The Esoterica: Hollow Earth

About

The Esoterica: Hollow Earth is a single player action game with a mystery theme. It was developed by Happy Artist Games and was released on February 2, 2017. It received neutral reviews from players.

"The Esoterica: Hollow Earth" is a first-person adventure game set in an ancient, subterranean world. As the player, you'll delve into the mysterious depths of the Earth, solving puzzles and uncovering secrets to reveal the truth about a lost civilization. With its unique setting and atmospheric exploration, "The Esoterica: Hollow Earth" offers a fresh take on the classic adventure game formula.

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Play Modes

Single-Player

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47%

Audience ScoreBased on 88 reviews

story27 positive mentions

grinding17 negative mentions

The game features beautiful artwork and a charming art style that enhances the overall experience.
The hidden object scenes are well-designed, providing a mix of traditional and silhouette-based challenges that keep gameplay engaging.
The story starts off interesting with a unique premise, and the collectibles add depth to the lore of the game.

The game is plagued by numerous bugs, including unresponsive puzzles and issues with object hitboxes, leading to frustrating gameplay.
The ending feels rushed and abrupt, leaving players confused and unsatisfied with the resolution of the story.
Voice acting is inconsistent, with some characters lacking voiceovers entirely in the latter half of the game, detracting from the immersion.

