HIVESWAP: Act 1

HIVESWAP: Act 1 is an adventure game made by the creators of the Homestuck webcomic and backed by its readers. Though anyone can enjoy it, former readers of the comic will get the most out of this ill-equipped, zany, sister-and-brother romp through a new, monster-filled planets.

A Fun Adventure, With None Of The Unfun Bits

HIVESWAP: Act 1 is notable for making a promise to the player: no illogical puzzles that only make sense to the developer, and no canned responses to things that won’t work. This mirrors to an extent the early Homestuck web comic, where readers contributed ‘commands’ to characters and could try just about anything. In this area, HIVESWAP: Act 1 excels. There are responses to anything you can try, and a lot of things that you can try. Whether future parts will have this kind of verisimilitude remains to be seen, but for Act 1 it is a fantastic and defining feature!

Wrapping It All Up

Overall, HIVESWAP: Act 1 is not the Homestuck adventure game that many backers expected. Not entirely, anyway. It has a lot of parallels to the way the world worked in the Homestuck webcomic, and the art style, aesthetic and writing style are all very similar. Those looking for more closure than Homestuck provided to its plot will be disappointed; those looking for a new plot with the same style will love it.