HIVESWAP: ACT 2 Reviews

save UHC and apologize

Great continuation. Still waiting for more Acts!

[h1]I'll bite.[/h1] [b]To preface this[/b] - I am not a die-hard Homestuck fan. Pretty far from it, really. I am primarily writing this as a fan of point and click adventure games and this review is mostly for people who are fans of point and click adventure games. I read it, sure, but it's not my typical cup of tea. On a very surface level I enjoyed acts 1-5 and I kind of tapped out at act 6 due to a variety of smaller issues that began to compound into a singularly hair-pulling reading experience, only finishing it out of some nebulous sense of obligation due to the amount of time sunk into reading it. I enjoyed it, didn't love it, but I very much appreciate its existence and I think its better qualities far outweigh its negatives. Nevertheless, this is not a review of Homestuck. Hiveswap, in a meta sense, is an inherently fraught topic that - without getting into the layers-upon-layers of internal drama, semi-failed promises, and general mishandling of the overall IP after its acquisition - I'll just say is complicated from essentially any standpoint that is not the structural content of the actual game. Said content, however, is pretty simple. Hiveswap (as a whole) is a very classic point and click adventure game in the same vein as something like Pajama Sam or Day of the Tentacle. It is also a very *good* point and click adventure game. The presentation is clean and vibrant. Flavortext is abundant and high quality, with essentially every item in your inventory having some form of interaction with whatever new thing or person you haplessly try throw it at to see if you missed anything important. While there aren't necessarily different routes, there are branching paths that have some subtle yet tangible effects on dialogue and the options available to you for puzzles, which - again, while mostly an underscore - is a welcome addition that makes replays to see all the writing an appealing option for after the credits roll. I especially appreciate the fact that almost every "puzzle" in the game has more than one solution available, and the game doesn't necessarily railroad (pun maybe intended? subconciously?) you into whichever you stumble upon first. I cannot overstate how well this game and its predecessor/first chapter function as point and click games - I'd list them as must-plays for anyone who appreciates the genre. When discussing the pacing of the game it's important to understand the basic conceit when it comes to its structure. The game is segmented and split into train cars, which function as self-contained vignettes containing their own subplot and puzzle before moving onto the next one. In total, if you count the brief time spent before getting on the train, there are 6 of these. While an even split of time between all of them shouldn't necessarily be expected as some sort of design requirement, when each of these mini-chapters are based primarily around their respective "gimmicks" when it comes to the characters and overall themes + aesthetics being explored therein, it stands to reason that given the character-driven (both the literal characters as well as the more chimerical character of the area) nature of the game, that it would be generally somewhat [i]*bad*[/i] to not evenly pace the amount of time spent in each. Unfortunately, this somewhat bad thing is exactly what the game does. I am not going to say exactly which are which, but there is one train car that gets skipped over almost immediately, one that takes up a solid 1/3 to 1/2 of the runtime of the game, and one that barely has you interact with the car at all, mostly asking you to go back and talk to people you've already thoroughly talked to. It's not game ruining, sure, but what really gets my goat about this whole thing is that I never once got the impression that any of these cars had more or less to say than the others. They all are pretty much matched in potential, which leads to a lopsided experience where you can tell some parts have aspects left untapped while others would have served much better as more succinct experiences. Are these issues game ruining? Nah. But they are frustrating in a very strange and kind of ephemeral way to the point where I couldn't put my finger on it until I was thinking in retrospect. Anyways. I won't comment much on the more Homestuck-y and "cringe" aspects of the writing, as well as its departures from previous things within the franchise. For a few reasons. Mostly: I don't really care. Secondarily: A lot of what I'd say has been said verbatim previously by people with far more stake in this whole thing than me. Yeah, its a little tryhard at times when it comes to the general vulgarity of it all. There's some scant use of modern internet terminology that doesn't fit the overall vibe. The troll blood castes and their populations are victim to a pretty severe case of Flanderization and are frankly just a little [i]*off*.[/i] None of these things should really concern you if you aren't invested in the sanctity of the Homestuck name though, for most normal people any of the above gipes will probably amount to a vaguely miffed eye-roll, a fleeting yet disapproving squint, or - more likely - nothing at all. Outside of these frankly small personal issues, the writing is very good - especially for flavortext and interactions between our two main characters. It's not Shakespearean, but it is strikingly natural at times and the sense of humor in the flavortext can catch you off guard with some very honest laughs pretty consistently. The narrative manages to make the story feel prescient at most points during the game despite the overall structure essentially being a series of very, very tangential diversions. The player is ostensibly expected to try and find all the text and dialogue possible, taking them farther and farther away from the primary goal in the process, so it is an impressive feat to be able to still keep someone invested in and not forgetful of said goal throughout the whole runtime. I'm not terribly qualified to speak on the visuals, art has never been my thing, and getting into them will invariably drag me into speaking on the more meta aspects of this game's development and all that jazz, so I'll keep it brief. It doesn't look as good as act 1 which can be theorized to be because it had overall less people working on it and a somehow more rocky development cycle than the first chapter. Irregardless of this, the game looks great - the first act is a very, very high bar to clear. Environments universally are great and the stark contrast between them is very well executed and obviously thematically relevant. The visuals paired with the soundtrack and audio design impart such a pointed sense of individuality in every section that the player is almost immediately able to ascertain a whole suite of traits regarding each group of characters and each train car. It's done so well that it can sometimes come off as hammy, or too in-your-face about the points it wants to make. However: the alien world the game takes place on is simply very in-your-face by nature, and I personally believe that a more subtle approach would be ill-suited to the setting. If you like point and click games, play it. If you like Homestuck, play it and also maybe don't be so stuck up about it? That's really all I have to say. On the matter.

loved act 1 and act 2 was alright until the ace attorney segment. poorly-written, bad logic connections between evidence and dialogue choices, no hints as to what ending you've unwittingly locked yourself out of, dialogue can be clicked through but not skipped so if you get the game over (there are multiple scenarios where if you get one thing wrong you get insta G.O.'d) it's super tedious because you have to listen to all of the dialogue every time because it's tied to the "press" mechanic they added. the game insults joey and thus the player when they get something "wrong" despite not being very helpful if you aren't trying to cheese the entire thing. this one segment (and this particular act's obsession with making you talk to people instead of putting you in scenarios where you want to) made me not want to finish the game.

While Act 1 on its own is a competent and polished point n click adventure game, Act 2 is more like a visual novel with walking around. Pretty much the entire team that developed Act 1 has left after its release, leaving a 3 year gap between the two acts that was filled by the Friendsim and Pesterquest visual novels. It seems that new team was tasked with developing Act 2. 5 years after Act 2's release with only hints of Act 3, I have little faith that Hiveswap will ever actually be finished, let alone Hauntswitch. The game itself is far less polished than Act 1 was, and I would go as far as to say that it was rushed and incomplete. Two characters whose homes you visit were straight-up cut from the game. Furthermore, Andrew Hussie, the creator of Homestuck is a manipulative, abusive liar who does not deserve your money and support. If you want to know more, look up the takedown of the Unofficial Homestuck Collection and the pretense that is the Homestuck Independent Creative Union, to say nothing of things regarding the development of Hiveswap itself.