Hexcraft: Harlequin Fair is a small, bizarre mix of Deus Ex's gameplay, Bloodlines' vibe, and Morrowind's stats, and if that doesn't make you sit bolt upright we're very different people

GamesRPGHexcraft: Harlequin Fair is a small, bizarre mix of Deus Ex’s gameplay, Bloodlines' vibe, and Morrowind’s stats, and if that doesn’t make you sit bolt upright we’re very different peopleWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Hex Code Coven)

A dead-eyed man, rendered as a sprite, stands staring into the camera in a food court.

There is a place, cursed and dark, sprawling and unknowable, where the doomed roam and monsters lurk. It’s a land of magic and fortune. Get lucky, and you could spend the rest of your life in luxury. Lose out, and you’ll end up just another corpse in the streets.

It’s called ‘Toronto’, in the fantasy realm of ‘Canada’, and it’s the setting forHexcraft: Harlequin Fair, an ugly-beautiful RPG and immersive sim from dev Oleander Garden. In an always-moonlit Hogtown, you play some kind of amateur alchemist/warlock/domestic terrorist on a quest to, well, do whatever, really. There’s not a great deal of direction. Instead, Hexcraft just presents you with a meaty jumble of mechanics, plus some estradiol, and sends you out into the deep, dark world.

(Image credit: Hex Code Coven)

A woman stands in a raging fire in the middle of her apartment.

Which is, at first, disorienting, but once you realise what Hexcraft wants from you—nothing at all—is possibly the most liberating gameplay experience you can have. It’s a bit like breaking in a pair of leather shoes: discomforting at first, perhaps painful, but once you’ve properly melded you can’t imagine wearing anything else.

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There’s not much in the way of grand narrative, so the whole thing feels almost more like the foundation for a game rather than a game itself, but it’s a damn strong one. Imagine a mix-up of Morrowind’s stat system, Vampire: The Masquerade’s vibe, and a sprinkle of RimWorld-y NPC goals and motivations, and you pretty much have it. Yes, I know that sounds like the greatest videogame ever made. I’m excited too.

Who you actually play is a person named Vivian, but beyond that the main character is unknown to me. Your verbs for interacting with Dark Toronto are many and varied. You can mix and match liquids and herbs—gasoline and mustard, for instance—to create concoctions that temporarily boost your stats. Buff up your strength, move with more speed, that kind of thing (like I said, Morrowind-y). You can also cast from a spellbook, though I never managed to find a spell beyond the two you start with, and one of those requires a full moon. The other is called ‘Benediction’ and I think heals you? Maybe? There’s a lot to think about.

(Image credit: Hex Code Coven)

A dialogue box. A character named Max says “Do you think hell is hereditary? Like, do we pass this on to each other?"

It’s only appropriate that I finally picked this up, three years after it came out, in the wake of Stalker 2’s release, because I imagine it will have a similar effect on anyone who plays it. It’s the same design philosophy of a world that has no interest in easing you into it or signposting what’s interesting. You can either pick away at it—explore, die, explore again—or throw your hands up in frustration and do something else. Neither option is wrong, but I’ve always been a sicko for that kind of intransigent thing—a game that only unfolds its secrets if you make an effort. In Hexcraft’s case, those secrets are weird, hidden cults, new gear and weapons, and exciting and novel ways to die.

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(Image credit: Hex Code Coven)

A werewolf approaches the player.

So while one run saw me meet my grisly end at the paws of a lycanthrope in the train station, another led me to the company of some indolent friend of Vivian’s, who lounged around, babbling that “I am a fatal virus, I am a circuit fault. Were it up to me, I’d be nothing, nothing at all.” Hump day, I guess.

(Image credit: Hex Code Coven)

An inventory screen showing pistols, bottles, a can of gasoline, and a grenade.

So if you’re the kind of sicko who likes that stubborn, old-school design philosophy, and the parts of immersive sims where you’re just drifting around hub areas looking for secrets to uncover and keys to steal, give Hexcraft a go. It’s $13 (£10.19) onSteamandItch.

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