Hohokum – Sony keeping it weird

I’ve tried several times to describe Honeyslug’s Hohokum in a way that makes sense, in terms of what you can expect and how it is to play. I could of course say it’s a game like no other, and while that’s a half-truth I can stand by, it still doesn’t really say anything about the game. My most successful attempt has been to ask people to imagine a combination between Pixeljunk Eden and Noby Noby Boy. Writing it now I realize that this might just be equally vague.

What I do know for sure, is that despite its strange appearance, its abstract plot and lack of a clear goal, it is an entertaining and slightly addictive game. Well I would be lying if I said there was no clear goal, because you do want to get to the next level and see what’s up, but the way you go about getting there is where the weirdness kicks inn. Controlling what I can only describe as a flying snake, you are simply put into an environment and left to your own devices. You control the snake by using the sticks and you have simple inputs using the face buttons. I didn’t really get a good notion of what actually happened when I pushed the buttons, but stuff happened and I’m fine with that. Moving the snake in a slalom-like pattern will increase your speed exponentially.

The key to Hohokum – and its premise as described by the developers – is exploration. Specifically exploration without the pressure to actually accomplish something big or by time constraints. It’s a valid premise, and one I found myself enjoying throughout three levels – of which I extensively played two. The first one was a light and colorful level with floating islands. Some of these islands had tiny homes, hills and trees while others had growth sprouting out from below. Flying through the growth would cause it to react by moving, blossoming or lighting up. Passing a person on top of the small islands would make them jump on to me for the ride. As I later discovered I needed to fly by one of several pine cones that these new friends would grab and hold on to. After further exploration I found out that I had to drop them off at the small hilltops scattered around where this tiny person and the pine cone would transform into a tiny person with a kite. This made perfect sense to me. Repeating this for the rest of the villagers would trigger the portal I needed to move on.

The second level was a much darker one where the background was covered in silhouettes of flower-like shapes. This level played more like Flower where simply touching small dots of light in a pattern on and around the silhouette would eventually trigger it to light up. Doing this for all the shapes in the level would then result in a new portal.

Sounds easy enough? It is when you know what to do, and getting to that point is a very soothing experience. The concept of a pressure-less game works because you’re always rewarded for exploring and generally messing about. Almost anything you touch will have some sort of response, be it big or small. Hohokum in its shown form might not be for all though. Some of the people I have spoken with miss a less abstract approach with storytelling and more concrete goals. That’s not to say it doesn’t have this, we just haven’t seen it yet. I look forward to playing more of Hohokum in the future and will offer more insight as they become available.

Hohokum is a collaboration between Richard Hogg, Honeyslug and Sony Santa Monica and is coming to PS4, PS3 and PS Vita in 2014.

By Bård A. Johnsen
Last updated: September 10, 2013