Hiveswap xefros room
Maybe my expectations were too high for a ”good game” to meet them.įor me, Homestuck was a groundbreaking media experience.
![hiveswap xefros room hiveswap xefros room](https://i1.sndcdn.com/avatars-000334705974-9asgeu-t500x500.jpg)
Still, I’m frustrated that I still feel like it’s missing something. Even with Homestuck history aside, Hiveswap is a good game. “Kansas City Shuffle” is only the first act of four and a good introduction to the Homestuck universe for newcomers. It was an interesting way to bring more of the comic to the game, while still sticking to the point-and-click adventure formula. You can’t die in battle (I’ve tried), But I did feel like my life was on the line during the first play through. Though they look like battles, they’re actually puzzles, with Joey using the weapons she’s willing to equip to defeat enemies. In-game “battles” pull from the style seen in the Homestuck comic. Even in the game’s battles, Hiveswap keeps its characters and stories center. You scour for food in their own kitchen, making you wonder why Joey and her brother seem to have been neglected.
#HIVESWAP XEFROS ROOM HOW TO#
You have to figure out how to defeat the monsters with a flashlight because Joey is a nonviolent character. Hiveswap follows the rules of “show, don’t tell” by letting game actions tell the story. Both charming and frustrating, each mouse hover over an items reminded me I was looking to find Joey’s solution to the problem, not my own. If I tried to equip a gun, the narrator snottily told me that Joey did not do business this way. Even with shadow monsters at large and guns all over the house, Joey refused to shoot them. I enjoyed that the gameplay mechanics to reinforce its character building. Gameplay in Hiveswap is the typical ‘“find a thing and maybe combine stuff to get to the next area” style. Joey and Xefros work together remotely, messaging back and forth until near the end of the act. He is a telekinetic troll, and he helps her to get home while searching for his friend who vanished mysteriously. After Joey stumbles through a portal into Alternia, she finds a tablet and talks with Xefros, who we then play as after they talk. Play switches between characters as Jude lends Joey a hand from afar. Her goal is to get to the safety of the attic, but first she must find the key. Monsters separate Joey from her brother, Jude, who’s trapped in a tree house. It’s as clean as her room ever gets: clutter shoved to the walls so there’s open space in the middle. There are stickers and glowing stars everywhere and I see neon-pastel, Lisa Frank-style posters on the walls.
![hiveswap xefros room hiveswap xefros room](https://64.media.tumblr.com/0d4588f21c38ea215b125e17f13a1900/tumblr_pdfq84LKkc1wbawzao1_500.png)
The room is covered in junk from the nineties, which is appropriate, because the year on my calendar is 1994. Soon I played a cute kid named Joey, clicking through her room to find a walkie talkie. That’s where I was when I loaded up Hiveswap’s first episode: Kansas City Shuffle. I finished the last ~200 pages of the 8,000 page webcomic to prepare for re-entry into the fandom. Then I found out developer What Pumpkin finally finished the title, a point-and-click adventure game in the world of Homestuck. Eventually, both the game and comic both fell off my radar. Work on the game slowed updates to the comic it was based on. I had backed the Kickstarter for what would become Hiveswap back in 2012, but it was perpetually in production and had few reports on progress.
#HIVESWAP XEFROS ROOM CODE#
This review was conducted using a free review code of the retail game from the publisher. I was deep into the world of this webcomic and ready to play. Five years ago a Kickstarter for a “Homestuck Adventure Game” raised $2.5 million and had people asking: “What the hell is Homestuck?”Įxcept for me.