Hannah, also the name of the protagonist, takes place in a retro horror environment where her doll is stolen from her, and she must go collect the pieces. The nightmarish levels only get worse as you must navigate puzzles and progress by platforming around. It may remind you a lot of the game Little Nightmares, in the sense of creepy enemies and morbid surroundings. You are able to pick your path, leading to multiple endings. Hannah’s childhood can be seen through video tapes you collect along the way, and there is the ability to replay levels in order to gain all of them.

Nightmarish Environment — Levels start off pretty bland and basic looking, showing you how the controls work. Eventually, it leads into darker territory, with very odd NPC characters and bosses. There aren’t really a lot of enemies, but there are other dangers in the environment and the ability to fall off the map in many places. There are a few boss battles, where you must solve a puzzle or platform around using switches to cause damage. The levels will include an evil party, a depressing-looking hospital, and more. While the graphics aren’t top-notch, the 80’s inspired look (complete with VHS and floppy disk collectibles) seems to work.

Collectibles — Adding to replay value are collectibles in the form of floppy disks, which give you a bonus viewing of the 3D model characters, and VHS tapes, which show you more background of Hannah’s history. The game tracks how many you have in each level, and conveniently allows you to select a level to grab what you are missing. To add even more to replay value, there are four different endings. Within the levels are doors with two different colors. Depending on what you pick, it will give you different endings.

Here’s what I didn’t like:

Camera Circus — Seeing is believing. And sometimes that’s a bad thing. The camera makes the game annoying to ply at times. It’s similar to a “Resident Evil” style camera (old school ones), where it switches on you automatically. Being in 3D, this doesn’t work well. You are constantly fighting where to look and your only real control is by zooming the camera. Sometimes a door is around the corner and it’s difficult to pass through because you can’t see your character (even though in some areas, the environment goes transparent for you, it doesn’t most of the time). When you pick up a collectible, there’s also a graphic that appears right in the middle of your screen, making you have to wait. This breaks your otherwise fast movement and puts a pause on your adventure plenty of times.

Jumping Fails — Along with the camera issues, jumping feels bad. Your character even starts screaming if the game thinks you are falling to your death, and you aren’t. This can throw you off as you think you’re dying. When jumping at angles, it’s almost as if a magnet is pulling you in the wrong directions. You have to really plan your jumps, which can be difficult because the shadow is hard to see. With the way the game looks, some things appear farther away and you may over jump, or seem farther, and you may not make it. It makes things painful while progressing through the game.

Wrap-up

There are some redeeming qualities, such as the level design, puzzles, and the ability to replay levels at your leisure. However, the camera and jumping controls really make the game almost uncomfortable to play. The puzzles are fairly easy (minus one extremely difficult mirror one) and can be somewhat enjoyable. Each level serves as its own little world, keeping you from becoming bored. There may be some people who enjoy it, but the vast majority likely won’t have enough patience to complete the story (even thought it’s pretty short).

Score: Limited Appeal

Hannah was published by QUByte Interactive and developed by Spaceboy on Xbox One. It was released on October 30 2024, for $19.99. A copy was provided for review