Haque Review: Not Actually A Hack-and-Slache (PC)

    There are quite a few games out there that take on a purposefully glitchy aesthetic. One of the first I remember is IMSCARED, a horror game that also engaged in some meta-horror by messing around and creating new game files, but there are some other ones out there. I've also seen ones like Pony Island or the highly popular Doki Doki Literature Club, a cute anime visual novel with a twist that is decidedly not sexy. Today's game is a roguelike that happens to also have the same aesthetic. It's Haque (pronounced like hack) by SuperTry Studios!

    The game's story is one of those classic stories that has been used and reused in many games across many generations. The land is filled with evil monsters, and your character's job is to take them out, and not on a date. At least, that's how it starts. As you make your way through the stages, the game's glitchy nature starts to show itself, and the Old Man that serves as your guide and narrator turns out to not be as kindly as he seems. It's always the weird old games made for 70's/80's computers that seem to have those disturbing and creepy glitches, isn't it?

Literary pedantics, you may now make your Sonic Unleashed-esque complaints about what the 'were' in 'werewolf' means. You may also complain about how a species is used as a class. Not that I'll listen.

    Every time you start a new game, you get a selection of three randomly-generated characters, each with different skills, items, starting pet, and class/race combination. It brings to mind the 2D side-scrolling roguelike Rogue Legacy, the game that taught us that not being able to feel pain is actually a terrible condition, and way less badass than it seems. It may seem cool being able to shatter a glass with your bare hands, but it's certainly not cool to not notice a cut, have it get infected, and get your arm amputated. In all seriousness, though, this system also allows you to lock characters so they'll appear next time you start a game. The random generation concept is rendered somewhat less interesting when you figure out you can back out and go back in if you don't like your options, making it so you can eventually get a good character if you wanted.
    The gameplay itself has you moving around randomly-generated dungeons while using your gear and skills to fight off a variety of monsters. The main goal of each floor is to reach the portal that will take you to the next floor. Your character develops in power by getting new equipment and gaining a passive bonus chosen when you complete a floor. Anvils, most often found before boss floors, let you combine equipment to hopefully make something that will be useful to your character. There are also shops that exist in the dungeon, but they evidently rely on the barter system instead of trading goods for gold. And of course, there's plenty of equipment and healing items to find, such as black and white jelly donuts made (by) for kids.

"Mommmm! Why does my donut taste like rice?"

    One thing that I decently liked about the game was its highly retro aesthetic and somewhat clever writing. For those of you out there who remember those really old computers, you'll probably feel right at home when you see the intro cutscene that resembles an old computer program booting up. There are even options to add simulated CRT monitor simulation and a Filth slider for adding fake finger smudged dust on the screen. I personally didn't turn on any of those options because I'm a 90's kid, and thus I'm more interested Rugrats and Doug than early computers. I also turned off the low HP warning that causes the screen to glitch out when you are hurt at low health. When I'm on my last legs and need to carefully plan my next move, having parts of the screen briefly become hard to understand doesn't really make things easier for me.
    Haque also has some charming writing that was worth a few smirks. This mostly comes across in the descriptions of various items, but sometimes the Old Man has some funny quips. One conversation I personally remember has the Old Man talking about how he had to clear out some nasty animated skeletons once. But then he recalls how there were a lot of balloons around and starts to doubt his narrative, prompting a message log update saying "The Old Man wonders if he ruined a Skeleton birthday party." I recall someone likening the game's whimsical writing to Adventure Time, but I don't think it gets to makin' bacon pancakes levels of whimsical charm. Still, props for depicting Ox-Head and Horse-Face as actually having the heads of the proper animals, and being in a relationship.

Is this skeleton birthday party message supposed to be one of those self-confusing abilities from Earthbound/Mother?   

    Something that isn't charming however is the fact that attack animations can take a good while to perform. Maybe I'm spoiled by classic roguelikes like Nethack, where most spells are instantaneously represented in the message log, but when a few characters are using skills every turn, it can take a good while before you get to do anything again. For instance, the skill that lets you (or an enemy/pet) throw a boulder at someone else has about three or four seconds of someone spinning the boulder around, one or two for it to fly at the target, and two or three more if it misses and bounces past the target. On a similar note, the text box for when a shopkeeper accepts or rejects an offer takes way too long to disappear, like they're all members of the Slow Talkers of America. Like I said, I might just be spoiled by RPG roguelikes with faster combat, but giving players the option to speed past the slow stuff is never a bad decision.

    I also noticed that the game may have a couple of game-breaking bugs in it. At one point, I had finished a floor that resembled a long hallway with outdoor areas to the left and right. After clearing it out (and chasing a skeleton mage and skeleton pope halfway across creation because they didn't have the guts to fight,) I stepped in the portal, chose my upgrade, and clicked proceed, which caused the game to proceed to freeze and crash. As a result of that and the game's permadeath system, I lost my character, which also happened to be my best run so far. What really sucks about this is that due to the game's intrinsically glithchy nature, I can't be certain if that was a real bug or a "game making every attempt to stop you from winning" thing done by the 'Old Man,' who at this point was obviously not as friendly as he seemed.

Warning: mysql_fetch_assoc(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /home/brian/htdocs/oldmanchat.php on line 32

    Haque overall is a fairly decent roguelike. The 70's/80's computer aesthetic is certain to appeal to certain fans of yesteryear's computers, and the writing has a bit of cleverness that made finding items a treat, especially those onigiri jelly donuts. The game's aesthetic, though, also seems to include a lack of small quality of life features many of us modern folk take for granted. I'm also a little leery about the possibility of major bugs such as the one I encountered (as of writing, I have yet to receive a definitive answer on if I experienced a real bug.) The game manages to be fine overall, but given my options, it might not be one I frequently play.

Good idea, 'Old Man.' See you next time.

    Update 5:17 PM EST, 1-30-2018: Turns out that game-breaking bug I found was actually a bug.