The Hex

The Hex is a mystery game about six video game characters stuck in a rundown tavern during a storm, one of whom, according to an anonymous tip, is planning to commit murder. That setup sounds like the premise of a cozy whodunit, but Daniel Mullins, the one-person studio behind this and the later Inscryption, is not interested in cozy. He is interested in the seams. The cracks in the wall between a game and the person playing it. The Hex is a short, strange, deeply self-aware piece of work that earns its reputation by being genuinely unpredictable even when it telegraphs that something strange is coming. The structure is built around six playable characters, each one a loving parody of a classic game genre. You get a few minutes as a dark fantasy swordsman doing third-person combat, then a stretch as a 2D platformer hero, then a survival horror survivor, a sports game athlete, a strategy commander, and a mobile-era free-to-play mascot. None of these sequences overstays its welcome. Each is mechanically distinct enough to feel like a real genre sketch rather than a lazy reference. The platformer section actually handles, the horror section actually unsettles. Mullins clearly studied these genres before he decided to take them apart. What holds it all together is the writing and the sound design. The dialogue has this dry, brittle quality, characters who know something is wrong but cannot quite articulate it. The tavern itself feels persistent and worn in, and the ambient audio, creaking wood, rain, the low hum of something underneath the music, does a lot of the atmospheric heavy lifting. The soundtrack oscillates between genre-appropriate pastiche and something more melancholy underneath. If you pay attention to the music, you will notice when Mullins is trying to tell you something the characters are not saying aloud. The honest caveat is pacing. The first half of The Hex is deliberately slow and piecemeal. You are collecting context without quite knowing what the context is for. Players who need immediate momentum or a clear objective loop will find the opening hour frustrating. The payoff, when it arrives, recontextualizes almost everything, including some moments you probably scrolled past without thinking. That payoff is worth the patience, but it does require patience. This is a game that respects players who sit with it, and mildly punishes anyone looking to rush through. At roughly four to six hours, it knows exactly how long it needs to be, which is rarer than it should be. The Hex sits somewhere between a love letter and an autopsy for game design conventions. It is best for players who have spent enough hours across genres to recognize what Mullins is deconstructing, and who find that kind of knowing commentary satisfying rather than smug. It is not a game about being clever at you. It is a game about something lonelier than that, and the closer you get to the end, the clearer that becomes. If Inscryption brought you here looking for more Mullins, start here. You will understand him better for it.

Kai · Scout Team

Indie & narrative

Be the first to comment on The Hex.