A Short Hike

It’s not often that I go out of my way to look for indie games to play, but when I got my hands on a massive Itch.io bundle, I looked for recommendations and consistently saw A Short Hike come up. The game, developed and published by Adam Robinson-Yu and originally released in 2019 as a Humble Original, looked promising and I dove right in when I had the chance. Although I had no expectations going in, I’m happy to say that it’s well worth the time and money.

A young bird named Claire has gone by ferry to Hawk Peak Provincial Park, where her Aunt May works as a park ranger, for the summer. When Claire arrives, she’s expecting an important phone call, but May informs her that there’s no cell phone reception in the park except at Hawk Peak. Though she’s never hiked Hawk Peak Trail, the hardest trail in the park, before, she heads for the summit.

Claire is staying at Hawk Peak Provincial Park with her Aunt May.

Though the player can head straight to the Hawk Peak summit, she can talk to other animals on the island and help them. These side stories don’t take very long to complete, but are engaging and help flesh out the island’s diverse cast. Together with some great environmental storytelling, some signs also help fill in details about the island and some of its features, which helps give the park some nice character.

As for the main story, it too doesn’t last very long and the reveal of who the caller is might not satisfy everyone. Either way, it doesn’t overstay its welcome and the events following the call are satisfying and rather wholesome. Depending on how the player approaches the game, the story can last anywhere as little as one-and-a-half and as long as five hours.

Claire can talk with various animals around the island.

A Short Hike has simple gameplay, but it takes full advantage of the setting and Claire’s natural abilities. Players can explore the entire island at once however they wish, whether by climbing, running or gliding, creating a sense of total freedom in exploration and approaches to different side quests and activities. To help Claire get up to the summit, however, she needs to collect Golden Feathers, which players can gain by finding them out in the open, completing quick side quests or straight up buying them from NPCs with coins found throughout the island. Golden Feathers not only grant Claire additional mid-air jumps, one for each feather, but also double as stamina for running and climbing. As Claire’s collection of Golden Feathers increases, more of the island opens up for exploration, which provides a good incentive for collecting more than the minimum of seven required to complete the game.

Claire can glide anywhere on the island.

In different locations on the island, Claire can find helpful tools and items that open up more possibilities for interactions, be it hitting certain objects, digging for coins and hidden treasure or clearing away wooden boards and rocks to open up shortcuts, among others. Completing side quests can also provide helpful items, including Running Shoes that let Claire run around the island more easily. Players can also go for optional achievements, which include finding a very helpful hidden collectable that boosts Claire’s innate abilities.

There's also a fishing minigame.

The game also has a charming visual style, with simple 3D models filtered through an old-school graphical style and a warm color palette. Even with “big crunchy pixels”, the character designs and emotions are still conveyed very well and the game maintained a consistent and buttery smooth 60FPS throughout my entire playthrough. Retro sound effects also fit in with the visual style, but there’s also some great ambient audio and the adaptive soundtrack by Mark Sparling is very calming and relaxing.

If you’re looking for a great gaming experience but also need something more calming and wholesome, then I highly recommend A Short Hike. It may be on the short side, but sometimes a short hike is all you need.