No Mutant Allowed's Tagaziel has played Honest Hearts, and comes back impressed but with a few points of criticism as well.<blockquote>The rest of the characters carry their weight, although they do not stand out. They are, as one might expect from Obsidian, well written and characterized and meeting them is a pleasure, but after you finish Honest Hearts, it's Graham and Keith Szarabajka's voice that you will remember, not the mild-mannered Daniel, the mormon missionary, Waking-Cloud, the Sorrows midwife, or Follows-Chalk, the Dead Horses young scout.
But even if they are not all equally memorable, they do all fit well into the gameplay. Each of of the above will become the player's companion in Honest Hearts at one point or another and each one provides a unique bonus, fitting to the challenges offered. For example, the first companion, Follows-Chalk, provides a perk that boosts the player's perception and uncovers all nearby map markers when he reaches an overlook, such as a ranger station or a peak. This provides an incentive to explore the valley and works well enough. However, companions suffer from one, large flaw - each of them is assigned to the player temporarily for the duration of a quest stage, after which they can no longer be recruited. Hence it is impossible to, say, explore a bit with Follows-Chalk, then swap him for Waking-Cloud in order to fight some White Legs, to then go back to exploration. It's an all-or-nothing sort of deal.
This also ties into the biggest flaw of Honest Hearts - it has little to offer after the adventure is finished. All named NPCs disappear, leaving behind only generic characters and the valley itself to explore. No more quests are made available and those that aren't finished when the player chooses to complete the main quest instantly fail. To a certain point this is mitigated by the fact that the game tells you when you are about to reach the point of no return and advises you to complete all quests beforehand, but it still leaves a bad taste. Furthermore, the end comes much too soon - the main quest consists of slightly more complicated fetch quests and a slightly larger set piece finale, all of which can be completed by a competent gamer in under three hours. For such a character and story driven adventure, reducing the length of the plot and cutting the player off from the main characters afterwards is detrimental to the quality of the experience. </blockquote>
But even if they are not all equally memorable, they do all fit well into the gameplay. Each of of the above will become the player's companion in Honest Hearts at one point or another and each one provides a unique bonus, fitting to the challenges offered. For example, the first companion, Follows-Chalk, provides a perk that boosts the player's perception and uncovers all nearby map markers when he reaches an overlook, such as a ranger station or a peak. This provides an incentive to explore the valley and works well enough. However, companions suffer from one, large flaw - each of them is assigned to the player temporarily for the duration of a quest stage, after which they can no longer be recruited. Hence it is impossible to, say, explore a bit with Follows-Chalk, then swap him for Waking-Cloud in order to fight some White Legs, to then go back to exploration. It's an all-or-nothing sort of deal.
This also ties into the biggest flaw of Honest Hearts - it has little to offer after the adventure is finished. All named NPCs disappear, leaving behind only generic characters and the valley itself to explore. No more quests are made available and those that aren't finished when the player chooses to complete the main quest instantly fail. To a certain point this is mitigated by the fact that the game tells you when you are about to reach the point of no return and advises you to complete all quests beforehand, but it still leaves a bad taste. Furthermore, the end comes much too soon - the main quest consists of slightly more complicated fetch quests and a slightly larger set piece finale, all of which can be completed by a competent gamer in under three hours. For such a character and story driven adventure, reducing the length of the plot and cutting the player off from the main characters afterwards is detrimental to the quality of the experience. </blockquote>
