Hannah – PS5 Review

Hannah is a 3D platformer from Spaceboy. It boast a decent dollop of horror and unease but the platforming, and lack of peril can really undercut the mood. Dreamy and surreal, it has a cohesive style and some mildly engrossing puzzles. Unfortunately, it’s a little too rough around the edges and has one genuine issue when it comes to saving progress.

The story focuses on the girl in question. Throughout the game, you control Hannah as a small child. As such, the world is big a scary and the game loves to pull on that thread. The narrative is told through VHS tapes which are picked up during gameplay. They are mostly confined to collectables which, unfortunately means plot points can be missed. These scenes are wordless and appear to be out of order, making the story a little hard to follow before the whole picture comes into view.

There is some trauma there but it’s hard to really sit with it when the narrative can be so jumbled. The dreamworld aesthetic also makes it difficult to grasp what Hannah’s reality actually is. As a child, she’s vocal in some oohs and aahs but it’s not a speaking role. She has a persistent stalker during the tale but I don’t see a huge pay-off for it.

I do think the presentation is good. There’s a fixed camera deployed to frame each area with a degree of askewness. The perspective is shifted and it helps heighten the surreal environments Hannah has to scale. It’s mostly set within an oversized, home or school setting but the everyday elements take on something more sinister at that scale.

I think the music and sound bolsters that uneasy feeling. Radios spew out warbled static, any other characters you meet speak in a similar tone. Some menaces really tower over you and the soundtrack does well to keep things off kilter. It’s a jangly, sinister score that sounds like broken toys. There’s a looming dread throughout that loses its impact during long sessions.

The levels do show some variety. Mechanically, there’s attempts made to make it more than just jumping from place to place. They don’t always work. There’s a stealth section that particularly boiled my blood and boss fights can become tedious. Hannah has no natural means of defence so she either has to resort to environmental assistance.

Hannah‘s movement is pretty standard. The left stick moves her in any direction whilst she also has a jump. She can clamber and swing on ropes and also pick up objects. The latter is used for puzzles, often moving crates to gain access to new areas. It plays it pretty safe and I don’t think anything crucial is absent. Her jump arc is largely consistent. Holding down the button allows for a longer jump but I do find smaller hops to be difficult to achieve. She does have some air control but I didn’t find it enough to save an over-ambitious leap.

I find physics to be an intervening factor, particularly in the closing stages. Moving platforms have their own momentum to account for. That’s led to me being launched a few times. It’s bothersome but the game checkpoints frequently. Death will either spawn Hannah to the previous one or, in the case of one boss fight, simply return her to her last known position. It leads to a game of low stakes.

That said, it still bothered me. The fixed perspective made it difficult to judge depth. The camera would also swing around violently, in certain spots. You have some minor camera control but it only extends to the periphery or you could crudely adjust the zoom. Whilst I do like the choice of Dutch angles and playing with perspective, it comes at the cost of platforming.

Puzzles feel quite manageable. Not all of them compulsory with some withholding tapes or floppy discs. There is one level totally devoted to them and that does seem to be where the most creativity was applied. Elsewhere, you’re mostly dealing with boxes, switches and levers. I wouldn’t call them trivial but they certainly leaned into the easier end of the spectrum. Sometimes a puzzle is as simple as trying to uncover three key items. These do give off an aura and areas are small enough to coerce you in the right direction. I never felt stuck, although there’s a couple of late-game problems that require more legwork to solve.

Tragically, there is a crucial save issue with Hannah. The game itself is only a few hours long but, despite the apparent autosaving, I have only been able to resume after the second area. I have left this game at the half-way stage and two-thirds through it, only to find I have to replay from the clock level. For anyone playing this, do it in a single sitting.

You can replay previous levels, if you wish to grab tapes and other missing extras. There are floppy discs scattered around the game that unlock concept art and you can listen to the soundtrack, if you’re so inclined. There’s also multiple endings to find. For what it’s worth, the ending I got felt conclusive enough. I’d missed plenty tapes but still gained a broad enough picture.

With a little more polish and a tightened camera, maybe Hannah could’ve done more for me. The save issue felt genuinely discouraging and it’s a shame that wasn’t caught before release. Beyond that, there’s still frustration with the perspective playing havoc with platforming. The storytelling being held behind collectables undercuts the narrative and, whilst the puzzles and traversal and on the easy side, I struggled to enjoy it.