Hank: Drowning On Dry Land
Review
A quick trip back to Saturday morning
by Jordan Helsley
reviewed on PC
The Work of a Superhero
Drowning On Dry Land is the second Hank episode, after the free-to-play Straightjacket entry that served as the character's true introduction in 2023, and presents as a combat-less 2.5D puzzle experience. While this isn't an episodic game by the definition we're used to, it is similar to a television episode: it took me roughly 24 minutes to clear the story. Because it's not a totally linear experience there's a bit of room to explore the game's first area and mechanics, looking for a better "score" and "efficiency" rating that the game hands out based on your actions. This is accomplished partially because Hank's super power is the ability to control time, backwards and forwards, and even jumping through time at mirror-like portals.
This time control mechanic feels less like a "get out of jail free" card, that essentially means you can never lose, and more like a way to explore the options of the world and the conversations with the big bad as you solve puzzles to win the day. It removes a barrier in this type of experience where the player usually has to sit through a varying amount of content they're already familiar with on the off chance they'll find something new. If you run into something you've seen you can rewind and make a different choice, or fast-forward through to the next one. The difficulty and optimization comes from the relatively small space, a bomb timer, an in-pursuit dog, and the fact that each time you jump through a portal you have to contend with your past self, as they follow the path you previously took throughout the space. Take too much time and the place blows up, get caught by the dog and, well, things end just as poorly, and run into yourself and you create a paradox, also "ending" the game. While rewinding moves you, and everything else, "backwards" in space, utilizing things like spots to hide, as your past self runs by, and visual cues of their actions, present in comic book-style pop up panels, really push the experience towards that "optimization" of creating a well-oiled machine.
Puzzles and Thrill Rides
As hinted at, the overall puzzles in Drowning On Dry Land don't take a ton of time to suss out, but the final victory condition of the first area was especially clever, particularly because the dynamic conversation system the game employs gives a ton of branching options as you try to figure out a way to out-smart your foe. It's even designed in a way that means you can't just easily brute force your way through it with the rewind mechanic, but saying any more would give it all away. Suffice it to say the conversations more than hold their own with the style and gameplay, helped by good voice acting to accompany the writing that feels natural, even as conversations break and splinter.
After passing the first area, which has the lion's share of mechanics, the final area is a psychedelic mine cart ride set to the game's bumpin' theme song. It's light on story throughout, but it still offers fun, and the challenge generally comes from the aforementioned score optimization, which builds up consistently as you fast-forward. Effectively moving quickly while avoiding obstacles is suitably exciting, with the only downside being that the audio is also affected by the time powers. Just as conversations play in reverse previously, the soundtrack is sped up when moving at hyper speed, which just makes it hard to enjoy the music and the visuals. Thankfully acceleration is optional, it just highlights that without attempting to reach for optional goals, the mainline path doesn't fully capture what the game is capable of doing or asking of the player.
A Solid (Second) Start
If Hank: Drowning On Dry Land is meant to serve as a (second) proof of concept for this character and game mechanics, it does so pretty well without actually being hamstrung by that fact. It presents a self-contained story with enough information on our characters' backstories and avoids something like a hard cliffhanger that would drag the entire thing down. It may be short, but it also feels like that's part of the design, and that doesn't take away from the things it does accomplish. At the same time I can see a world where a player stumbles into the intended path and ends up completing it in a fraction of the time I did, and without the desire to view the option paths and elements that would naturally feel a little rushed. I don't hold it against it too much, but it's clear to me that the foundation is solid, so wanting an expansion of this world is expected, and likely by design.
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7.5
fun score
Pros
A beautiful art style combined with intelligent time-manipulation and mechanics that offer a suitable new challenge as they make other aspects easier.
Cons
The experience is short, so mechanics are never built upon, expanded, or otherwise enhanced, which means it will leave those who like it wanting more. The critical path is the least-desirable way to play.
