Reviews by Kinetic Mouse Car
Gruescript
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The Hobbit… and Total Recall. Combined. I wonder why the author picked these two works out of countless other options.
As the title suggests, Hobbiton Recall is a sci-fi/fantasy mashup featuring elements from both The Hobbit and Total Recall. It’s an ambitious work with a mix of strengths and flaws.
Also, I have been unable to finish it, so I’m going to wait on assigning it a rating.
We are David Crow. The game begins with David having a nightmare about being a hobbit on a quest in a place called Hobbiton. He wakes up. It’s time for work.
NOTE: The game flip-flops between Hobbiton and Hobbington. I’m not sure if this is a misspelling or if there are two separate places, so I’ll default to Hobbiton in this review.
Story
I’m going to break from my usual review structure and discuss the story first.
Story (as I understand it)
This is about the story I encountered up until I stopped playing.
The story kicks off at Fallows Toothpaste Industries where David works with his friend, Mike. Mike reveals that he spent the weekend in VR at a place called Rekall and recommends the experience to David. After a lengthy puzzle about (Spoiler - click to show)delivering a urine sample, we go to Rekall’s sleek facility and end up in a VR chair.
(Spoiler - click to show)Except the VR fails to start. You lose consciousness and wake up in the hospital.
Upon leaving the hospital, you run into Mike who is miffed that you attempted to visit Hobbiton through VR. Really miffed. He tries to kill you. You kill him first and return home only to overhear Mavis plotting to kill you. First your “friend,” now your wife!
The phone rings in the bedroom. A voice tells you to access a tunnel inside the wardrobe. It takes you to Hobbiton! The syringe of mystery fluid injected into your brain worked, and you’ve been in a virtual world ever since you sat down in a VR chair at Rekall…
…at least that’s what the dungeon scene suggests. Or am I wrong about that? It’s confusing.
Oh, and the characters in Hobbiton don't recognize you as David Crowe, a human jerk. Instead, you are Baldo Biggins, a hobbit. Just like your dream! The rest of the gameplay, as I am aware, consists of fulfilling a task given by Randalf the Wizard himself.
Randalf explains that Tom Fallows (of Fallows Toothpaste Industries) came along one day and acquired every toothpaste factory in Hobbiton, jacking up his prices so no one can afford dental hygiene products. Ever since, dental hygiene in Hobbiton has been horrendous.
Randalf’s quest for you? Journey to the lair of the toothpaste dragon to bring back affordable toothpaste for everyone.
Thoughts on story
The Hobbit and Total Recall. Still grappling with that pairing…
Unlike Total Recall, I only have a faint understanding of The Hobbit (I’m a sci-fi fan). It seems that the plot follows that of Total Recall while the content (characters, locations, etc.) borrows from The Hobbit.
Despite my familiarity with Total Recall, I had to revisit it to refresh my memory before I could pinpoint how it’s featured in Hobbiton Recall. Some parts were obvious.
(Spoiler - click to show)In Total Recall, a construction worker on Earth seeks implanted memories of being a secret agent on Mars. David, a toothpaste factory worker, has dreams about being a hobbit in Hobbiton. He seeks to recreate this in VR. The implantation/VR goes wrong, and the protagonists are betrayed by both their friend and wife which reveals the protagonists’ identities to be manufactured to hide a deeper truth.
They also name Rekall and have Melina as a love interest. She’s an elf in the game, though.
However, some of the plot twists from Total Recall were harder to pinpoint in Hobbiton Recall, because of how saturated the gameplay is with Hobbit-themed content. I become so accustomed to the characters talking about Randalf’s quest and the toothpaste dragon that I forgot that the game was supposed to be a parody of Total Recall.
What’s clear is that both involve an antagonist who has a monopoly on a resource. In Total Recall, it’s minable ore instead of toothpaste. It’s harder to take it seriously when it’s toothpaste.
I was hoping for more sci-fi elements. The closest we get is when we visit Rekall’s shiny skyscraper for a VR experience. That, and a vaguely cyberpunk scene in a nightclub. Of course, I haven’t finished the game, though I have a feeling that it’s only going to be more hobbit stuff.
In other words, Hobbiton Recall captures the storyline of Total Recall but not its essence. Its focus on hobbits, elves, (Spoiler - click to show)Randalf, and a (Spoiler - click to show)toothpaste dragon only makes it more confusing.
Gameplay
Overview
Hobbiton Recall is made with Gruescipt, a system that has been described as a parser-choice hybrid or pseudo-parser. You don’t use a keyboard, only clicking, but the commands are ones that you would input in a parser game.
In this case, the player makes gameplay choices by clicking on pink tab-like buttons. The screen lists the characters, objects, and scenery that you can interact with. Beneath is a section for your inventory.
You're holding:
A can of Insect-Be-Gone (empty) [spray] [drop]
You're wearing:
clothes [remove]
Clicking on an item in the inventory lists the possible actions you can take with it, including combining it with another item in your possession.