story
69 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
39%
52%
9%
The story of the game is a mixed bag, starting with an intriguing premise that draws on the hollow earth theory but quickly becomes convoluted and rushed, particularly in the latter half. While some players appreciated the art style and initial engagement, many criticized the abrupt ending and lack of coherent resolution, leading to a sense of wasted potential. Overall, the narrative is described as generic and at times confusing, with a blend of entertaining elements overshadowed by tedious puzzles and poor pacing.
- “The story is intriguing, the puzzles are simple yet fun, and the clean art style doesn't obscure interactable objects into the background.”
- “The story of the game is quite interesting; I believe it's better in that part than most of the other hidden object games.”
- “The story has good potential; I enjoyed it if I ignore the ending, which I had to watch some videos to be able to read.”
- “The plot takes a while to get going, and, once it does, falls apart without reaching a resolution.”
- “The story seems like it was intended to be longer but was cut short, which is a shame.”
- “The story is poorly constructed and often silly, and many of the mini-game puzzles are just tedious rather than clever.”
graphics
42 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
64%
29%
7%
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with many players praising the beautiful artwork and well-rendered visuals that evoke a historical feel, particularly reminiscent of the 1930s and art nouveau styles. However, some users note inconsistencies in quality and express disappointment in other aspects of the game, suggesting that while the graphics are a highlight, they are not enough to elevate the overall experience. Overall, the art style and environments are frequently described as gorgeous, making it a visually appealing choice for fans of the genre.
- “The art and graphics really are extremely gorgeous with an old world feel.”
- “The visuals and art design are great!”
- “First of all, the game has some great graphics and sceneries themed in the 1930s.”
- “Well, it is a strange game; the graphics aren't good, no voice-over, some puzzles are just irritating, and some items need a few more clicks. Overall, you can buy it if found cheap and play it because it isn't long.”
- “This point-and-click game has a nice storyline, but for some reason, it doesn't play all that smoothly. The game sports decent graphics, but it has both nice and exceptionally bad puzzles in it.”
- “Ok graphics.”
music
21 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
48%
33%
19%
The music in the game receives mixed reviews, with some players appreciating its pleasantness and quality, while others criticize it for being repetitive and occasionally missing or abruptly changing. While many enjoy the soundtracks and find them well-rendered alongside the graphics, the overall experience is marred by issues such as lag and bugs, leading to a sense of frustration for some players. Overall, the music is seen as a highlight, but its execution can detract from the gaming experience.
- “The story line, voice acting, and music were all well-done, and I was engaged enough to want to finish the game.”
- “The graphic and the music are really good, and the storyline even has some surprises.”
- “Puzzle mix was good, hidden objects fine, music was terrific.”
- “The music was extremely repetitive, and the loop was bad as well.”
- “The background music is so repetitive I swear I'll have nightmares from it.”
- “Music can be repetitive and annoying.”
grinding
17 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The reviews highlight that the grinding aspect of the game is characterized by a significant amount of tedious and inconsistent mini-games and puzzles, with many players finding them either overly simplistic or frustratingly repetitive. While some puzzles are engaging, a large portion is described as busywork that detracts from the overall experience, often exacerbated by bugs and a lack of coherent storytelling. Overall, the grinding elements are seen as a major drawback, leading to a frustrating gameplay experience.
- “The minigames are tedious, glitchy to the point of being achievement-breaking and frustrating without being challenging or fun.”
- “Minigame difficulty is too inconsistent; some are actual challenges, while others are tedious methodical slogs.”
- “The puzzles at the end are tedious and they recycle one of them 3 times in a row.”
stability
15 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game suffers from significant stability issues, with numerous bugs affecting both puzzles and mini-games, often rendering them unsolvable without resorting to the skip button. Players report frequent registration problems during hidden object scenes and a variety of temperamental puzzles that may require restarting the game to function correctly. Overall, these stability concerns have led to widespread disappointment and a lack of recommendation from users.
- “The game is so buggy that some puzzles, despite you arranging them correctly, will need you to restart the game for you to complete them (happened to me with the bird mosaic).”
- “Starting with the biggest issues, the game seems to suffer from a lot of bugs: at least one achievement is buggy, halfway through the game the voice acting suddenly stopped during the cutscenes, and many puzzles are quite temperamental (I had to restart my game to get a couple of them to work).”
- “I was very disappointed not to be able to complete my 100% run through thanks to a couple of slightly buggy and/or oversensitive puzzles.”
gameplay
11 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
27%
46%
27%
The gameplay has received mixed reviews, with some players appreciating the lore and initial mechanics, while others criticize it for being rushed, with broken controls and declining puzzle quality. The overall experience is marred by a short playtime of around three hours and a sense that the game was incomplete, leading to frustration with certain puzzles and achievements.
- “A really cool game with a cool lore and nice gameplay.”
- “All told, a little over 3 hours of gameplay.”
- “So a positive despite some warnings about gameplay.”
- “This, combined with the relatively short gameplay time, the disappearing voice acting, and the declining puzzle quality makes the entire game feel very, very rushed, as if it was abandoned halfway through and the second half was just hastily thrown together.”
- “The story is bad, the gameplay is broken, the achievements are partially broken, the controls are very bad and some of the puzzles are annoying at best and that is when they work properly.”
- “The mechanics of this made it like painting fine art with a 6 inch brush and poster paint.”
atmosphere
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
33%
The game's atmosphere is noted for its uniqueness and expansive scale, setting it apart from typical titles in the genre. While some players appreciate the immersive environment, others find the gameplay frustrating, which detracts from their overall enjoyment.
- “This offers a quite unique atmosphere to this game, as other titles in this category usually do not provide such background information.”
- “The atmosphere is gigantic from a human point of view.”
- “Overall, it's not a completely terrible game and I quite like the atmosphere of it, but it's just too annoying to play to give it a recommendation.”
emotional
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The emotional aspect of the game is criticized for its lack of engagement, with users describing the story as boring and unimpactful. This results in a diminished emotional connection for players.
- “The story felt incredibly dull and uninspired.”
- “I found the emotional moments to be lacking and unengaging.”
- “The narrative failed to evoke any real feelings or connections.”
replayability
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's replayability is generally considered low, with many users expressing a lack of incentive to play again, often describing the experience as unenjoyable or even torturous. Overall, it appears that players do not find sufficient value in replaying the game.
- “The replay value for the game is low.”
- “No replay value.”
- “Replay value -5/10; why would you want to torture yourself again?”
humor
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players appreciate the humor in the game as a fun way to enhance their English vocabulary, particularly for non-native speakers. However, some find the gameplay, such as identifying objects from silhouettes, can become monotonous.
- “I play the game mainly to improve my English vocabulary in a funny way, since English isn't my native language. However, I quickly get bored when it comes to finding objects from their silhouette.”
- “The humor in this game is absolutely delightful and keeps me engaged throughout my playtime.”
- “I love how the game incorporates witty dialogue and funny scenarios that make me laugh out loud.”
character development
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game features appealing art and character design, complemented by strong voice-overs. While the hidden object scenes are well-crafted and revisited with different challenges, the reviews do not specifically address character development in depth.
optimization
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The optimization of the game is characterized by a mix of high expectations and inconsistent performance, leaving players with a sense of intrigue and uncertainty regarding its efficiency.

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3h Median play time

3h Average play time

2-3h Spent by most gamers

*Based on 2 analyzed playthroughs

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Frequently Asked Questions

The Esoterica: Hollow Earth is a action game with mystery theme.

The Esoterica: Hollow Earth is available on PC and Windows.

On average players spend around 3 hours playing The Esoterica: Hollow Earth.

The Esoterica: Hollow Earth was released on February 2, 2017.

The Esoterica: Hollow Earth was developed by Happy Artist Games.

The Esoterica: Hollow Earth has received neutral reviews from players. Most players liked this game for its story but disliked it for its grinding.

The Esoterica: Hollow Earth is a single player game.

Similar games include Sonya The Great Adventure, Frankenstein Master of Death, 1 Moment Of Time: Silentville, Left in the Dark: No One on Board, Crystals of Time and others.

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