Hektor (PC game) review

The psychological horror indie game is a fashionable cut; after titles like Outlast, Daylight, Slender: The Arrival or Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, comes the turn of Hektor, a dark and oppressive adventure for PC that will make us live moments of sheer madness to escape mysterious brown fields.

Lovers of scares and terrifying experiences are in luck; few seasons we receive a number of securities in which terror is done with the utmost prominence, albeit with more or less success. And it seems that the indie scene has become the ideal medium for budget studies are encouraged to create titles that keep us glued to our chair or sofa with the nerves, waiting for the next surprise with the pulse frame at full speed. Following the significant Outlast and Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs and not as bright Slender: The Arrival or Daylight, PC reaches a new first-person adventure in which solving puzzles and enigmas allow us to move through dark corridors and dingy rooms long earrings disturbing events that will be happening as we passed.

Hektor reaches Steam the proposal in the genre of indie terrifying adventures court, the game open by a formula thousand times view and trying to bring new ideas that ultimately remain just that: ideas. And the sensations that leave little over two hours to take us so distressing complete nightmare are quite contradictory. And not just because of its short duration; in many respects, Hektor is not met what we expected from a title that aims to terrorize us with psychological fear, or so its creators define their gameplay experience. But we stop along the way and get to know more about the context of this indie adventure.


Without much more detail thrown from the start, take the role of a man, a test subject trapped in a dark facilities codename Hektor, devastated and labyrinthine space in the middle of nowhere in the cold lands of Greenland during the Cold War. After a brief introduction, we quickly run into its distorted reality enhanced by the emotional and psychological instability of our protagonist. So wake up in the middle of a dark corridor, receiving a gift of vital importance: a lighter. Equipped with it, we will be able to illuminate just a few meters around, thus increasing the anguish of knowing who or what awaits us in the next corner. And it becomes even more disturbing when to look back, we discovered a new hall or a new door that were not there before.
Thus, much of the appeal of Hektor is that as we go solving different puzzles and riddles, the scenarios will change procedurally, ie they change in real time and at random, thus causing more stress to the player. In fact, more power at the same despair, since the almost total absence of clues and design levels unkind invite us to go over and over the same areas without really knowing what to do or where to go. Furthermore, the apparent simplicity help scenarios we feel continuously in the same place, generating spaces too similar to each other. However, the idea of creating different levels in our way is totally wasted, relegated to mere anecdote.

At some point, the title of exploration and puzzle solving style survival of all life; so, without gutting anything about his chaotic narrative development, we flee and avoid meeting some entity that will continue our steps to destroy us. Certainly, in some moment does manage to raise the voltage to high points, but an artificial intelligence with some ups and downs causes the odd situation that ruins the experience. On the other hand, we must also avoid other figures who harass us through the dark corridors of Hektor. Beyond these presences, the title manages to maintain tension thanks to a fairly competent sound section, with dynamic melodies that will adapt to the events shown on the screen and a good collection of effects that haunt us continuously.

In this sense, the voices of the different notes-we find out the note itself and keep listening to the voice are fairly maintained, however, in perfect English; as whole game, fully localized into English without subtitles if we decide to hear only the audio instead of reading the various documents. A pity, since the argument is already confusing enough to miss details of its intricate story not quite understand one hundred percent narratives, provided you do not have a good command of English, of course. But all the tension that seeks to transfer the player to nothing when we discovered that the death-not in the strict sense of the word, wake up in a nearby location, without more than try to repeat the sequence has finished, preserving the meager inventory that we have.

According to its creators, this decision responds to cause frustration not want players to have to be aware of death and repeat the sequence that led us to perish; although the most obvious consequence is that fear is lost we eliminate more than to repeat each section to overcome it. But let's discover the particularities of its gameplay and an interface that is notable for its staging. As we say, advocates a first person view that plunges us into action; so much so quickly we realize the distorted view of our hero and we try to alleviate the consumption of pills and drugs find scattered around the stage.

And the level of stress and terror will be reflected on screen with a sharp image distortion, reaching s in more advanced levels of madness. So key to seek pill bottles to go consuming as we move into history. Although not the only object that interact. We must also collect batteries for a flashlight that can equip later also continually use the lighter that we "give away" at first. As a curiosity, how to open and close doors is not ideal, being awkward and uncomfortable and forcing us to repeat more times than necessary action should be much more intuitive. Technically multipurpose uses the Unity game engine, showing an interesting graphic finish but with some gaps that blur the end result; while putting on display a detailed scenarios and colorful lighting effects, abused exaggerated repetition of elements and just about anything polygonal shaped charge.


Conclusion:

The guys Rubycone aim to provide new sensations to the indie horror genre, although the result fails to trap approach several problems. Far from terrorize, it does maintain tension thanks to a sound effect that is uncovered as the best of a too simple title, despite the intention to go crazy with the procedural scenario generation system, which certainly achieved thanks to a chaotic tracks and contribute little to solve different puzzles. Thus, the action is limited to cross over and over different levels so grim facilities to provide with relevant objects and solve different challenges. While the presence of certain entities that harass us at certain points in history does increase tension, everything is ruined by the possibility of not dying. And the biggest setback is its limited duration, since in a few hours can complete the adventure, stretching until four if we squeeze one hundred percent scenarios and we do it with the various documents, yes, all in perfect English.

Hektor is available to download on Steam for 19.99 euros with a 25% discount until March 20.

Comments