Hazel sky is a little indie game from Coffee addict studios. It’s one of those games that fly under the radar for lack of advertisement but surprises you upon playing.
Yes if it hadn’t been for a release website for video games I wouldn’t have known that this game even existed. However, that’s what makes this game such a hidden gem.
The story of Hazel Sky is a unique one. It’s original in its premise but also borrows ideas from games such as Bioshock Infinite (we’ll get to that later). The story starts with a lone girl on an island, she looks upset. We don’t know who this is but we will find out more about her over the course of the game. We then cut to our main protagonist Shane being transported by a rowboat to a lone island by his father. Shane is blindfolded in order for the location of the island to remain a secret to him and you learn that Shane is going to this island to undergo a trial to become an engineer.
Simple right?
An engineer in this world is a big thing. It’s an important job and as we learn there are few engineers left, hence the reason for the trial. Once you have passed and become an engineer you learn that you will go to live in the floating city of Gideon where you will live and work. This is where the similarities in setting between Hazel Sky and Bioshock Infinite come into play. Gideon, like Columbia, is a floating city above the clouds. In an apparent utopia, however, you will learn throughout the game that things are not how they appear to be. A form of Nazism has taken over Gideon. Art and artistic expression like music have been outlawed in the city and you hear through radio broadcasts that an uprising is taking place in the city by a cultish leader. Maybe it’s not the utopic city it’s all cracked up to be after all?
Onto gameplay…
During the trials, you will have to build a different type of aviation vehicles such as a simple aeroplane, a hot air balloon and a more complex aeroplane. To do this you have the base of the vehicle built already. You are then provided with a set of blueprints that tell you what materials you will need to find in order to complete the trial task. These range from metal sheets, coal, oil and aeroplane wings. You will have to explore the island completing puzzles and tasks in order to one, find the materials and two, upgrade your equipment to assemble the machine.
The gameplay is very simple but it’s very fun and enjoyable leading to a relaxed gameplay experience.
Along the way you will find collectable items to attach to your backpacks, such as pin badges and patches, also you can find books and letters containing information regarding the lore of the game and experiences from past participants of the trials. My only gripe with finding these books is that on the small screen of the switch in handheld mode it was difficult at times to read the text in the books. Letters were fine as you have a button to enlarge the text in order to read the words. However, books do not have this feature. I would like to have seen either the same feature used with letters or the ability to zoom into the text while reading the book to actually understand what is written without having to squint.
Another form of collectable you can find around the islands is music sheets with guitar chords and song lyrics on them. Once the cords are in your head, go over to the nearest guitar on the island and proceed to strum out the correct cords in order to hear a song. I found it so fun hunting for these music sheets to then be rewarded by a nice chilled-out song to listen to.
Climbing is also a key feature in this game. Like with Assassin’s Creed and Uncharted the climbing works the same sort of way. Find a climbable ledge jump to grab onto It and then proceed to make your way up. What this game does a bit different though is that you have to hold onto the ZR button while climbing, let go of the ZR button and Shane loses his grip. This also works for grasping onto and pulling objects. It’s a nice feature that adds to the realism of this game. Realism is a factor that I found to be prominent throughout the game. Subtle little things like footprints being left in the sand or snow to being able to hear the contents of your backpack while you’re walking really added to the immersion of the game.
Even the music helps to get you immersed in the setting and tone of the game with a slow acoustic guitar popping up every now and again adding to that relaxing chilled-out feel.
Now while this game has a lot of good points, there are some issues it suffers from that drag it down a little. The main two are the voice acting and the graphics.
Unfortunately, the voice acting is not top tier as It feels very amateur. Sure, there are some good attempts like with Shanes’s father but the line delivery for Shane is very wooden and at times his voice actor stumbles. The voice actor for the mysterious girl Erin that you meet on walkie-talkies felt very lacking as well, which is a shame as she’s featured so frequently.
The graphics too whilst not the worst in the world do feel a little outdated and unfortunately, I did experience some frame rate drops in busy areas where there was a lot going on, on the screen.
One final thing to note that brings the overall game down Is its ending. Without going into too much detail it kind of just ends, with one subplot just being left open without being resolved. I get what they’re trying to do. They went with the ambiguous open-ended ending, letting the player work out what happens next. Whilst this might be okay for some, for others it feels like the game is cut short where it feels like the 3rd act is about to begin. If the developers are going for a sequel then I understand, if not then this is one of those games that falls into the category of a great game with a bad ending.
Overall it doesn’t detract from the fact that this is a great game.
It’s fun with enjoyable and unique gameplay, interesting collectables to find and a rewarding music section.
Hazel Sky is a hidden gem of 2022 and one that I would be happy to return to again and again.
Hazel Sky is available for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.
This review is based on the Nintendo Switch version of the game.
Grab your copy here https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Hazel-Sky-1883115.html
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