• A Hat in Time
  
• Developer- Gears for Breakfast
  
• Publisher- Humble
  
• PC (Steam), PS4
  

It’s hard to make a 3D platformer. It seems like a relatively simple genre, but simplicity often means the effect of small details is more strongly felt. A 3D platformer lives and dies by the weight of inertia, or the cooperation of a camera. So I had my doubts that A Hat in Time could pull it off. There’s plenty of games that give off that intangible sense of something being off, and A Hat in Time doesn’t give off a good first impression either.

The oversaturated lighting and overcrowded hub of Mafia Town, the game’s first world, has a strange, unpleasant aura. It’s busy both visually and topographically, pulling attention in every direction and failing to provide a compelling playground. I wasn’t impressed by its first few missions either, which didn’t endear me to its characters or world. Thankfully, by the time the second world unlocks it becomes clear that there’s a lot more to A Hat in Time than first impressions hint at.

The second world is where A Hat in Time begins to introduce more structure. There’s a movie making feud happening between two bird directors, and naturally our protagonist gets caught in it. There’s a lot going on here, with each level giving you different objectives, each contributing to an overall score for each movie that will determine who you face off with at the end of the world. Within that there’s an Orient Express style murder mystery, a few stealth style sections and plenty of movie style set pieces.

The following worlds have their own twists on the core structure, with varying degrees of success, and each culminating in a finale once the previous areas are completed. A Hat in Time also encourages you to move in and out of the various worlds, with abilities found in later worlds allowing you to revisit older ones and unlock new parts of them.

Finding where to go next isn’t always a smooth process though. One particular puzzle kept me from progressing for about two hours, thanks to the way it locked off a crucial upgrade. Unable to find a solution, I figured there was something in another stage I needed to complete the stage, so I scoured the remaining stages for a way forward. Turns out the solution involved some adventure game style item combining that’s only communicated to you through a 15 second puzzle earlier in the stage, and which you never come across or need to do in any other part of the game. It didn’t help that I’d accidentally stumbled into the solution, thinking that I’d solved into thanks to an entirely different reason.

That’s one example, but there’s a few of these moments in A Hat in Time, where signposting fails or you become turned around and lose sight of which direction is the correct one. It’s telling that among the several hats the protagonist wears, the default one is dedicated to pointing you towards your objective. Combined with the way abilities are introduced between worlds, getting lost in A Hat in Time brings a sort of aimlessness to it. Losing my direction never felt like a chance to explore and find something new. Instead it made me wonder if I was doing something in the wrong order, or if I wasn’t supposed to be here yet.

After unlocking a few worlds and gaining new movement abilities, A Hat in Time does pick up momentum. There’s a lot of unique set pieces that work much better than the freeform hubs of its early worlds. The more linear designs do a much better (though not flawless) job of directing attention, and the tighter scripting and focused platforming challenges provide plenty of memorable sequences. By the time I had reached the mountain stage, a hub that split into various spokes with their own unique areas, I had been totally drawn in by A Hat in Time’s charms.

There’s some genuinely funny moments and visual touches. The voice performances are excellent as well, and barring a small performance from internet scumbag Jon Jafari, do a good job delivering the atmosphere and humor. The art direction grows more confident as well, and there’s a good variety of aesthetics to appreciate. I was amazed at how impressive later stages were, given how negative my initial reaction was.

I came into A Hat in Time a skeptic, but emerged genuinely pleased with what I’ve played. Once it builds momentum it becomes a joy to run around in, even if it’s not exactly the exploratory adventure it attempts to be. It’s a shame that it presents so garishly at the start, but I’m glad I stuck around to see what else it had to offer.