Hob Review: Great or Flop?!!

I installed Hob today and I've played for around 5 hours so far. Below is my honest opinion about the game.

Hob is an action adventure game developed by Runic Games. Runic is famously known for developing Torchlight 1 & 2.

I got the game earlier this year on Epic, thanks to their weekly free game giveaways. I installed the game today morning and started playing right away. Below is my review of the game.

Hob starts as a humanoid creature (which I presume is named Hob) goes out from a cave like structure with the help of a friendly robot.

^{A friendly robot making way for Hob to come out in the open}

Hob can move through the environment, which is presented on the screen on a top-down view. The robot helps us move forward and at some point, after playing for around 6 min, Hob is attacked by a mysterious force that quickly consumes his hand. To save him, the friendly robot quickly cut his arm and gives his robotic arm to Hob and takes him to a cave to recover.

^{The friendly robot trying to save Hob}

Once Hob wakes up, he find out he has a robotic arm and then the robot helps him find a sword, and our game begins.

^{The new arm is cool, isn't it? ;)}

There are various types of enemies throughout the world. There are doglike creatures, giantlike creatures, etc. all over the world. With the mighty arm, Hob can punch, smash enemies and press/hit big buttons that are required for progression. He can also attack with his sword, dodge, and teleport a short distance. The arm and the sword can be upgraded by visiting an upgrade kiosk.

^{Hob features many type of enemies}

As I kept progressing, I found a deserted land with electric poles everywhere.

^{The Desert}

After solving the puzzles on surface, I came to an underground area, that's where I am right now.

As a game, Hob highly focuses on exploration and environmental storytelling. Vistas can be found throughout the game which gives us a stunning view of the world that surround us.

^{A vista}

Rating

Gameplay: 9/10
Control and Game Mechanics: 7/10 (I think the sword fighting mechanics could be improved, the attacks feel too generic, instead, they could introduce various types of sword attack combos)
Overall: 9/10