A Short Hike Reviews

"A Short Hike" is small easy-going open-world adventure game where you play a bird on it's way to the peak of a mountain. The game was developed by the Canadian indie game designer Adam Robinson-Yu.

You play as the bird named Claire who spends the summer at her Aunt May at Hawk Peak Provincial Park. Claire is expecting to get a phone call but there is no cell reception at her aunt's house and her aunt informs here that she needs to climb Hawk Peak mountain to get a better cell reception. Since it's the first time for Claire taking this trip she is not fit enough to fly up there right away so you need to go by foot following the Hawk Peak trail upwards.

The game allows you to explore the island freely and is complemented by the easy gameplay features. There are sign-posts spread on the whole island in case you get lost pointing you to different main locations. You will need find golden feathers to increase your stamina which can be used to "double-jump" jump multiple times or to climb walls. Along the way you meet all kinds of characters and some of them offer you small tasks which will either grant you a golden feather or an item like a hat, a shovel or a fishing-rod which either help you continue on your trip or unlock additional gameplay elements like catching fish. Personally to me it felt like a small lighthearted open-world experience where you can explore the whole island and find something new behind every corner with several characters giving you quests.

Visually the game has family-friendly 3D presentation with cute characters and bright colorful environments with an isometric camera. The game features a heavy pixelation filter making the game look a lot like a PSone game. This filter can be reduced and even completely deactivated in the options menu. The soundtrack offers some pretty nice & relaxing songs with some chip-tune elements typical for an indie game.

The game can be completed in around 5-6 hours. For completionists there are some achievement related to specific side-quests and collectibles (catching each type of fish and watering every sprout) and some hidden achievements. I wasn't able to find the perfect walkthrough but you'll find a decent solution in each achievement guide of the game.

In summary I enjoyed the game a lot. The game is small enough to enjoy on a weekend. If you get lost you can easily find your way back and the game mechanics are easy enough to jump quickly into the game. If you liked this game and want to play something similar, go check out Lil Gator Game.

this review is broken into achievements (where the game is reviewed with only achievement hunting in mind) followed by both the good and the bad (where the game is reviewed in terms of enjoyment)

achievements
achievement-wise this game is a short (2-3h) completion with a guide and only a few hours longer without one

multiple walkthroughs and video guides are available including a very nice one by @TheWelshHunt
the good
joyful interactions (fun and fresh dialogue)
atmosphere (music and graphics blend with the overall feel of the game very well)
cozy and fairly simple adventure game (self-driven exploration is relaxing when camera is not working against you and/or you are not lost and aiming pointlessly searching for something)

the bad
the camera (quite annoying and you have very little control over it)
no map (makes the whole game more frustrating than it needs to be)

Synopsis:

-A Short Hike is a 3-D Adventure platformer game. You play as Claire, a little bird with aspirations to make it to the top of a mountain in her favorite adventure park.
-Starting out, you don’t have the opportunity to fly very high, but as you explore, you find golden feathers, each granting you an extra jump before you glide.
-I thought the premise of the game was simple but elegant. Truth be told, I had a lot of fun playing this.

Pros:

-I liked the variability of pixel graphics in the menu. You can choose whether to have a very grainy 8-bit style experience or sharpen things up as I did. There are several options in between as well, which I thought was cool.
-This isn’t a terribly long game. I completed it in just over 5 hours.
-The game made me laugh sometimes, in dialogue or in things you must accomplish: whether it be “beachstickball” or eating a piece of toast. Random, but it works.

Cons:

-THE CAMERA. I don’t know what the he*k happened with camera mechanics in this game, but it was an utter failure. It’s fixed, and while you can move it from side to side slightly with RS, it is buggy as hell. You’ll be flying in one direction, and the camera will suddenly change aspects. It was annoying and unnecessary. There had to have been a better way to go about this.
-The “Remember this day forever” achievement made me want to pull my hair out. You have to “get a commemorative hat” by beating another bird in a game of beachstickball. Basically, just volleyball with a stick. But this was buggy and difficult as well. No lie, I probably spent an hour of the 5 it took to complete this game, attempting to get 30 consecutive hits. Not fun.

Analysis:

-Storyline isn’t deep
-Gameplay is engaging
-Mechanics aren’t the best
-Graphics are good
-It isn’t very difficult

Is it worth it?

-Is the game worth the price? Actually, yes. I think $8 is the perfect price point for this game.
-Is the game on game pass? Yes.
-Is the grind worth the gamerscore? Yes.
-Easy completion? I don’t think I can say that.
-Would I play this game if it had no achievements? I might give it a bit of my time. It’s kind of relaxing and fun, and probably more so if you’re not focused on achievements.

TBD Score: 6.55

At first glance A Short Hike appears to be a fun game but don't be fooled. The main story simply involves getting to the top of a mountain. Easy enough right? WRONG! Unless you want to follow a guide you'll be flying or climbing in all different directions looking for feathers while trying not to get lost in the process. The graphics don't make it much easier as they are worse than what you would expect from a Nintendo 64, Nintendo Gamecube, or Gameboy game and quite bluntly belong in it. Once you've beaten the main game you can if you haven't already go for the remaining achievements. With beach stick ball you can try and win a hat in a very lame ripoff volleyball game that will test your patience and skills by having you and an npc hit a ball back and forth trying to get to 30 points. However it is almost impossible to predict and react in time to where the ball will end up and hit it before it reaches the ground. Get past it or get tired of the game and want a different one? Try the boating challenge where you must steer a boat through a race without hitting any obstacles in an attempt to reach the finish in 45 seconds or less. The controls alone mean you will likely struggle with this but the graphics all but assure it.

Final thoughts: If you're the average gamer and want to try and get the 1,000 gamerscore pick it up on game pass or get it for under $10 and good luck with the headache. If you want a good game add this to your pile of reject games and try a game that actually puts some effort into their product.