Hektor Review

My quest for a horror game to satisfy me continues. Ever since Doorways: Chapter 1 & 2 (which was over two years ago), I have yet to review a horror game that was able to spark my interest like that did. The closest anything came was DreadOut, scoring a 7 for its essence of Fatal Frame, having to use a camera to see the threats you are facing rather than always knowing. The hunt continues and this time I have tracked down Hektor, a psychological horror game that brings something unique to the table.

In Hektor, you’re a test subject for an underground facility of the same name. The story beyond that is pretty paper-thin, instead being revealed through notes left by various employees around the facility. This move of minimal story works in the games favour, making you want to find all the notes to find out more about what happened behind the scenes of Hektor. It does this slowly, giving you steady steps and even using the environment to aid you. The first thing I noticed about Hektor was the music. It reminded me of the music from BioShock; mellow and quiet violins calmy playing as the game introduces itself.

That’s something the game does well; using jarring music to keep you on edge at all times. This, coupled with the occasional crash of orchestral noise -that always scare the crap out of me- always keeps you on edge.

The game is very Amnesia-esque, having a sanity meter which begins to impair your vision if it gets too low. Taking pills improves your sanity, something that you are reminded of by the many posters found around Hektor, featuring various quotes about the pills. Losing sanity causes several visual effects to your character, however, Rubycone went a bit over the top with these visual effects, adding swirls and colour shifts into it. There was one point where I had to stop playing the game because I felt quite nauseous.

One of Hektor’s biggest selling-points is its mechanic called JIGSAW. JIGSAW is a system that randomises the layout of an area in real-time. I don’t mean procedurally generated, I mean that the walls and rooms move as you're playing the level itself. There was one instance where I found myself in a hallway with a door on the right. I entered the room, found some pills, left the room and carried along the hallway. I turned left and I found myself at the start of the same hallway.

JIGSAW did have its faults and annoyances however. There was one point where the game had obviously misjudged where I was (JIGSAW is only supposed to happen in places away from you) and, as I was walking down a hallway, the walls began to close in on me, pushing me to the side, through a wall and into the corner of an adjacent room. I couldn’t get out of this room due to the closing walls which forced me to restart the entire game because autosaves are given out very reluctantly.

Many of Hektor’s puzzles were not actually that challenging at all. Most of them were ‘run around ‘till you see a shiny object’. Very few puzzles in the game require actual thinking to complete, rather it’s just pick up Object A and Object B and put them on Object C.

Being a horror game, horror is expected. Well, in the first act, there are no creatures, or anything that can kill you (except sliding walls of doom), and the closest you come to a jump scare is when you’re about to leave a room and there’s a woman sitting on a crate that subsequently disappears (I actually missed this specific moment because I had the door closed and by the time I opened it she had vanished).

In the second act, you are slowly introduced to creatures. The first is the Ghoul, which appear randomly and greatly lowers your sanity whenever you look at them. If you get too close to a Ghoul, it screams and disappears, greatly reducing your sanity. Other than that, Ghouls don’t really do anything else. I will admit that when you first encounter a Ghoul, it’s quite surprising, but by the end, especially when they are placed in every other room, they just get tiring and quite annoying, particularly when there’s no way past them.

The other threat, and the more prominent one, is The Predator. This guy appears around halfway through the second act, not long after the Ghoul is introduced. The Predator is the only thing in the game that can kill you, and even after encountering it numerous times, it’s still completely terrifying. The appearance of The Predator is bad enough, but the sound and erratic movements it makes adds to the horror level. The only bad point of The Predator was, because of the JIGSAW system, he would sometimes be chasing you and suddenly JIGSAW would move him in front of you without warning, which usually results in a quick and frustrating demise.

The graphics of Hektor aren’t the best thing in the entire world, but they’re sufficient. The game does a good enough job of scaring you with The Predator itself that they didn’t need to make him realistic. As for the rest of the game, it’s pleasing to look at and no aspect of the game is ruined by the graphics.

Overall, Hektor is a good horror game. It does what a horror game is supposed to do; scare you. It has its faults, but it’s still an enjoyable experience. Whilst the game is far from perfect -especially for £14.99- the areas in which it succeeds make up for the ones where it fails.