Hob, the Ico-inspired adventure from the makers of Torchlight, will be out in September

YouTube

It's been awhile since we last heard anything about Hob, the lovely mechanical-world action-adventure being developed by Torchlight studio Runic Games. But today the studio dropped a new trailer that shows off some brief clips of gameplay, and more importantly reveals a release date of September 26.

As the red-cloaked hero, players must explore a very strange world awash in chaos, transforming it along the way by solving puzzles and challenges. A "mechanical glove-arm" will aid with both travel and combat, while the story is told entirely without text or dialog. It's not much to go on, but Runic shared some interesting bits of trivia about the game over on the PlayStation Blog, including that Hob is not actually the name of the lead character.

"At the very beginning when we started development, we just called it 'adventure game.' Later, like most projects, we had an internal code name for the game, which was Hob. That name obviously stuck!" the studio explained. "But what’s important is that 'Hob' isn’t his or her name; in fact, the Hero in Hob is gender-neutral. We want you to see yourself in the story!"

We got some hands-on time of our own with Hob at PAX West last year and it made a very positive impression. "I explored a huge open world looking for health and stamina power ups, bashed open walls to find secrets, leapt through the canopy to escape powerful enemies, and stopped to clash with a few on occasion—they wrecked me," James wrote. "There’s a lot to explore, and I can see myself scouring every inch of Hob’s gorgeous, softly detailed environments for whatever scrap of power or story there is to find."

Hob is available for pre-purchase now on Steam and GOG for ten percent off its regular $20/£15/€20 price. Find out more at runicgames.com.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.