Title: Hue
Format: PSN (246MB)
Release Date: August 30th, 2016
Publisher: Curve Digital
Developer: Fiddlesticks
Original MSRP: $14.99
ESRB Rating: E
PS4 Pro Support: No
PS VR Support: No
Hue. This little indie darling is one of a kind. The story is short and simple: Hue is creating rifts in the world via colors to solve puzzles. Why is he doing this? His mother Anne was a scientist who studied color theory, so eventually she created a ring which gives the ability to perceive and alter colors in the world. She ends up disappearing into a colored void.
In the world, everything is under grayscale until Hue activates a color and then the entire world revolves around that until he changes it again. When a color is activated, objects will either appear if they’re a different color or disappear if it’s the same color as you activated. The platforming part of this game is simple. It mainly consists of climbing on top of objects or pushing blocks around. As for the puzzles, they can be rather challenging.
Sometimes you mess up the colors and then things get moved around that you forgot about so it can be frustrating at times but when completed it feels very rewarding. A few puzzles require you to plan ahead and die a few times since there are some areas that rely on reaction times which can be a massive pain if you switch up the colors.
The more you get into the game though, the more time it seems like until your next color. Like all games, you progress but that is probably the biggest downfall of Hue, progression. After each color you unlock after the first 3, it seems like forever until you meet the next shade available. It just overall drags on but I guess that was a design choice to learn the colors but it could’ve been a little quicker. Most of the levels though are very satisfying to complete because of how long they usually take to beat. On an average level it took me out 10 minutes for a level midway and that’s with multiple tries since this game isn’t very forgiving.
In Hue, the graphical premise isn’t so advanced. There’s basic geometric shapes a lot of the time and inside the area usually result in more detailed figures. It’s by no means a bad looking game though. When the colors start coming into play, this 2D world looks absolutely stunning. While the game doesn’t support 4K or HDR on PlayStation, I really wish it did because that would be insane! The colors would really pop and everything would look insanely sharp and clear. Fiddlesticks, if you ever read this, make it happen please!
I love the fact that the developers at Fiddlesticks also included a colorblind mode for a game about color. The way it works is the colored shapes will have a symbol on them to represent the color to better guide colorblind gamers along through the game. That was very thoughtful of them to do, thank you for putting that in! 🙂
Just a side note, the Trophy names are hilarious! For example; when you unlock Pink, the Trophy is called “Back to the Fuchsia”, when you unlock Aqua it’s called “Aquacadabra”, and Red is called “Caught Red Handed”! I love small things like that just make the game a bit more enjoyable with a laugh. Another not for Trophies, there isn’t a Platinum present. There’s 12 total, 9 Copper, 2 Silver, and a Gold.
All in all, Hue is an amazing experience. Sure, it drags on and on some of the time, but looking past that, this game is gorgeous and just fun to play. I love Hue and I’m dying to see what Fiddlesticks does next because they’ve earned a new fan!
Score: 9/10
Reviewed on PS4
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