Hozy is a cozy little escape where you get to restore and decorate homes in a neighborhood. Not only will you clean up trash and paint walls, but you’ll be invited to unpack boxes of furniture and arrange them however you like.
There are several different room types, each with its own unique furniture. Generally, there’s a vibe in each room like a college apartment, an artist studio, or the site of a potential doctrine…
Each room is meant to have its own story and if that story happens to involve a circle of garden gnomes in varying states of disrepair around a single light source… then, hey, we love a good gathering. And, if that light source happens to illuminate things written on the wall that equate to mildew being sentient and silence knowing your name, all the better! Everyone is so creative!
Jokes aside, except not jokes, because that’s legitimately a room, I love these quirky little details that make you stop and question what exactly happened before you arrived.
Gameplay is very simple and straightforward; there’s really not much to say beyond cleaning with various tools and figuring out where you want furniture to go.
You can expect a few hours of content here, start to finish. It inspires the kind of mindless relaxation that works well paired with other stimuli. I found Hozy to be interesting enough to keep your focus, but chill enough that I think it’d be perfect paired with a playlist of your own or even an audiobook.
The only qualm that I really have is controls. They’re not terrible, but they’re a smidge clunky, mainly in positioning the camera view. I found that with the mouse and keyboard, the camera view was a bit too rigid, whereas with the controller, the camera view was too fluid. It’s an interesting mix of the same problem, but in different ways.
The good news is that you do kind of get the hang of what you’re doing, but it takes a bit of playing before it starts to come naturally. Not a deal-breaker, just a minor note.
What the trailer for Hozy!
So, what else is there? Not much, honestly. You do have the freedom of replayability, but each room has limited color options for walls and the furniture stays the same. I’d say you may have two, possibly three different rooms you could put together before it starts to feel stagnant.
Otherwise, there’s a vague sense of a story attached to each room, but it’s a blink and you’ll miss it thing. If you’re invested, you can interact with items to learn more. If you don’t care, it’s not intrusive.
Hozy is going to be for people who love the peace of a methodical gameplay style. From A to B, it’s the same steps over and over for each room, just with different assets. While there is a task list, it’s simply the steps needed to clean, paint, or arrange. You’re not going to get any extra quests or things to do.
There are technically hidden achievements, but I’m just telling you now, all of them are connected to finishing rooms, of which there are nine. It took me about an hour to do three rooms, so you can expect about three hours of content.
If this type of gameplay is one that you’re looking for and thrive in, then I’d recommend Hozy for your gaming library. If you’re looking for something more involved, skip it.
If you want to give Hozy a try, you can get it on Steam for $14.99. The price would personally give me pause, but having played it, I can see that a lot of that budget likely went into art because it’s all beautifully rendered. Normally, I’d say that if you’re on the fence, you can try out the demo, but unless I’m blind, there isn’t a playable demo to try.
Honestly, that feels wrong. There’s likely a reason that I’m not privy to as to why it doesn’t have a demo, but having one feels like best practice to me.
Lastly, Hozy was sent to me for review by the developer. This doesn’t impact my opinions, but for clarity, I didn’t spend my own money on this game.
