A great video game does not have to have cutting-edge graphics — it must have engaging gameplay to stimulate the player. BOH is one such game — an indie puzzle action masterpiece made by Simone Bevilacqua from Italy. It is a top-down scroller that puts you in control of a hero-type character tasked with saving the world from the Evil Masters. The BOH storyline is as generic as possible because the game employs many different themes (modern, ancient Egypt, etc.) in which the player can battle monsters and solve puzzles.

BOH gives us Commodore 64 retro-styled visuals consisting of hand-pixelled 2-D sprite graphics coupled with the old-school game background music. The game consists of 40 missions along with an additional 10 to be unlocked throughout the game. In all of the game’s levels, the main character advances through a number of labyrinths gathering weapons and power-ups while fighting all sorts of monsters. Even though the overall gameplay has arcade elements, there are plenty of puzzles the player needs to solve in order to advance from one room to the next. What gives BOH an especially exclusive element is the “survival horror visual cone,” which coupled with claustrophobic level design prevents the player from seeing all of the areas surrounding him at the same time. There are lighting power-ups present on certain levels that do illuminate a corridor or a room, but that is usually more an exception than the rule, which for the record, is a good thing going for BOH.

Warning: BOH is very addictive. There is a certain “Myst meets Indiana Jones” atmosphere that is easily formed while playing BOH because the game does not reward an itchy trigger finger but a clever use of weapons and moves. Some levels can be completed in multiple ways while the others require a precise one-way execution. The controls are intuitive, and the top-down point of view fits perfectly. BOH can be conveniently played in an operating system (Windows, Linux, Mac, AROS, Amiga) window so it can offer a nice mental break during work. The game also runs in full screen.

The creator of BOH, Simone Bevilacqua, also has put significant effort into making BOH open to mod makers by allowing for level makers to design their own game sections as well as craft unique themes and add new language translations. All of the modding instructions are provided with the game and are located in the Developer’s Manual. Additional modding support is available on the BOH website.

BOH is also offered in number of different languages: Danish, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Spanish and Swedish. It can be purchased on the official BOH website, www.bohthegame.com, in either a boxed and/or digital format. The game is reasonably priced and offers great value for the entertainment it provides.