Barrow Hill Demo

The world is riddled with strange and mysterious places, as well as curious legends that warn about unknown dark forces roaming the lands. While they may seem rather childish and hard to believe, things stop being so black and white after the night falls, regardless of how much of a non-believer you perceive yourself to be.

Barrow Hill is a point-and-click horror-adventure game that revolves around the mystery of the Barrow, as well as a discovery regarding a rock formation known as the Stone Circle. After an archaeologist by the name of Conrad Morse discovers and studies these stones, you come along and follow on his footsteps, convinced that there's more to the story that everyone else lets on.

As you get closer and closer to the Barrow, things start to get more and more frightening, but, after a certain point, it becomes impossible to go back and you just have to keep on going straight for the source of all the evil around you. On your way, the game tries its best to make you feel as uneasy as possible, using sound ingenious effects to compensate for the lack of 3D environments.

During your adventure, you stumble into a variety of objects that offer you information regarding past events, as well as a glimpse into the mind of the town and the archaeologist that was here before you. Combined with the very unsettling landscapes and the intense atmosphere, these clues can sometimes prove to be extremely difficult to take in.

Graphically, the game uses pre-rendered graphics to depict the environments, which, although might lack depth and realism, do manage to look quite disturbing and contribute greatly to the overall atmosphere. On the other hand, the sound quality is more than decent, especially when it comes to ambient noises and the soundtrack.

In the end, Barrow Hill brings together enough good elements to result in a satisfying experience, although it is rather difficult to make a static point-and-click game scary. The dense atmosphere, believable events and good soundtrack make up for it though and you quickly forget all about not being able to move freely.