The Hat Man Shadow Ward Review
Jun 02, 2014 These shadow people have been seen all over the world. It is believed by some that the Hat Man comes to visit you to collect your soul. With a creative base of.
Genre: Indie HorrorDeveloped by: Game MechanicsPublished by: EQ GamesRelease date: June 10th, 2016Platforms: PC (Reviewed on PC)Launch Price: 1.99 USDObligatory mysterious rolling wheel chair – check.This is not the only peculiar claim the game has going. Having a good hefty gaming rig, I usually go into game options to figure out how high I can push the graphics settings. This game has three levels available: So So, Good and Fantastic. I selected Fantastic. Then I restarted the game to make sure I hadn’t accidentally clicked something else at the last second.
DamnedDAM'NED, pp.1. Damned definition. Sentenced to everlasting punishment in a future state; condemned.2.
Nope, that was supposed to be Fantastic. I therefore tried out So So, and there was no discernible difference except the sporadically-appearing hand icon being a little rougher round the edges. I understand this is an Indie effort, but claiming Fantastic settings when games like Dark Meadow look better on an iPad is just odd.They have weird newspaper names in Ohio. Clearly they got bored with titles like ‘Times’ or ‘Chronicle.’Controls are standard fare: WASD to move, Q and E to lean, space to jump (and I did not find a good reason for ever doing so), J for Journal and I for Inventory. Where the control scheme does veer away from these norms is in being erratic and unresponsive. There is really not that much to interact with in the game, and the few that can be risk being missed because the interaction area can be obtusely precise and the response rate so poor. I spent a good five minutes trying to open bathroom stalls before realising that you have to aim exactly at the handle – and even then half the time you can’t get the door to open.
This is then accompanied by an on-screen message “click to open” which is all the more frustrating when you’re attempting precisely that.That’s a lie. And from you, the scariest game of 2014. I expected better.The game’s exposition and narrative are also baffling. You can choose to play as Father or Mother for no good reason. You then appear in an elevator, with a telegram in front of you conveying the parallel messages that a) your daughter has disappeared from the insane asylum where she was presumably resident, but b) you don’t need to bother yourself going there, it’s all good. Finding your way to what was presumably your daughter’s room, picking up her journal prompts a full-on Silent Hill transportation to a ruined version of the asylum, and the random scattering of the pages. Finding these pages pretty much is the balance of the game.Your daughter is missing!
But everything is cool! Also, I’m not trusting any doctor called ‘Hummer.’It was not till I found the eleventh of these pages that the premise of dealing with the game’s antagonist is explained: shut off the flashlight and crouch. However, by the time I’d found this gem of information, I’d already found it is almost impossible to consistently turn the flashlight off and it was far easier to simply walk away.
Because all the Hat Man does is float at you if you look at him. So, just walk away. Because the game is procedurally generated, and not very well, I also found it was a good policy just to keep turning left and listen for the audio cue that a page was nearby.Later, the game adds random spike traps. Because they have those in mental health care facilities.You can also listen to the story, such as it is, by opening the journal when you’ve collected a page.
You can turn off the voiceover if you want, but I left it on for the surprise value when the voice over audio doesn’t match the actual page you picked up. And the voice over artist appears to change at least once. The story is simplistic – daughter is in an asylum, she sees the Hat Man in her dreams, no one believes her except a fellow patient who conveniently has a book on the entire thing.There he is – the Scatman! Wait, Hat Man. Ski-ba-bop-ba-dop-bopThis is also supposed to be “based on a true story.” Maybe I’m just too demanding, but usually I think “based on a true story” usually means the work has a story of its own, drawing inspiration from real-life events.
This game doesn’t have a story. It’s less “based on a true story” and more “makes vague reference to an urban legend while you walk around.” The whole pages thing and entity pursuit is lifted wholesale from the Slender Man anyway. The game is set in the Canton insane asylum.
Wikipedia tells me there was once a Canton Indian Insane Asylum, and the idea of the “shadow people” apparently comes from Native American myth. That’s not expounded on in the game and I’m not sure if that small amount of detective work provides any additional value.There are other shadow people in the game, who are less scary (if that’s possible). Less ‘Hat Man’ and more ‘shat man.’There really is very little content and the game reaches for longevity by having almost non-existent save points so every time the Slender.sorry, Hat Man catches you, you’re kicked back to the start. So, no, it’s not the scariest game of 2014. It’s the most boring game of the 15 minutes of your life you’re not getting back before you decide to exit forever.MoreCheck out other.
Even though I've only played about 2.5 minutes of this game, and already quit out because the scariness was 2scary4me, I still think that this Even though I've only played about 2.5 minutes of this game, and already quit out because the scariness was 2scary4me, I still think that this game is, indeed, the scariest and most well-written game of 2014. You start off as some. in an insane asylum, and apparently the game was made with the Source engine from 1997, because everything looks like it was taken from CS: Source. The voice-overs are so well done. Even better, you can play the spoopiest game in the spoopiest language: Russian! Oh boy, another horror game set in a deserted asylum. Well Game Mechanics, aren't you just the most original game developers!
Your standard Oh boy, another horror game set in a deserted asylum. Well Game Mechanics, aren't you just the most original game developers! Your standard indie-horror story: A loved one has disappeared and you need to go find her. The game is basically Slender, Outlast and Amnesia humancentipeded together. Your character has no personality whatsoever and is basically just a camera floating 5 feet above the ground.
The game also appears to be set on the Northpole, because you character controls like the floor is ice. If you stop, you always glide along for a few feet before stopping. Also you can't walk backwards, which is really irritating if you've just ran into a monster that will pull your brains out through your ass when he gets a hold of you. It has a really good atmosphere though, and as far as horror games go, you can do a whole lot worse than The Hat Man: Shadow Ward. In short: nothing special, definitely don't buy this at full price.
Have you played SLENDER? The original, dull and very boring game where you walk around, collect a few notes, and if you stand still too long Have you played SLENDER? The original, dull and very boring game where you walk around, collect a few notes, and if you stand still too long something pops up behind you and jumpscares you? Well that's exactly what The Hat Man is. Except instead of in the forest you're in an asylum, with repeated rooms, hallways, props, and atmospheric scares.
Every now and then a light may fall from the ceiling, with the same animation every time, your heart may start beating faster, a demonic yell may occur nearby, something along those lines. And the game is stuck on repeat, it's the same thing over and over again, and the more notes you acquire the easier it is to lose, as something will pop up behind you if you stand still for a short amount of time (though I'm still not clear on exactly how that works). The props are so repetitive; there's one chair model, one table model, a few blood splatters, one bed model, a fan, a ceiling light, a lamp, and a few other objects that are just copy and pasted all over the game. And the asylum mine as well be the middle of a dark forest, because every hall looks the same, and repeated objects like iron lung machines and wheelchairs are copy and pasted throughout those as well. There's no sense of direction and an asylum with architecture like this would only make it's inhabitants even more crazy, as it almost drove me insane because I thought I was going in circles when I was actually progressing. And clicking on doors only opens them about 20% of the time, you'll have to click about 10 times to open a bathroom stall door, but let me save you some time right now: there's nothing in any of them.
Because this game is too repetitive and 'copy-pasted' to have any unique discoveries. Hitting SPACE to jump also only works a percentage of the time; the controls are literally broken. Stay away from The Hat Man, even if you're curious. The only time I'd recommend it is if you could get it on sale for like $0.19 like I did, and even then only get it if you're interested in reviewing games or making them in the future (like me), other than that stay away completely. This is a great experience for reviewers to get and people in the industry to play through this game and realize what makes a bad game bad. I gave The Hat Man a generous 3/10, th.