Horace

 PC
User Score
7.3

Mixed or average reviews- based on 52 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 32 out of 52
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 52
  3. Negative: 10 out of 52

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  1. kikekikee
    Jun 10, 2020
    4
    Horace is neither a good nor a bad game. It has some really good things and some really bad things. And for each good thing, there is a bad one.

    - The control: Horace is basically a plataformer game. The control has a good response overall. But many times hitboxes are not clear, and you will die because you touched something you are not supposed to be touching. Fortunately, you respawn    Horace is neither a good nor a bad game. It has some really good things and some really bad things. And for each good thing, there is a bad one.

    - The control: Horace is basically a plataformer game. The control has a good response overall. But many times hitboxes are not clear, and you will die because you touched something you are not supposed to be touching. Fortunately, you respawn fast and screens are not really long.

    - The gameplay: level design is clever and well done. But in order to make some surfaces dangerous, they cover them with fire, flaring stuff and many other things that can easily saturate your view. If you have some kind of epilepsy, don't even get close to this game.

    - The mini games: this seems the part where developers put the greatest effort. There is an insane amount of mini games. There are even arcade rooms for playing these games. The problem is that these games are just a parody of famous games: Pacman, Pong or Space Invaders, among many others. They are curious, but not specially fun. I had the feeling that they are here so developers can say "hey, look everything we are able to develop". For CV is great, for players, not so much. And when some of these mini games are part of the main story, it becomes really annoying.

    - The story: has some good ideas, with many plot twists. But these plot twists are not well introduced, so I never got really into the story. Also, some cutscenes are long enough to be tedious. Some of them are even ridiculous. And the game takes too long. I won't say anything else to prevent from spoilers.

    - The target player: if you asked me in the first hour, I would have say this game is for kids. Like Yoshi or Kirby. It is basic plataforming and some item collection. But then it turns into a Dark Souls of plataforming. Not only that: during the story you will see really harsh scenes. There is a strange disonance here, that can lead to confusion.

    - The graphics: pixel art seems more beautiful at the beggining. But as you keep on playing, this was probably the worst part of the game for me.

    Pixel art is beautiful when elements are designed for being a bunch of colored squares. Many elements in this game seem a HD image where you lower the resolution. Some other, like Horace, didn't give me this impression. But, on the other hand, pixel art is beautiful when all pixels have the same size. Here we will see some close-up images with huge squares, while images in background keep a smaller size, somethimes blurred. This only happen in cutscenes, not in gameplay. But cutscenes are like half of the game, if not more.

    Also, animations are really basic. Ok, in other pixel art games too, but other pixel art games don't take about 10 hours of cutscenes showing you the same animation once, and again, and again, and again. It ended up being annoying. To make a quick comparison, Celeste o Octopath Traveler cutscenes are kind of a comic under characters, so the characters themselves don't change. I think this is a good solution if you don't want/know how to give a variety of expressions to your character.

    So, would I recommend Horace? Sadly, not. I was about to give it a 5, like saying "yes, play it, it has some lacks, but it is a nice game". But the truth is that those lacks were too frustrating for me. I saw myself finishing the game just for pure pride.    … Expand
  2. karakul
    Jan 19, 2020
    1
    В игре есть куча механик, ни одна из которых не доведена до идеала. В каждом аспекте игры есть мелкие недочеты, которые портят игровой опыт. Плюс к этому на уровне алисы словил баг, который не позволяет мне ни пройти дальше, не вернуться назад по сюжету. Потратил на игру 7 часов, и в итоге получил только гору раздражения. Причем раздражение это асболютно не похоже на раздражение от соулВ игре есть куча механик, ни одна из которых не доведена до идеала. В каждом аспекте игры есть мелкие недочеты, которые портят игровой опыт. Плюс к этому на уровне алисы словил баг, который не позволяет мне ни пройти дальше, не вернуться назад по сюжету. Потратил на игру 7 часов, и в итоге получил только гору раздражения. Причем раздражение это асболютно не похоже на раздражение от соул игр. Если в соулс играх ты умираешь и фейлишь только из-за своего скилла, то тут ты фейлишь из-за кривизны механик и багов. Не тратьте время на игру, господа.… Expand
  3. Byjingo
    Mar 23, 2020
    2
    Gave up after 15 mins. Endless lifeless cut scenes to get to floaty feeling platforming and a bad version of pong....it's so obnoxious it made me sign up to metacritic to say how much I loathe it.
  4. PerfectRice
    Mar 8, 2020
    2
    I've never been inspired to join this site before, but I felt I had to review this game, simply because I'm so baffled about how acclaimed it is. This is a basic, fairly playable but sometimes annoying platform game. It plays with the mechanics a bit, but there's still nothing special. I'd give this a 6/maybe a 7 for the gameplay.

    My main issue with this game is that it thinks it's    I've never been inspired to join this site before, but I felt I had to review this game, simply because I'm so baffled about how acclaimed it is. This is a basic, fairly playable but sometimes annoying platform game. It plays with the mechanics a bit, but there's still nothing special. I'd give this a 6/maybe a 7 for the gameplay.

    My main issue with this game is that it thinks it's hilariously funny. I laughed once. Maybe you'll find it funny, but if you don't then it renders the game a tedious slog. Despite the basic story, there are a ridiculous amount of cut scenes and they drag on and on for far too long. There are far too many uninteresting characters with a single joke to them that either falls flat or doesn't work, but get so much time dedicated to them.

    The game clearly wants to tug at your heart strings, but the endless failed comedy meant I ended up (having found the option to do so) skipping the cut scenes after a while. They become painful to sit through. Maybe I missed out, but it wasn't long after that when I abandoned the game altogether.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

72
#72 Best PC Game of 2019

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
81

Generally favorable reviews - based on 9 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 9
  3. Negative: 0 out of 9
  1. Worth Playing
    Nov 20, 2019
    75
    In the end, Horace is an engaging experience if you're patient or don't get riled up easily. The platforming isn't as infuriating as most precision-based platformers, but the obstacles in some rooms can be annoying. The instant respawns are nice, but they don't cancel out the frustration of occasionally spotty hit detection. The instant camera rotation can be dizzying, and the repetition of tricky jumps can get old, but the engaging story makes it all worthwhile, especially since this is quite a lengthy game. Horace isn't the next indie masterpiece, but it is good enough to be called a genuine sleeper of a game that people should play.
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  2. TheSixthAxis
    Aug 19, 2019
    90
    Horace is one of the most pleasant gaming surprises in years. I'm clearly a key part of its target demographic, having lived through the 1980s and early 90s that so heavily influenced it, but my enjoyment and engagement went past such an identification. I was completely absorbed throughout, and fully intend to return to collect the remaining pieces of junk. It may not be as immediately impressive as the latest AAA blockbuster, but Horace is essential for fans of retro games or hard platformers and a real contender for Indie Game of the Year.
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  3. The Digital Fix
    Aug 13, 2019
    80
    Technical difficulties aside, Horace is an endearing, nostalgic, platforming masterpiece. Even after having to start fresh at one point, I could not wait to jump right back in and play more. Which is pretty telling considering that, at its heart, this is a game about a robot cleaning up garbage. Once properly patched up to correct the minor technical issues, this game would whole-heartedly be a 10 out of 10 for this writer.
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