The Excavation of Hob's Barrow

About The Excavation of Hob's Barrow

The Excavation of Hob's Barrow is a narrative point-and-click adventure by Cloak and Dagger Games, published by Wadjet Eye Games on 28 September 2022 for Windows, Mac and Linux. A Nintendo Switch version followed on 25 January 2023, with a free demo of the first day whose saves carry over to the full game. It is set on the isolated moors of rural Victorian England and weaves in real English folklore.

You play Thomasina Bateman, an antiquarian writing a book on the barrows of England. A letter calls her to the small Yorkshire village of Bewlay to dig into Hob's Barrow. She travels by train with her assistant due a day behind, but the man who wrote to her is nowhere to be found, the assistant never arrives, the landowner refuses to let her dig and the locals are suspicious of a woman travelling alone in trousers. Then the strange dreams begin.

It plays as a traditional adventure with a simple modern interface: you walk the village, the inn, the church and the moors, talk to suspicious villagers, a sickly vicar and a lordly landowner, collect items and use them to clear the way to the barrow. Nintendo Life notes that puzzles are sparse at first and grow into longer logic chains in the LucasArts style, where much of the work is getting characters to act. A map lets you travel quickly between places, though walking can trigger extra scenes. The story is linear, with interactive flashbacks that offer no choices. Every line is voiced, with Yorkshire accents for the villagers, and Samantha Béart, who voices Thomasina, was on the BAFTA 2023 longlist for the role.

The horror is a slow folk horror: mist and rain over the moor, a village that knows more than it says, dreams that bleed into waking hours and a mounting sense that the dig should never happen. Nintendo Life found the biggest jump scare to be a sudden train whistle in a field; the fear comes from implication and rumour, and Cubed3 says it moves from suspenseful to ghastly. The soundtrack is by The Machine. The Demon. The game won Best Story, Best Writing - Drama and Best Traditional Adventure at the Aggie Awards 2022 and was a PC Gamer Game of the Year 2022 nominee.

It suits players who like story-rich adventures such as The Last Door and want dread rather than shocks. HowLongToBeat puts the main story at about 7 hours. It is in English only, with full audio and subtitles.

How to play The Excavation of Hob's Barrow

1. Click on people, objects and exits to walk, look and talk. On PC you play with the mouse, with partial controller support; on Switch you can use a controller, the touchscreen or a mouse.
2. Talk to everyone in Bewlay and choose dialogue topics to learn about the barrow, the missing man and the village.
3. Pick up items and use them on people and places to get past each obstacle; later puzzles chain several steps together.
4. Open the map to travel quickly between the village, the moors and other places you have found.

Tips

• Walk between places now and then instead of always using the map; walking can trigger scenes you would otherwise miss.
• Ask every villager about every topic; small remarks often point to the next step.
• Revisit places after the story moves on, as people and objects change.
• Play with headphones; the music and the voice cast carry much of the mood.
• On Switch, try the free demo first: it covers the first day and your save carries over.

Questions