Hollow Mire – A Moody Ghost Story with a Beautifully Haunting Atmosphere
Hollow Mire is an upcoming moody adventure game where you play a journalist out to investigate a supposedly haunted house. There is currently a free demo available on Steam, which is how I was able to get a sneak peek of the game. So, does the demo make me excited about the game, or will I just uninstall the demo and never think about the game again?
About Hollow Mire and its Demo
Developed by Molow Games, Hollow Mire is an adventure game where you play as John Rowe, a young Englishman who meets the love of his life, marries her, and has a daughter. Life seems perfect – until he is drafted to fight in World War II. He loses his best friend in the war, and when he returns home, he finds that his wife and daughter have fled England due to a bombing. Though he searches for years, he never finds his family.
However, life goes on. He becomes a journalist who specializes in the supernatural, and one day his boss assigns him to investigate the “Breken House,” a house out in the snowy countryside where four previous journalists have met grim fates: two ended up in asylums and the other two simply vanished.
The gameplay is story-based. You explore the house, collect and use items, and make choices that will affect the story. The graphics are beautiful, with a hand-painted look that perfectly captures the mysterious atmosphere. The music is also wonderfully moody, making you feel like you’re really exploring a haunted house on a cold, snowy night. If you enjoy story-based point-and-click adventures, this game is for you.
What Happens in the Hollow Mire Demo?
The game does have a bit of a slow start, since it reveals John’s backstory to the player in between sections where you just have him go from Point A to Point B. Players who want to get straight to the action might get restless, but then again, this isn’t much of an action game. Instead, it focuses on moody atmospherics and the slow buildup of tension.
As you make choices, the game lets you know that your choices will have consequences. For example, I chose to have John tell the Breken House groundskeeper that he keeps an open mind about the supernatural, and I got notified that the groundskeeper would remember this. Sure enough, the groundskeeper warned John about supernatural possibilities in the house because of what John said. There wasn’t a lot of puzzle-solving in the demo, but the game’s Steam page says that as the story progresses, you will get to piece together clues to solve mysteries.
The game’s Steam page also says that there is a second lead character, Gwen Porter, who has her own parallel story to John’s. The demo doesn’t get to her story, but the idea of two lead characters and two interlinked stories makes me excited for the full game. I am already invested in John’s story, so I’m looking forward to seeing Gwen’s as well.
I Want Hollow Mire!
The demo takes around forty-five minutes to an hour to complete, and as soon as I finished it, I rushed to add Hollow Mire to my Steam wishlist. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t yet have a release date listed, but hopefully it will have one soon. If the full game is as polished and atmospheric as the demo, the game promises to be something special. The Hollow Mire demo can be downloaded on Steam. If the demo grabs you, make sure to wishlist Hollow Mire so the developers know that people want the game.
