Engine mastermind James Paige's OHR games can be few and far between, so when he releases one people tend to take notice. Recently, the community was given quite a surprise when he not only participated in the Terrible Games Contest, but even won it, too! The game is Bob the Hamster in the Crypt of Baconthulhu, and let me tell you, it's really something.

It starts with Bob and friends (all characters from Wandering Hamster) have a picnic, but everybody only brought bacon, and Bob just can't help himself. Overdosing on bacon, he finds himself in what may or may not be cholesterol-induced delusion. The story has a an almost storybook quality to it, especially the way James reads it in his commentary video, but you'll have a time before you get to see the moral at the end.

The game plays out as a rogue-like maze navigator, with each floor randomly generated as you enter it. This apparently all but broke the engine to do, but came out rather impressively. Complete with fog-of-war, Pacman-esque money collecting, and wandering monsters, there's a lot going on in Baconthulhu's mazes. In his commentary, James claims the game lacks the rogue-like vastness, but as you progress through the ever-larger floors, getting lost will be one of your biggest concerns, especially as you will need to a lot of backtracking for a short fetch quest in order to beat the game, which can be a little trying on the patience since you'll have to play it all in one sitting.

Yes, because of the strain already put on the engine generating the dungeons, and because map states aren't part of save data, you can't split the game into multiple sessions unless you just leave the program open whenever you walk away from it. The game does meet you halfway here by giving you the option of Save Scumming when you die, bringing you to the entrance of whatever map you're on, so you don't have to play it from the beginning every time, but Save Scummers don't get to see the best ending. (Which is, in reality, the only ending. The Save Scummer ending is essentially just a textbox that says "Congrats! Now try it without save scumming!")

Combat is pretty simple in practice, as it just involves pushing up against an enemy. Most of the work is in the background with your stat setup. It's a little tough to tell which stats are real and which ones are gags, though it appears beyond the obvious ones (Health, Attack, Hit %), your Burden is the rate at which you lose Stamina, which is your ability to make an attack, and Recovery is the speed at which your Health replenishes? None of it is ever explained anywhere, and James is a little too busy talking about the programming to get into the system itself in his commentary. (I'm really disappointed he cut it off at one video when he would've easily had so much more to say!) The only way to alter these stats is with equipment (though there is a potion that's supposed to raise your maximum health, but it didn't work the time I tried it), though some of it raises your Burden to the point of being almost nonviable without a heavy quantity of Herbs. In addition, there are various spell scrolls you can buy that carry different effects, like showing you where the exit (Monarch) or the shopkeep-cultist (Bat) on each floor is, or setting fire to nearby enemies for area damage (Burning). There's also Vegify, which turns nearby enemies into Soybeans, a necessary element to the fetch quest, but also a really good way to clear a path when you're surrounded (Which'll happen a lot on the lower floors).

And that's essentially what you have in the game, only--well--longer. It's a great idea with a lot of effort poured into it, and I appreciate that. For the first few floors it's a really fun game, but once the mazes get bigger and expect you to backtrack it just draaaaaaaaggs! I kind of found myself trying to like it in spite of itself because it has a lot of charm! The bit with Misa was cute, and it was refreshing to see the fun-loving Bob again after being stuck for so long with the serious and boring one in OHR House Heroes, but it just wore me down so much. I'm not going say it didn't deserve to win the TGC, but it wouldn't have been my pick. It is a good game, don't get me wrong, but it has a few big problems really dragging it down. It's really weird to say this in an OHR-centered magazine, but at least for right now Bob the Hamster in the Crypt of Baconthulhu might have been served better by not being made for the OHR, though it is very likely that the experience taught James things about the engine that will manifest in future updates. He's discussed updating the game once the save format's been overhauled, and I will not be happier eat my words once he has. There's a lot of potential here I'd like to see met.