To be the first time I’m writing here on Kotaworldstarting with Hubert isn’t exactly what I expected. Yet it’s not a bad work, especially considering it’s Brocap Studio’s very first effort: if only it had been more thoroughly polished, it would have offered a much more enjoyable and immersive experience than it actually does. But let’s take a closer look at the finer details.
The title is a single-player adventure that follows Hubert, a loyal dog to his owner Lily, who, due to financial hardship, is forced to work for a gruff mountain man to manage the flock. Hubert is not a trained herding dog, but after managing to get through it and convincing the old man, the two will still manage to secure a place to live. However, peace is shattered by a pack of wolves intent on attacking the flock. Our protagonist steps forward as a hero but is defeated, and just as the alpha wolf prepares to deliver the final blow, a mysterious figure saves him. From there, the adventure begins.
If I had to pick a painful starting point, this would certainly be the gameplay, which turned out to be overly packed with things to do (hence I’ll focus only on the main aspects) and penalised by technical bugs and subpar visuals. I’m referring mainly to the dog’s running movements, which tend to slide with every change of direction and accelerate to 120 km/h (roughly) at every single downhill slope ahead, making character control impossible. Other painful moments are undoubtedly the grazing scenes, as well as the supposed ‘cozy’ moments of the game. Indeed, via the barking mechanic, Hubert can gather both people and sheep and bring them to points of interest. But, if people actually follow a logical path (or at least not too frustratingly), the sheep will wander aimlessly: which is also obvious, so obvious that the developers added guide lines to indicate to the player the path the sheep will take. Unfortunately, they don’t follow even those, and often veer into directions so random they inevitably get stuck against objects or the ground itself, forcing me to reset several times.
I like the exploration aspect, encouraged by the 'pee', 'poo' and 'howl' spots to find around and collect items while marking visited locations, and greatly aided by the 'dog sniffer' mechanic: a mode that lets you follow a trail to progress through the game and find key objects. I, who easily get lost, managed to enjoy it, though I'd recommend keeping this mode rather than the paw-shaped compass in the top right corner, otherwise it's genuinely too easy.
The most successful part is the cast, but only because their style is very classic, if not exactly what you’d expect from a game of this kind. We have, for instance, the protagonist, Hubert, courageous but clumsy, who never manages to stay out of trouble but always knows how to get out of it with his head held high; or the naive girl Lily, ambitious and stubborn, who has to endure the prickly nature of the old man she works for, who became that way as a result of a painful event he still carries with him. In short, I get the feeling that if I removed the protagonists’ names and left only their descriptions, I’d have the same story treated in a thousand different ways.
Even more disappointing is the 'villain' of this story, namely the wolf that attacked Hubert at the beginning. Theoretically, it was meant to serve as a pretext for exploring a conflict between two opposing worlds — namely, the human world and the wild one. Yet, he’s evil simply because he wants to be, and, by itself, he wouldn’t have been a bad guy, provided he had been properly contextualised and explained in some way. All of this, as previously hinted, combines with a truly absent direction: the cutscenes are mostly saved by the interpretive skills of the voice actors, since the animations are wooden and unnatural, but not by the dialogue, which often veers into the banal. Indeed, Hubert’s lines irritate more than any other, thanks to various audio bugs that cause him to repeat the same phrases in succession and sometimes even at a higher volume than usual.
Fundamentally, the game is a massive first test for the developers: it could have come out much worse, it could have come out significantly better and been more thoughtfully crafted, considering the player pays almost 20 euros at full price. Really, a shame, there could have been more. I feel almost like a high school teacher saying this, but I have to. Here’s a vote of encouragement.
"Hubert" should be taken for what it is: a sweet little game with modest ambitions, aiming to tell a simple pseudo- tear-jerker story. The problem is that, precisely as it attempts to do so, it keeps stumbling over various bugs and collapses on itself due to its dialogue, a sign that the script and direction have not been polished to a high standard. It’s worth playing, not for 20 euros.
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