Sometimes, a game’s name isn’t doing itself any favours. It’s a bit like the place near my hometown called “The Glory Hole“, you’re never going to be able to get people to hear you say it without sniggering. I feel like this is a similar case for our The Hole review; while I appreciate the game itself, I just know that people are going to start reading into things the wrong way. Does the name actually mean anything weird? Well…maybe. The only way to find out is to play it.
When you’re done reading this, consider checking out our Game of the Year 2024, where we talk about our best games of last year. We also have our Flops of the Year 2024, where we do the same but with the awful ones.
What Is The Hole?
The Hole is a first-person horror game from [The Brothers] in which you inhabit a tiny, shabby apartment and live inside the head of a functional alcoholic with a dark past as you explore his daily life and the dark events that surround both yourself and your neighbours.
If you’re the sort of person who spends their time typing “horror” into Itch.io and playing pretty much anything that comes up, then you should be pretty familiar with what The Hole has to offer. It’s a first-person horror game with an old-school aesthetic, meaning it’s got more visible polygons than Alpha Waves did, and it makes heavy use of post-processing filters to give the game a certain vibe. In terms of gameplay, it’s about as basic as it gets. You move around, click on objects to interact with them, or pick them up and try to progress the story by completing your current task.
So, What Is Going On Here?
Most of what The Hole has to offer is related to the story and atmosphere. Early on, the game starts out with content warnings that make it pretty clear we’re dealing with some dark topics, and those warnings are completely justified. Despite only running for around an hour, the experience is likely to stick with you as the horror of what is going on slowly unfurls itself from the creeping and crawling narrative. It’s done very well, in the way that it is thoroughly creepy and off-putting pretty much the entire time.
At the same time, certain elements are left vague intentionally, mostly because there’s an expectation of at least some abstraction to help keep the player from feeling too in control. It’s the sort of tone and style that work really well for a brief horror experience like this where you’re basically being led around from point to point, experiencing a surreal and dark narrative in exactly the way that the game wants you to, with a few variations that can be made by choosing certain actions throughout the storyline.
Is It Worth Your Time?
Really, how much you’ll enjoy The Hole comes down to how much you enjoy bite-sized horror experiences that aren’t afraid to talk about really, really dark subject matter. The title is short and, in places, hard to watch, but it also feels like a game that has been made for a purpose rather than as a product to be pushed out and sold to a specific audience. If you’re willing to use games as a medium to explore the darkness of the human condition, you’ll probably want to experience this. If you rolled your eyes when reading the last sentence, maybe skip it.
In my opinion, The Hole is a steal as far as bite-sized horror goes. Sure, you could hit Itch.io and grab a bunch of similar productions for free, but it’s unlikely they’d have the same level of polish to them, at least not without having to wade through the chaff to find the best bits.
The Verdict
The Hole provides a miniaturized horror experience for the modern era at a decent price. It also touches on some pretty dark places but literally goes out of its way to warn you about it well before you have any chance of coming across it. In short, you definitely have to know what you’re getting into, and horror enthusiasts will find a lot to enjoy. If you need a really deep experience or modern graphics, then you’re playing the wrong game, but if you can look past the flaws, there’s a really interesting indie horror game in here.
Developer: BuffNerd Studios
Publisher: Itch.io
Platforms: PC
Release Date: 5th December 2024
Gaming Respawn’s copy of The Hole was provided by the publisher.
