My favourite moment in The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow came about three hours after I’d finished it.
But we’ll get to that in a bit.
And it’s hard not to root for The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow itself.
Here’s a compact yet carefully made point-and-click horror delivered in the classic adventure game style.
The less you know about the story going in, the better.
And she has to convince some of them to even acknowledge her for starters.
How do you go about this stuff?
More than puzzling, though, it’s just a pleasure to be in such an atmospheric world.
The landscapes are by Constable and the dialogue is brisk and characterful.
The railway’s just come to the area - is it the end of everything holy?
This is all wonderfully done.
The Essex Serpent’s an interesting touchpoint.
Sarah Perry’s novel flirts with horror in the service of something deeper, stranger, and ultimately sweeter.
Horror offers thrills and proper magic, but doesn’t it often come with requirements and restrictions?
To quote another Thomasina: you cannot stir things apart.
After I finished the game I slumped off to do the dishes, quietly disappointed.
I walked through a familiar checklist of disappointed thoughts.
It left too many interesting themes aside as it raced to the conclusion.
Thomasina’s such a brilliant creation she deserves a game that gives her a bit more agency.
I plucked away at threads like this for four hours that day, until everything clicked.
