Hey hey people, Reborn here.
Today I'll be reviewing another run of the mill Ratalaika published game that most of us are only going to be playing once to pillage 1,000 Gamerscore in about 30 minutes.
Himno is more or less an endless pixel Platformer with no story, sense of direction, or goal. You are a nameless hero who wields a powerful sword that never once leaves your back. It's pretty much one of those gas station knives your dad buys to display above the TV to collect dust. Instead, your weapons are your ability to jump, dash, and wall jump. You will be using these agile techniques to jump around the levels which are known in this game as "Districts". Each district seems to be randomly generated and your only goal is to find the glowing door to enter the next district.
You'll need to progress through 30 districts for a full completion, or, you can just cheese it by using the easily accessed door on the first level and then killing yourself by jumping into the water, which is also an achievement. Ah, the sweet sweet release of drowning. Alternatively you can progress through the game as intended by lighting torches, collecting invisible diamonds for exp, and releasing wisps. All of these only serve the purpose of unlocking achievements and won't take long at all. You gain exp for doing any and everything. You can sit in a corner and spam the dash button and you'll slowly level up. Once you get to level 10 there's really nothing more to do other than get to district 30 and clean up your jump / dash achievements.
I will say that where most Ratalaika published games are easily forgettable once completed, this game does shine in the soundtrack department. If you're a sucker for ambient music like I am then you may want to play Himno with some headphones. The original soundtrack by the game's creator David Moralejo Sánchez is mesmerizing. It's kind of a shame because the music really leaves you wanting more out of the simple game. It builds an atmosphere for something that just isn't there. Hopefully we'll see a change in that area with the upcoming sequel
Himno: The Silent Melody.
I'm giving Himno a 2 out 5 because that's how many of my ears were audibly pleased while I played the game.
If you don't feel like paying $5 to play this on Xbox then you can try it out absolutely FREE on Steam.
2.0