Game Analysis: Hue

“Hue” is a 2D game which follows Hue, a young boy, who is searching for his mother who disappeared in the realm of “impossible colors”. In a black and grey world the guest collects different colors used to change the visible colors in the world in order to solve different puzzles. In the following paragraphs I will analyse the elements of the game’s plot, interest curve, sense of agency and aesthetics.

Interest curve

The game’s pace in the first few levels is a slow one. The guest guides the main character, Hue, through a grey path, going up and down stairs while listening to a voice over of a letter from Hue’s mother explaining to him and the guest what happened to her. This sets the premise to the game and explains Hue’s goal. Since the story unfolds through short voice over segments in between complicated puzzles it is easy to lost track of it. The low level of interactivity and lack of stimulates, including in the visuals, of this part assures that the guest is paying full attention to the game’s exposition which sets the tone for the game and makes it more than just solving color related puzzles.

This technique repeats itself throughout the game and serves as “resting stops”. It might seem that the interest curve is at a low point when during these “cut scenes” but it is not at it’s lowest since the game offers new information and raises several points for thought.

Soon enough the guests comes across the first color, blue, and the first indication that choosing colors from the color wheel menu changes your surrounding. In this case the sky, to blue and stops the storm. There is a slow rise in the interest curve. The level of interactivity is still low, the guest can have very short conversations with the various NPC and has only one color option. The pace of the game remains slow at this point.

From there the interest curves starts to rise upward. The player acquires two new colors,, encounters a cloaked character (which will appear throughout the game at different checkpoints and adds interest and mystery since it’s appearance is only explained in the final stages of the game) and begins to utilize the colors in order to solve more complex and intense puzzles that either require reacting fast to falling boulders, laser or crumbling floors or analysing the different layers of the level (since each new color exposes a new one) and figuring out how to go through it and make it to the next one.

As more colors are added the interest curves rises higher and the levels get more complex with each new color adding a new layer to consider when solving the puzzles.

The plot itself has two main interest points. The first is at the beginning when we learn that the Hue’s mother turned invisible and towards the end of the game when Hue finds his mother and learns that Dr. Grey (whom she blamed in her letters of being narrow minded) tried to help and instantly was the cause of her disappearance. Unlike the progress of the puzzles which is steadily upwards.

Agency

The level of agency is relatively high in “Hue”. The guest constantly see how the results of her or his actions affect the world. Each color choice changes it completely. In the context of the puzzles it is the only way the guest can successfully complete them. In the world that surrounds the puzzles this helps the different NPC’s. They seem to be oblivious to Hue’s ability that eliminates obstacles however they do react to the end result.

Aesthetics

The visual style of Hue is simple but powerful. The 2D levels include black and white silhouettes. Choosing different colors from the color wheel changes the background color and, as mentioned before, reviles or hides the colorful objects such as boxes and platforms with which the guest interacts.

The visuals supports another issue Hue’s mother addresses in her letters: how blick a world without colors is. The world is harsh black and the high saturated colors bring it to life and create an interesting and appealing image. When playing the game on the playstation console the immersion is enhanced by the use of the controller’s colored led indicators which changes to match the background. With the controller being black this mimics the game’s aesthetics and makes the guest think about the concerns Hue’s mother raises in her letters. Is there such a thing as an objective truth in the world around us and are we seeing the beauty of it.

The music in the game sometimes seems to contrast the action on the screen and in other times fits the game’s pace which requires the guest to think and take his/her time in solving the different puzzles. No more than a handful of instruments are used in the background music and sometimes only a piano. This gives a sense of loneliness. On the one hand the colors are bright and saturated and on the other hand the music reminds us that this is a boy who lost his mother while she was on her own quest.

The game deals with the question of perception and definition of reality. Is there such a thing as an objective truth? Do we all perceive things in the same way? Is what we don’t perceive actually exist? And are we doing our best in order to experience what our surroundings has to offer or are we emotionally detach from it?

Hue’s mother is a scientist who researched colors. During one of her experiments she went too far, disappeared into the realm of “impossible colors” and currently is invisible to Hue but can see him. Through a series of letters scattered around the different levels she wonders if being invisible, and can’t be perceived by anyone else, means she doesn’t exist. In addition she mentions color’s use to symbolize emotions and that not experiencing it makes the world seem dull.

As the game progresses, Hue, like his mother, collects more and more colors mimicking his mother’s learning process which eventually led to her disappearance. It is never mentioned but since Hue is going in the same path it is assumed he is looking for his mother.

The game’s level design and game mechanics are inspired by these questions. The player can access a color wheel, or a “ring of colors” and change the dominant color of the world indicated by the change of background color. By doing so either revealing or concealing different objects and obstacles in the level. Going from one point to another in the level requires the guest to change colors numerous times, climb ramps that were previously hidden in the background, push crates to stop lasers in certain colors in order to find a path between two doors going through the different layers of the levels.