded by pitching his idea for a Homestuck based game, Hiveswap, a prequel to the webcomic that started it all&period; Originally announced on September 4th, 2012, the game went through some development trouble and ended up switching developers and going from a new 3D style to the traditional 2D style that everyone recognized Homestuck for&period;&NewLine;Now being released on September 14th 2017, five years after its announcement date, does Hiveswap live up to its hype as a Homestuck game now that the webcomic has finished&quest; Does it continue the traditions and same style that Homestuck was acclaimed for and beloved by its fanbase&quest; The short answer to that is yes&period; Hiveswap Episode 1 is an amazing start to what looks to be a fantastic episodic adventure game based in the same universe&semi; it is a series that teases new revelations and plot twists for even the most hardcore of Homestuck fans&period;&NewLine;Hiveswap continues Homestuck&&num;8216&semi;s style of excellent and clever writing to a tee&period; I found myself often smirking and outright laughing at even the most simple dialogue, and trust me, there is plenty here to smile about&period; Even the most mundane of tasks becomes fascinating due to Hiveswap&&num;8216&semi;s dialogue, and I found myself taking the time to read and narrate every single object, not wanting to miss a single paragraph, no matter what it was&period; The characters are well written and while they never talk but through text, it&&num;8217&semi;s a testament to the writers how well these characters personalities come through&period; I had a good idea of Joey, Jude, and Xefros&&num;8217&semi; personalities even in Episode 1, although you are left to guess some of what Dammek is like through context clues&period; However, I am suspecting that Dammek will most primarily be highlighted in the companion game, Hauntswitch&period; There were quite a few spelling and grammatical mistakes during my playthrough, but I suspect these will be fixed as of release so I won&&num;8217&semi;t hurt on them too badly&period; Nevertheless, I found myself enraptured by ever single sentence in this game, and it extended the time I played the game for that much longer, which is a testament to how well it&&num;8217&semi;s written&period;&NewLine;<figure id="attachment&lowbar;129309" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-129309" style="width&colon; 960px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="wp-image-129309" src="https&colon;//cdn&period;bagogames&period;com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/03221141/screen03&period;jpg" alt="Hiveswap, What Pumpkin Games" width="960" height="540" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-129309" class="wp-caption-text">Hiveswap, What Pumpkin Games</figcaption></figure>&NewLine;The art style of Homestuck remains consistent, and I am really glad they elected to switch back to a 2D art style, because I feel like it really captures the charm and style of Homestuck, and it would be weird to play a game based in the same universe without it&period; With the MS Paint style, it is animated extremely well, and still looks really smooth and fits the animations nicely&period; Even though it&&num;8217&semi;s really simple, I think it lends itself to the game very well, and I don&&num;8217&semi;t think I will ever get tired of seeing the simple, clean style that Homestuck is known for&period;&NewLine;The mechanics themselves are pretty much point and click adventure affair&period; You find a puzzle or an obstacle you need to progress past and use your surroundings to find items that you can use or use in combination to solve said puzzle&period; There isn&&num;8217&semi;t much to state about the controls of click and point adventures other than that this particular game works as intended&period; I found myself sometimes getting stumped, but only because I didn&&num;8217&semi;t fully explore my options enough or missed something I could have clicked on&period; They don&&num;8217&semi;t feel like they are made for idiots but aren&&num;8217&semi;t too obtuse or confusing, so it&&num;8217&semi;s a nice median that the game reaches&period; Combat, or Strife, as most Homestuck fans would know, is handled in the same way as a puzzle&period; You only die if you can&&num;8217&semi;t figure out the puzzle to defeat the enemy quickly enough&period; With that thought in mind, I never ended up dying in my playthrough so I suspect that the encounters aren&&num;8217&semi;t too difficult that players will find themselves stuck on them&period;&NewLine;<figure id="attachment&lowbar;129310" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-129310" style="width&colon; 960px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="wp-image-129310" src="https&colon;//cdn&period;bagogames&period;com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/03221330/screen04&period;jpg" alt="Hiveswap, What Pumpkin Games" width="960" height="540" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-129310" class="wp-caption-text">Hiveswap, What Pumpkin Games</figcaption></figure>&NewLine;The soundtrack here is phenomenal, and I was surprised that almost every single room had a different track associated with it, which, quite plainly, is quite a surprise&period; The music very much hits that same Homestuck feel of classic genres mixed with the digital styles of flash&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s hard to feel like any of them don&&num;8217&semi;t fit, considering the identity that Homestuck has built for itself over the last few years&period; It fits well, and it enhances the game&period;&NewLine;Overall, the games length clock in at about 5 hours of gameplay for the first episode, which is a perfectly acceptable length for the first episode of an adventure series&period; The game&&num;8217&semi;s price point makes it that much more affordable and worth the price, as for &dollar;8, you are getting quite the excellent game for such a low amount&period; The only thing that made me disappointed was that I couldn&&num;8217&semi;t play more once I reached the end, and I hope What Pumpkin can get the other episodes out in a timely manner, as I know people will be clamoring for more&period;&NewLine;<figure id="attachment&lowbar;129311" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-129311" style="width&colon; 960px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="wp-image-129311" src="https&colon;//cdn&period;bagogames&period;com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/03221453/screen13&period;jpg" alt="Hiveswap, What Pumpkin Games" width="960" height="540" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-129311" class="wp-caption-text">Hiveswap, What Pumpkin Games</figcaption></figure>&NewLine;To sum it up in one giant package, Hiveswap Episode 1 is just what you want out of a first episode of the series&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s written well, animates beautifully, the characters have personality in spades, and the game has some great music to accompany what is already a first chapter that makes you want to keep playing even after the game is over&period; It only left me hungry for more, and I am eagerly awaiting the next chapter from What Pumpkin&semi; there is nothing that I am anticipating more&period;&NewLine;A Steam review copy of Hiveswap Episode 1 was provided by What Pumpkin for the purpose of this review&NewLine;

Categories: Game Reviews, PC Reviews
Tags: PC Steam Top Stories

Related Content

Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake PC Review

Tales of Xillia Remastered PS5 Review