On the surface, A Short Hike is the same as a lot of indie games made by millennials attempting to undermine the cacophony of twitch shooters and ultraviolent, ultra-male power fantasies in the gaming world. It follows a 20-something girl who is represented as an animal, who must go out in the woods, talk to people enjoying their day, and just learn to slow down man. I pretty much just described Night in the Woods and Celeste, and in a lot of ways that's very much what A Short Hike is. Where as Night in the Woods draped the indie twee dressing on cinematic platformers, and Celeste on hard-as-nails platformers (both really good in their own right), A Short Hike attempts to hybrid the exploration of Breath of the Wild with the stay-awhile, chores-turned-fun structure of Animal Crossing. Here, we play as Claire, who needs to make a phone call while out on an island with her park ranger Aunt, who informs her the only place with service is on top of Hawk Peak, a rather difficult climb infamous for being a tourist attraction that rarely anyone succeeds in climbing. To climb requires golden feathers, a collectible that acts like Breath of the Wild's stamina meter. Everything is climbable on this little island, so long as you have the feathers to make it. When you get closer to the peak, things get tougher as the cold temperatures stop your feathers from regenerating until you huddle next to a fire or take a dip in some hot springs. But first, you need to get those feathers.
Getting feathers is the real purpose of the game, and is where the twee disposition that I'm so sick of doesn't so much melt away as become relevant. (Full disclosure: I'm getting sick of that bleak, decrepit tone to all the horror games I've been playing lately as well, lest I get called out as biased). Rather than just lecturing me to slow down and drop the phone for a second, the game actually makes me slow down and enjoy my time. I sincerely don't like being lectured about the greatness and beauty in nature, mostly because I grew up in a small town in tornado alley and I am firmly acquainted with why nature is so awesome. A reminder is very nice (most RPGs do this with their vast forests and rolling hills), but as the thematic pin to a work it comes off as being...well, at best not for me, at worst condescending. I don't think there is much of anyone out there in the modern world who hasn't had somebody lecture them on how great it is to hike X trail, or camp in X national park. Most of what these games end up doing is telling me why this stuff is so great while not actually providing an experience that truly captures it. A Short Hike slows you down, makes you explore, allows you to revel in its fun climbing and gliding mechanics, giving you money and feathers to collect, people to help, and conversations that make the place feel alive with people just enjoying The Now. And, despite your best efforts, you come to love just being here too. When I started A Short Hike, I was in sort of a rush. My day had a lot of stuff to get done - get substantially farther in Silent Hill 4, go to the grocery store, clean my apartment, edit my Paratopic write up I didn't really like - and it took all of 15 minutes in the game to feel all of that mostly melt away. The game's short run time (about 1 1/2 hours) helped, because I knew it wouldn't take me all that long to get through. But I found myself wondering what was around the island, slowly sketching a map in my head as to where different things were, and trying to help as many people as I could. Eventually, the world came calling, and I had to cut my time a bit short, but even then I wasn't disappointed. Claire's phone call turned out to important after all, and though it wasn't revelatory, it was a nice moment nonetheless.
A Short Hike doesn't totally outclass its twee disposition, however. There are still moments, such as where Claire learns how to fish and struggles with the patience for it, where the game seems to give in to cliche. Claire is basically ignorant to most things outdoors, and while that isn't unrealistic, it isn't an interesting character to play as. As relatable as this character may be to some, she feels incredibly basic in a way that threatens to take Night in the Woods May's agency as a well developed character and reduce her to an early incarnation of a soon-to-be-tired archetype. Likewise, some of the different little Animal Crossing type characters you run in to have that lackadaisical tone that doesn't engage you in what they are saying. A lot of "umm.."s and single-word text boxes making you smash the X button hoping to get to the point of all this. Granted, this can be seen as a pro by engaging you with a system that requires patience, but if the game is meant to make me enjoy slowing down, it might want to approach it from an angle that doesn't sound so samey to other games like Night in the Woods which has a much better story and characters to fill out the torrent of "umm.."s and ellipses and make them feel like actual character traits. It's small stuff to complain about, especially when what is good about this game is so sweet natured and relaxing. A Short Hike is going to blow nobody's mind, but it's a fun, diverting experience worth the time, and then some. Maybe next weekend I'll give it a completionist's run, and fill out another 1 1/2 hours out in the mountains. Until then, at least I got a brief vacation from it all.
8.0
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