[Bober Bros] The Hole Review

At first glance at the game’s front page, I assumed that voyeurism was the only horror aspect. It is not the only evil thing that happens in [Bober Bros] The Hole.

[Bober Bros] The Hole is a first-person horror videogame that takes under an hour to complete. You play as a man who drinks beer, watches television, and, for some god-knows reason, microwaves breakfast cereal. His day is then interrupted when the next-door neighbour drills a hole into his lounge room. Once you look into the hole, the game begins, leading you to two possible endings. Parts of the game are influenced by one of the creators’ family traumas, disclosed briefly at the start of the game with a sentence flashed, reading, “F*** you, grandpa.”.

The game’s premise is to get stuck in a loop where you lose your mind, but you can forget that noise and get blind drunk, listen to several cassette tapes you can find with original music, watch public domain animations and other shows on TV, and play with a whoopee cushion. Not to mention easter eggs, references to indie horror games from last year and call-backs to the developer’s previous projects. There are dialogue options in the game, but they don’t really affect the story, instead letting the player be a sympathetic or nasty person.

The retro graphics and textures of The Hole are something not seen in a lot of low-budget horror games due to the use of lighting and atmosphere in each scene. The Hole’s visuals are like a paperback novel meticulously recreated in a polygonal place, lending the types of visual storytelling techniques you’d find in them. The apartment is bright and full of sunlight in the beginning, but changes as the game progresses, adding new things outside the two windows you can look out of.

However, though the audio design (from sound effects and music) is quite interesting, as well as the voice acting matching the subtitles, as I don’t speak Ukrainian, there were times the audio would have crackling through my laptop speakers and headphones, which was annoying the second time it happened when the story got interesting.

The Hole contains a final message read out by one of the voice actors with support and advice for people who are or have had similar experiences mentioned in the game’s content. It is sincere and, for all intents and purposes, necessary if you aren’t using tragedy for shock value. Where a lot of storytellers today would use themes of domestic abuse for cheap thrills, The Hole uses subtlety for the most part, only using imagery and sounds to symbolise the horror in the story.

For example, the grotesque look of the neighbour and the gradual collection of crushed beer cans and food scraps around the protagonist’s apartment reminded me of what friends told me about the splatter-punk novel The Slob. However, it never goes in that direction. The horror is more psychological and uses double entendre in dialogue and the player’s actions, with an absence of gore. It took me a while to even remember if there’s any blood in the game — only once did I see it, but I didn’t notice it in my first playthrough as it was tucked away.

I’m interested in where the developer will go with their new game, [Bober Bros] Happy House, teased in the main menu.