Hob's clockwork world is beautiful and bittersweet Eurogamer.net If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy. Hob's clockwork world is beautiful and bittersweet And now it's out on Switch. Feature by Christian Donlan Features Editor Published on 4 Apr 2019 18 comments The world is under threat in plenty of video games. In Hob, the world is broken, a vast mechanism that has been gummed up and misaligned. Your job is to save it by fixing it, wielding a sword that looks like a key and tinkering with locks and escapements and cogs and gears, realigning, repositioning, sliding crucial pieces back into place. There is a thing out there in the world these days called lock sports: people love locks and keys and spend their spare time learning how to mess with them, how to play with tumblers and get the pins bouncing. It is recreational lock-picking, basically, and there's a lot of that appeal to Hob, as you move around, a Link-alike in a carefully reconfigured Hyrule. It goes some way to explaining why this action RPG above all others lingers in the mind and is well worth a second replay now it's finally landed on Switch. But there's another reason, I think. Hob is almost a very cute game. You are small and determined, and the world is lush and pretty in its greenery, in its sculpted stones and brilliant use of copper to accent then ancient machines and give them a surprising texture. But there is also a splinter of malice in there, a sharp darkness that sticks. There's the pink goop that is spoiling this landscape for starters. Then there is the uncanny long legs and long necks of the creatures you come across, limbs extended and knees knobbly, everything just a little bit off. And at the start there is that astonishing opening, which, spoilers, I'm about to ruin, so skip ahead past the end of this paragraph if you'd prefer not to know. Hob starts in darkness. You are imprisoned inside what looks like a hollow in a tree of some kind. The door is forced open by a friendly robot and with them you travel out into this beautiful summery landscape, learning to jump and climb and scamper. The place seems dormant but filled with possibilities, but then, as you play, you get some of this awful pink stuff on your hands and you fall and start to fit. Your friend the robot rushes over, and knows exactly what to do. And what he does is produce a huge copper blade from his arm, and then he brings it down on your wrist. Cut to black. Such an intricate, imaginative, surprising game. And such energising cruelty to make your mission truly count. The sad thing - saddest of all now that Hob is new again and on such a perfect platform - is that this quest to save a world could not save its own developer. Runic Games, which previously made Torchlight and Torchlight 2, bowed out with Hob; its ingenious beauty marks the end of something special, rather than the beginning. Become a Eurogamer subscriber and get your first month for £1 Get your first month for £1 (normally £3.99) when you buy a Standard Eurogamer subscription. Enjoy ad-free browsing, merch discounts, our monthly letter from the editor, and show your support with a supporter-exclusive comment flair! Support us View supporter archive More Features Digital Foundry Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090: a new level in graphics performance The Digital Foundry video review - and how the new GPU champion delivers for 4K 120fps gaming. 15 Feature Evercore Heroes wants to wind people up the right way "There's less rage at them, because they didn't end your fun." Feature What games get wrong about horses And what they could do about it. 34 Feature Shout out to all the Overwatch supports - where would we be without you? Merci. 55 Latest Articles Digital Foundry Sennheiser's legendary HD 599 open-back headphones are just £70 at Amazon in the Prime Early Access Sale Comfortable with neutral sound and a wide sound stage. Preview Football Manager's new Console edition is the best you'll get without a PC Getting Touch-right. 1 Splatoon 3 Amiibos will be out next month Ink-coming! 3 Fans think Phil Spencer's shelf is teasing the Xbox Game Pass streaming box UPDATE: Xbox confirms old Keystone prototype. 61 Supporters Only Premium only Off Topic: Take a minute to appreciate Cookin' with Coolio's incredible scallops recipe. What a great book. Premium only Off Topic: Reading City of Glass in comic form "Where exactly am I going?" Premium only Off Topic: Il Buco is a transporting film about a really big hole Underlands. Off-Topic Netflix handled Sandman brilliantly It was Dreamy. 9 Buy things with globes on them And other lovely Eurogamer merch in our official store! Explore our store