Hans

Hans is a student project from USC. One of the first things students should be taught in game development is that 3D graphics became mainstream in the mid 1990's with dedicated 3D cards like the Voodoo3 and the ATI Rage. But the students were deliberately mistaught that's it's okay to release obsolete 2D games in the 3D era of gaming... certainly any professional developer seeing a prospective new hire who doesn't even know about 3D gaming probably isn't going to give them a job. Needless to say if an educational institution taught me incorrectly on purpose, I'd ask for my money back. This is a really godawfully bad 2D adventure game with mediocre illustrations for the "art" instead of anything professional. The game narrative is about a furry from space who bakes stuff. So if you're thinking about going to USC for a game development education, now you know all they'll teach you is how to make 2D games for furries, are you thinking twice about where to spend your tuition money? I would. We also have to question what value there is for gamers on Steam when institutions flood the store with low quality 2D video game homework assignments... sure, it might make the students feel good about themselves, but this has no benefit for gamers who have to wade through this stuff to find professionally made 3D games. This is "free" enough, at least you won't be expected to spend any more money after you download this, but just because something is free doesn't mean it's good. Despite having no up-front cost, this failed to appeal to the 120 million+ gamers on Steam. SteamDB showed the game peaked at only 2 concurrent players... this is a dismal public reception. This was so bad they couldn't even give it away. Bearing in mind that free games don't add +1 to your game collector count, should you bother adding this to your library and downloading it? Not this time. This isn't worth downloading. While this won't cost you any money, you get what you pay for, and sometimes, even when the game is free, it's still not enough.

I loved the interacting cooking and storyline of this game! So many different endings to get. Wish there was achievements.

[h1]To Cook or Not to Cook: That Is the Question[/h1] [h2]A short review of [i]Hans[/i][/h2] I loved the game concept, the story, and the narrative design. The balance between the seriousness of the setting (World War I) and the fun, absurd concept is well thought out and creates real charm in this little game where you either bake (or fail to bake) magical pastries. Indeed, you play as Hans, an alien who must collect a magical ingredient and bake pastries to help the village inhabitants. Ultimately, Hans’ main role is to listen to what the villagers have to say and find a solution to their problems. The narrative knots are well designed, and the characterization of the characters, especially Hans, brings something fun, engaging, and unique. The potential for a quirky twist in this visual novel is real, further enhanced by the sketch-like art style, especially when displaying the ingredient lists for the recipes. The small downside lies in the game design. While the core focus on cooking and the magical ingredient aligns well with the concept and is enjoyable, I found it difficult to pinpoint exactly what allows you to unlock all the different endings. On that note, I didn't manage to reach all 8 possible endings (only 2 on my part). It seems to me that in this aspect, the game lacks clarity and player intuitiveness, as well as a faster way to unlock the different endings. To get all 8 endings, you need to replay the dialogues from the beginning, which adds a sense of slowness and repetition that, in my opinion, undermines the fun and makes the game experience frustrating. It also seems that in this final build, some characters go off-screen on the right side, and there’s a slight improvement needed in character interaction when clicking on them to open dialogues, to make it feel more intuitive (but nothing too serious on that front!). It’s too bad that the disconnection in the game design concept, the apparent difficulty in obtaining the different endings, and the somewhat heavy sense of slowness and repetition prevent me from fully recommending the game. However, since the game is free (and apparently made as part of a study project), it’s worth diving into this universe and taking a short 15-20 minute break because there’s definitely potential and a commendable intention in the approach!

All that time spent in the gas mask must be depriving Hans' brain of oxygen because his handwriting gets worse and worse with every recipe. Jokes aside it's a very cute baking game. I love it!

Прикольная игра, жаль без Русского языка.

Such a cute game! the entire thing is just charm incarnate

☀️