"I heard a whisper. Not once. Again. And again.
"I will pour out my spirit..."
"I will pour out my spirit..."
"I will pour out my spirit..."
This is exactly my kind of thing. I'm a big fan of folk horror set in a small town/village with something looming over it, and this scratches that exact itch. You play as an outsider visting the small British village of Bewlay to excavate an ancient Barrow (which is like a tomb apparently). Most of the runtime is spent trying to actually find and excavate the tomb, and only the last portion takes place inside of it. This is great, because the pre-explanation portion of these kinds of mysteries is always the best part. This is one thing I always wished The Blair Witch Project had done more - there's a collection of interviews with local townsfolk at the start that's my favorite bit (luckily there's like 4 fake documentaries that consist of nothing but this) and it really strengthens the tension.
The Excavation of Hob's Barrow takes its time building up the mystery surrounding the town and its legends. It plays like a classic adventure game, so most puzzles will have you doing something pretty silly like giving a sugarcube to a horse to gain it's trust so you can cut it's hair to fix a violin. As you run around town doing these errands, you'll pick up on small fragments of information that build the air of mystery that runs through the cobbled streets. Rumors of a goblin on the moors, a warning of someone untrustworthy. It's a feat to keep a mystery (that seems so simple at face-value) engaging for a 6 hour runtime, and it's only possible because of these fragments.
You play as Thomasina, a Barrow digger following in her Father's footsteps. As the narrative progresses, she becomes unsettled by the strange occurences in town, but never once even mentions the option of leaving. This does become impossible by her second day, as the trains stop running, but it doesn't seem to bother her. She's obviously dead-set on opening the Barrow, no matter what comes in her way. This motivation aligns with the gameplay nicely, and gives an explanation as to why she would bother running around town doing all these menial tasks all day. Unfortunately, her determination is her fatal flaw, and leads her to an unfortunate fate. Her initial motivation is to unseal the tomb for documentation, but in the later half of the game it becomes much more personal. She finds out her father, who's been bedbound for 25 years, visited Hob's Barrow 25 years ago. She has dreams in which a goblin tells her she can heal her father by entering the barrow. At this point, there was no chance she wasn't going into the barrow. By the end of the game there's been so many red flags that anyone else would turn around. She recieves a warning from a trusted companion that she's being used in a grand scheme. Her dig team abandons her after the tomb is open. But the player can't leave. "There's no turning back now" she says, with an open door to exit the tomb right behind her. It's a really great syngergy of narrative and gameplay - the player realises that they've assisted Thomasina in reaching this point, and they know something is wrong, but she's too blinded by hope to turn around.
The puzzles you'll be tasked with solving are designed in a way that makes solving them a challenge, but not illogical and frustrating. There was one that I had to use a guide for, but it was only because of a false assumption I'd made. They remain engaging and fun as you run around town asking people if they can help, as much as it might frustrate them to be bothered by an outsider. Alot of the time you'll find the end-goal of the puzzles is participating in acts of kindness. You help an elderly woman find flowers to put on her husbands grave, make medicine for an elderly man with joint pain and help a maid run away with her lover. You feel like a positive impact on Bewlay, and really become fond of the small cast of characters that live there.
There's a surprising amount to learn about each resident. You learn of the local drunk's struggles with loss, and the strain that alchohol is having on his relationship. It fits nicely into the narrative, and is written in a way that has you looking forward to these small moments of connection. I'd always enjoy visiting the local pub at the end of each day to relax and chat with the patrons. I likely wouldn't care nearly as much about everyone if the game wasn't fully voiced. The voice acting is of unexpected quality throughout, and I never thought any performance was lacking in comparison to others. They even used real children for the kids in-game as far as I can tell?? very cool and fun
There's something unnerving about horrors that reside in small communities. In the shadows of the general population, they're able to grow and gain strength in villages like Bewlay. The rejection of modernity so frequently seen in these types of stories serves only to bolster whatever lays in these communities even further. Horror festers in the moors, sinking its tendrils into locals through stories and legends. The terror in Bewlay never resided inside the barrow; it lived in the minds of everyone in drinking in the Plough and Furrow, everyone sitting in the tall pews in church. It was only a matter of time before it escaped. Thomasina was so blinded by hope that she was the perfect candidate to be the one to set it free.
