Honeyslug opens its own can of worms.
This is a game about surprise, exploration and discovery. More so, in fact, than any other game we can immediately recall. Developer Honeyslug, who previously made oddball compendium Frobisher Says, offers little in the way of direction other than to tell you that X makes you go faster, and Circle does the opposite.
There’s not even any instruction on what to do to exit the opening hub level and find the first one proper. And for this reason, while we’re loathe to turn you away, if you really want to enjoy this game to its fullest we’d recommend you avoid reading anything about it. Before you go, though, just one thing: it’s definitely worth playing.
Still here? Okay, we’ll try to do as little damage as possible, but you have been warned. Hohokum casts you as a serpentine creature with a single eye that looks, if we’re honest, quite a lot like a sperm cell. Its bulbous head, wriggling tail and constant quest to enter circular portals makes it difficult not to infer some abstract interpretation of conception, but Honeyslug insists this wasn’t intentional. Whatever you are, movement is a joy. While X is certainly the simplest way to gain speed, you’ll get around much more quickly by pumping the shoulder buttons. The sense of being untethered, of pure, uninterrupted flight, is intoxicating and it’s easy to get caught up in the moment and overshoot whatever destination you originally had in mind. Again, not good for sperm.
Snake eyes
That sense of freedom extends beyond simple movement. The aforementioned opening hub level is a large space made up of eccentric circles, as well as a few areas for synchronised flying with the other creatures you’ll meet and collect along the way. As you progress through each level, these circular areas become occupied by portals which lead back to them, allowing you to travel around Hohokum’s universe at will. But in order to unlock these shortcuts, you’ll have to make your way through Honeyslug’s bizarre, non-linear world.
The world spiders out in a labyrinthine tangle, each exit leading you to another play space just as surreal as the last, some of them containing a single exit while others might have two or three. Levels vary from simple compact affairs, to sprawlingly complicated at the other end of the scale, and there are even a few connecting spaces that function as nothing more than a wormhole from one place to the next – though there’s always something interesting to see.
In each of the main levels, there are other not-sperms hidden away.
Sometimes you can see them skulking in a corner, while other times they’ll only appear once you’ve carried out a particular sequence of events, but in every case you’ll need to solve the puzzle at hand to be reunited. That might mean locating the component parts of a rollercoaster, finding the oddly-coloured beans in a repeating pattern, or even ushering and serving drinks at a wedding. Once you’ve successfully completed the objective, you’ll be able to go and meet your friend, who’ll then spend the rest of the game back at the hub area.
Hohoax call
But just as with the controls, Honeyslug provides little guidance as to what these objectives actually are. There are visual clues, if your eyes are sharp, and experimentation will usually trigger something that puts you on the right path, but you’ll never be explicitly told what’s required of you. It turns out to be both Hohokum’s most charming, and most infuriating trait.
On the one hand, the sense of reward you get from figuring out an obscure puzzle is huge, and the lack of hand-holding engenders a kind of intimacy that makes every solution feel entirely your own. But at the same time, the absence of direction can leave you unsure of what to do next, a problem amplified by the many self-contained interactive elements that are there simply for the pleasure of playing with them, but often appear to be part of some wider conundrum.
But it is, perhaps, more a problem of approach than of design. Hohokum is a game to be ambled within, not raced through (at least the first time around – you can try to beat your recorded time on the second playthrough) but it’s difficult to switch off the lessons learned about progress and completion from years of gaming. Subdue your instincts, however, and Hohokum starts to make more sense – discoveries should be accidental, borne from the simple pleasure of toying with the world.
Worm turns
Hohokum supports that idea with an astonishingly tactile world in which almost everything responds to your touch in some way. NPCs leap on your back to catch a ride as you pass, plants’ leaves unfurl and gain colour, and strange contraptions whir into life. There’s unpleasantness here, too, in the grotesquely biological imagery which permeates many levels, whether that’s exploding growths or phallic tendrils. Despite its saccharine exterior, Hohokum has a melancholic heart, and it’s at its best when its exploring that darker side.
A collaboration with US record label Ghostly International has provided an atmospheric soundtrack to match, combining existing album tracks and brand new compositions from Tyco and Ben Benjamin. Just like its architecture and wildlife, the game’s music responds to your presence, too, songs changing their tone as your actions add and subtract parts of the mix. There are sections that let you improvise your own layers by using parts of the level – one particularly enjoyable example being a cave filled with floating rocks strung together with taut, colourful threads. Oh, and a bunch of singing monkey sloths, of course (we’re calling them slonkeys because moths turned out to be taken).
Hohokum is a brave and compelling experiment that, while channelling certain elements of games such as Noby Noby Boy, Flow and even Pixeljunk Shooter, can’t easily be compared to anything else. Because of this, it’s likely to prove divisive, not least in its combination of objectives with unfettered playfulness. But the game’s sheer charisma will win most over, even if they only dip into Hohokum’s magical, freeform world.
Format PS4 (reviewed), PS3, PS Vita
Publisher Sony
Developer Honeyslug
Out Now
Players 1