Hitchhiker | PS4 Review
Hitchhiker, developed by Mad About Pandas and published by Versus Evil is a visual novel where you take on the role of a lost and confused hitchhiker who has been picked up in a mystery destination by a mystery driver. It is currently available on Windows PC, PlayStation, XBox, and Nintendo Switch and for the purpose of my review I was playing on PlayStation 4.
The game begins with you as the passenger in a random car, cruising down a random highway in a seemingly random place. You don’t know where you're going; you don’t even seem to know who you are. The game's story evolves over the course of five different chapters where you are driving along a road with another random person. You’ll spend the bulk of your time listening to the strange tales that these folk have to tell. At some points you’ll need to solve some small puzzles within the cars and choose your own dialogue options for your replies to the drivers at other points. Whilst initially I was very confused about the story of this game, I very quickly started to feel really endeared and charmed by it. There were some significant moments throughout the various stories that I don’t want to spoil, but there was a particularly poignant moment with an elderly gentleman trying to find a specific place but confusion had set in due to his memory beginning to struggle. This was probably one of my favourite moments of the game if I’m honest, it just felt like the subject was handled really well but was still creative and well portrayed.
Visually, Hitchhiker isn’t anything particularly demanding but I really still appreciated the art style and feel like the almost hand drawn graphics truly fit the nature of the game well. Alongside this, whilst your character never actually speaks, all the drivers of the various cars are fully voiced and adds to the atmosphere. Perhaps your character not speaking is just another mechanic to help convey that feeling of detachment from yourself.
Hitchhiker was a fun way to spend a rainy afternoon. It truly felt like an escape for a few hours and really intrigued me and held my attention from beginning to end. It only took me around 4 hours to complete and once you complete all the levels you’ll be able to go back on level selector and replay the levels again. With this you can perhaps choose different dialogue options and see the other outcomes, so there is a certain degree of replayability for those who don’t quite feel ready to say goodbye to it yet. Hitchhiker is very easy controls wise and doesn’t require any sort of immense skill, so anyone who really likes a good story and wants something a little bit different, I would say Hitchhiker would be a pleasant surprise and change from the normal pace of games. Essentially, it is a walking sim with a difference.
Lj’s Rating: 3.5 road trip snacks out of 5.
For more information on Hitchhiker please use the following links...
Mad About Pandas - Developer | Facebook | Twitter | Website
Versus Evil - Publisher | Facebook | Twitter | Website
Many thanks to Plan of Attack for the Review Key.
Hitchhiker | Windows PC | PlayStation | XBox | Nintendo
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