There are some rough patches. (Spoiler - click to show)You can retrieve the plate of sausages from the table in Norbit’s cabin repeatedly even after you eat them. Similarly, if you remove the gold pen from Tom’s desk and then revisit the desk, the pen is teleported from your inventory and back into the desk. Chests, containers, and other structures are listed as being closed when the player had already opened them (and vice versa).
I don’t mean to be ungrateful or dismissive, but it frustrates me when authors half-commit to their hint guides, as is the case with Hobbiton Recall. To be clear, I don’t expect hints to necessarily cover every bit of content. I do expect them to at least aid you to finish the game in some form. Especially with a lengthy game like Hobbiton Recall.
Currently, the provided hints are merely for the first itty-bitty sliver of gameplay. It’s not like “once you get past the dog, you’re halfway there.” Oh no. You’re in for hours of gameplay with no guidance. It was almost as if the inclusion of a walkthrough on the game’s IFComp entry was meant more to dash my hopes of completing the game than guiding me. Plus, hints would be helpful because it’s possible to reach unwinnable states.
For example, I caused an unwinnable state because I failed to acquire an object before its location was made inaccessible. I neglected (Spoiler - click to show)to take the rizla paper at the tobacco store when the shopkeeper turned his back. When I set him up with the elf from the cattery, he leaves and closes the shop. As a result, I had no way of making the spliff to get the protestors to leave.
Fortunately, I saved regularly as I played. I knew (hopefully) what I missed and where to restore a previous save.
My experience
As I mentioned at the start of this review, I have been unable to finish the game. After 4+ hours, I figured, what the heck, time to proceed with the review.
In case anyone is curious, this is as far as I went with my quest:
(Spoiler - click to show)I’ve made it to Tom’s palace.
I have the mysterious box from Norbit, the book of matches from the scullery maid, and a badminton racket. Additional inventory items that may(?) no longer serve a purpose include a squeezy bottle, elf bone, magazine, cell key, and empty machine gun.
I know that you can A, spike the lemonade with the red pill and B, leave the palace by hiding in a wine barrel in the basement so the butler drops you through the trapdoor, taking you to a new area where you can reach the dragon’s cave (once you do this, you are unable to return to the palace).
The only lead I have is beating Tom at badminton. He says we can leave if we win. However, he always wins. He also doesn’t like lemonade.
I think I would be interested in revisiting, given enough directions.
Characters
David Crowe is a difficult protagonist to root for. It sucks that he gets (Spoiler - click to show)betrayed by his wife and friend, but he was a bit of a misogynistic jerk to begin with. He shows little compassion for his wife and mocks women in general.
You are in the shed. This is where Mavis comes to have a little cry when she's having one of her 'episodes'.
Heck, he gets annoyed when his tired wife yawns. At least he’s not Gobbo.
> shoot gobbo
Without hesitation, you squeeze the trigger. Gobbo’s tiny body is ripped apart by a hail of bullets.
He slams into the rockface with a sickening *splut*, then slowly slides down, leaving a long, wet, red smear.
I don’t have time for Gobbo’s riddles. No one calls me a sexy hobbit.
Anyway, I have yet to see David undergo any character development, but he’s going to have to make major changes if he wants any fans from players. As for the NPCs, some are more memorable than others. None of them stand out as spectacular but they inject humor into the gameplay.
Also, I can’t believe the game allows you to (Spoiler - click to show)kill Norbit. What an awful thing to do. At least he doesn’t have to worry about his back anymore.
Visuals
Hobbiton Recall features art for most of its locations, and it’s all A.I.-generated. Overall, the graphics are serviceable but forgettable. They illustrate scenes in a generic way. I never felt that they pulled me into the story’s world although I don't think they detract from the game, either. The stylization reminds me of an Adventuron game.
The beginning of the game starts with an animated starfield which was cool.
Final thoughts
How do I feel about this game? Like skateboarding down a smooth road with potholes. It’s an enjoyable ride until you fall and scrape your knee and wonder if it’s worth continuing. And you’re likely to continue, but those potholes really put a dent in the experience.
Taking Total Recall and swapping out its characters and locations for magical alternatives does not work as well as the author may have hoped. At minimum, the delivery needs work.
And while the puzzles are decent, it becomes increasingly difficult to foresee when you might render the game unwinnable, taking away from the player’s enjoyment of the story. More thorough hints would be appreciated. That said, I liked the feeling of going down a rabbit hole and the notion of peeling back a protagonist’s reality only to realize it’s concealing the truth.
And I can’t deny the game’s wittiness. The literal red herring in the fridge was clever. I also found it somewhat amusing how examining the portable bathroom outside the hotel gives us three full paragraphs of description as if copied from a product manual.
…a self-contained, temporary sanitation unit typically found on construction sites and at outdoor events. Constructed from lightweight, durable polyethylene… etc.
The more you know.
To conclude, give Hobbiton Recall a try because it has its fun parts. But don’t feel too bad if you can’t finish it.
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