With the year soon coming to a close, it seemed like El Hijo was going to be another delayed game, but the whimsical stealth Western has snagged a December 3 release date.
El Hijo is a game all about not being spotted. You play as a nameless child, simply called El Hijo, 'the boy', in search of his mother, but everyone from the monks in your orphanage to the cowboys outside are trying to catch you. As soon as they catch sight of you it's all over—as such, this is a completely nonviolent game.
With its cute visuals and what developer Honig Studio describes as a "family friendly atmosphere", El Hijo may seem more like a game for children, but when I had a go at a demo myself last year, I found a game that offers a nice variety of stealth puzzles and some light environmental puzzles as well, even though there was usually only one way to solve them. El Hijo uses elements such as light and darkness, tall grass and the good old "hide in a pot" strategy to help you get around unseen, the experience enhanced by how stunning the locations are to look at.
If it doesn't get mired in repetition, I see in El Hijo a nice, relaxing stealth game for dark and cold evenings—we'll know more when it releases December 3.
