[b]Please.[/b] Read this entire review before you come to a conclusion about whether or not to try this game & remember that most of the following complaints come from the [b]last mode[/b], Sage mode, & all my losses were mostly my fault. While the RNG is either the worst or most noticeable in that mode, I got impatient & left my cover when I thought I had enough time, so a lot of my rage was self-inflicted.
As problematic as this game will sound, as awful as I’m going to make it appear, please understand that it functions perfectly fine & is still a product of effort, [b]clearly[/b] seen in the art & AI.
[h1][b][i]Overview[/i][/b][/h1]
Hyde & Zeke is a hand-drawn 2D hide-and-seek, stealth, collect-a-thon, arcade game made by Mystic Mask Media. You hide as Hyde, using his handy-dandy nifty magic light-up wand & the human ability to hide behind pillars, chests, & shelfs as you search for the keys to escape the castle hallway while Zeke seeks for Hyde with [b]his[/b] magic flashlight, lock-on teleportation, & winged critter minions. If Zeke’s light touches you, even by only a faded pixel, you lose & have to restart the level. Also, everytime you start or lose a game, the placement of everything is randomized.
[i]So your playthrough’s difficult depends on RNG & which mode you’re playing, which leads to the worst problem & its side-effects. When you lose, you lose [b]all[/b] your progress.
[h1][b][i]Modes[/i][/b][/h1]
There are 3 [strike]levels[/strike] [b]modes[/b], each additional mode unlocking more mechanics for Zeke, increasing the difficulty & unlocking more of the story [b]IF[/b] you beat them.
[i]I really do like how the difficulty was handled. The added mechanics make figuring out Zeke’s new skill interesting.[/i]
[b]Apprentice[/b] just has Zeke shining light to search for you in the dark. [b]Wizard[/b] lets Zeke teleport to you from off-screen or when you move suddenly near one of his fading shines. Sage adds flying spotlight minions that alert Zeke.
[h1][b][i]Controlling Hyde[/i][/b][/h1]
The controls are simple, but you can play with a controller & even change the mapping in settings…
[b]WASD[/b] moves Hyde.
[i]The arrow keys aren’t secondary/alternate movement commands for some reason...[/i]
[b]WD[/b] for left & right, [b]A[/b] to open chests & hold it to hide behind pillars, and hold [b]S[/b] to hide behind chests & potion shelves, crouching like the prey you are.
[i]I wish that you didn’t have to hold the hiding buttons to hide (especially when Zeke won’t stop hounding my cover for a while) & could just press it to toggle Hyde in & out of hiding mode.
Now, see, whenever you hide, the camera zooms in. While it’s nice, it also makes it harder for you to see anything outside that now small scope of vision since it zooms in a bit too much. I can’t see the eyes of Zeke’s minions or if Zeke coming (usually by teleporting) to give me a good helping of his Sunny D while stuck behind cover because of the zoomed-in camera
I also wish there was more shelves in-between pillars, so I can have more chances to hide when I just can’t move fast enough for cover when Zeke powerwalks towards me menacingly. He also [b]needs[/b] some kind of option to run, dash, roll, or even jog so we can escape Zeke’s clutches when I just didn’t have enough time for Hyde to tip-toe into his hiding frames.
I would also be more helpful if certain parts of the game, [b]the stuff Hyde interacts with[/b], were a tad bit brighter. Not enough that they’re actually lit up & I could see the details, but enough that I can tell where the chests, hiding places, & obstacles are a bit better.[/i]
[b]E[/b] shines Hyde’s wand’s light.
[b]ESC[/b] pauses the game.
[b]ENTER[/b] selects menu options.
[b]SPACE[/b] opens the door when you get the final key.
Personally, I think all interactable objects/actions (pillars, chests, shelfs, & the door) should’ve been mapped to one button since you’re never really platforming or next to 2 interactable objects in this game, so it should be fine.
[h1][b][i]Hallway Navigation[/i][/b][/h1]
As you’re tip-toeing your way through the stage, you look for chests to get keys to open other chests to get more keys until you find the final key that opens the door you started from. Specifically in the following order…
[b](1)[/b] Unlocked chest that holds the blue key
[b](2)[/b] Blue chest that holds the green key
[b](3)[/b] Green chest that holds yellow key
[b](4)[/b] Yellow chest that holds red key, the [b]final[/b] key
[b](5)[/b] The castle entrance to escape.
[i]I wish there wasn’t specific keys as well, even though I like their designs. Like what if each key gotten opens up any locked chests, but the last chest always has the key needed to escape. Maybe even keep the colored keys, but use them for a special secret. I understand why they exist (somewhat), but the backtracking created as a side-effect of the RNG is a problem.
Backtracking in this game can really suck. You can [b]forget[/b] where the chests are because you’ve been tip-toing and hiding for so long you can lose track of everything else as another unseen side-effect of the game design.
Speaking of the hallway, the map feels too long after a while. At first, I thought reducing its length would improve the game, but now I believe looping the corridor in some way would instead. That way, players won’t have to walk back to the other side of the map from the other.
Adding a mini-map that updates as you explore the hallway would help so much. You’d know where the chests & enemies are, maybe even Zeke if you wanted to let him appear. Actually, you could use this for a new mechanic, with one of two ways I could think of implementing it…
[b](1)[/b] Zeke is visible on the mini-map for a while, once you encounter him or pings if he shines his light, but you could give him new abilities that temporarily disables the mini-map, only disables his tracking, or resets it.
[b](2)[/b] There’s a new item Hyde can collect, like a potion, that lets him be able to track a trackable object like Zeke (temporarily for Zeke specifically).[/i]
[h1][b][i]The Score System[/i][/b][/h1]
You start off with 5000 points that always decreasing. Except when Zeke shines his light on you, increasing your score.
[i]Not sure what happens if it reaches 0, since Zeke always found me. If it’s an alternate way to lose, it doesn’t work well in a game where you have to wait for [b]very[/b] long periods of time to take what feels like one relatively small step [b]POSSIBLY[/b] forward.[/i]
You can also gain [b]a lot[/b] of points by collecting these shine balls that randomly appear in the hallway.
[i]Kind of a shame that they’re an unexpected obstacle since every light in this game has the same color. This, again, isn’t really a problem until Sage mode because [b]the lights in this game merge[/b]. Walking into Zeke’s light from off-screen or into a converged shine is a massive problem.
This can be fixed just by giving each light a different color. Zeke & his minions could have cool colors like the moon, and Hyde & the balls could have warm colors like the sun.
[h1][b][i]Final Thoughts[/i][/b][/h1]
I genuinely wish I could advise anyone to buy this game, but I just can’t with how it plays as of 1-29-2021, unless you’re a fan of M3 & want to support them or H&Z gets updated into a version with more replay value.
[b]However[/b], as harsh as I’ve been on this game & as problematic it is by the end of it, I can still see potential for this type of game & did have fun with it before Sage mode. While, I & many other fans are looking forward to TerraZone, I personally don’t want H&Z to just be M3’s stepping stone into videogames. I want it to stand on its own merits, to develop its concepts & mechanics, and be a game people can come back and play without its current design it has holding it back. It might not be for everyone, even then, but I want it to be something for someone.
