Warning : This game contains graphic depictions of suicide, human injury, and death ,which some players may find distressing . We have left this out of our review, however , believe it is worth a mention before diving deep into this game.
- Total Score - 6.5/106.5/10
Summary
This Atmospheric puzzle game reminds me of indie Uncharted / Tomb Raider mixed with The Witness and Rime and has some great puzzle mechanics. Hazel Sky is a great exploration puzzle game that will keep you occupied until you beat the game .
Hazel Sky is a charming, heartfelt adventure that has you on a journey about being a young engineer who confronts his destiny and desires by repairing sick flying machines. You will also be jumping, climbing, swinging and gliding through beautiful and mysterious worlds.
Shane, sent to a remote island in the aviation city of Gideon, must pass the exam and return as an engineer or face asylum. Connected via radio, Shane and fellow trainee engineer, Erin, strike up an illicit friendship; one which will change the way Shane sees the world. Trials are the ultimate test that every engineer must pass before assuming a prestigious role. For Shane, the test is his destiny. Destiny and desire rarely match, and in a world torn between a prestigious engineer and a despised artist, Shane himself is torn. The trials, events in Gideon and an unlikely romance tell the bittersweet story of love, ambition and a society on the brink of something new.
The story is a lack-luster and a bit messy with some lacking details, but overall it still kept me wanting to find out what happens next. Don’t even get me started on the voice-acting though. I just turned it off as it was pretty bad.
This atmospheric puzzle game reminds me of an indie Uncharted / Tomb Raider mixed with The Witness and Rime with some of its own great puzzle mechanics. The puzzle aspects challenged my brain and the graphics are great for a indie title. The camera movement and manner in which Shane manipulated the puzzles had a strong attention to detail. The setup of the puzzles themselves stood out, and I focused on them more due to the aforementioned quality of the voice acting and story. I was happy with the way these turned out, and the puzzles themselves were enjoyable to complete with a moderate sense of difficulty.
The one thing that bothers me about this game though is it’s almost 3 years in the making and, for it’s length of gameplay, seems it shouldn’t have taken this long ( Before I get criticized, yes I have done Dev/QA work and know some the challenges). Now don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed playing through this game alot, and the graphics are great for an indie title made by such a small team with a small budget. But for the length of the game, I don’t see where this time was spent. We all know the world went through Covid-19 during this game’s development. The devs do mention not getting hardware/dev kits for console versions, which might be part of the delay.
Either way, Hazel Sky is a great exploration puzzle game that will keep you occupied and not putting down the controller till you beat the game. It’s a great puzzle game, but the overall presentation fails to tie it all together into a masterpiece.
Be sure to pre-order the game below and get ready to solve the puzzles and explore Gideon !
