Hogtie

Genre: Puzzle

Players: 1

.

Review:

Hogtie is a Puzzle game released on PC and Nintendo Switch in 2025, that has the clever idea of doing what is basically the reverse of sokoban-style Puzzle gameplay – your character cannot push anything, but must instead pull using a lasso. More specifically, this game has you roping pigs and dragging them back to a green pasture.

While initially this seems like just taking a tired formula and finding one little quirk to make it interesting, Hogtie repeatedly finds ways to make it interesting and creative. The lasso doesn’t need to be tossed from one square away, but can be used from a distance to its target. At that point, the pig you’ve lassoed stays the same relative distance from you, even moving alongside at the same distance if you’re moving sideways relative to the pig. However, if you move toward the pig and shorten the distance to it, that distance remains short even once you walk away again. Add to this that you can walk on the pig itself to change the direction you pull it.

These interesting mechanics become even more interesting when you involve environmental elements. Barrels can’t be pushed or pulled, but if the rope snags on one while you’re moving s pig sideways, it can drag the barrel along. If you drag a barrel into a ditch or tar pit, it fills the pit and acts as a bridge. Normally you can’t cut a rope after lassoing a pig until you’ve gotten the pig to a pasture, but if the rope hits a cactus the cactus will cut it for you. Oh, and pigs refuse to go into pastures if they’re covered in oil from an oil pit – they need to clean it off in water first.

The game is smart about how it gradually introduces and explains these elements to the player, building up over time the player’s understanding of the game mechanics. It’s also smart about keeping the core gameplay mechanics simple, and letting the puzzle complexity come out of the level design and pushing players to think about how to use those mechanics. A fence that prevents you from pulling a pig to you can instead be used to lengthen the rope again, which might open up other opportunities, and the cactus that helped you cut the rope to enable you to get a different connection in one level may end up being an obstacle in another level.

The presentation here is quite good too, using simple but polished cartoony 3D visuals, backed by a banjo-heavy soundtrack that fits the game’s theming and relaxed pace and tone very well. I don’t think any of this is truly extraordinary in a way that pushes boundaries, but it’s still an excellent compliment to the gameplay.

When it comes to complaints, I suppose the game could use a hint system or something like that, but that’s a pretty minor omission. When I think about what bugs me most here, it’s the price – $13 seems pretty steep for what is still at its core a sokoban game, even if it’s a smart and creative one. But even more than that, it’s particularly overpriced when the PC version of the game is only $5. However, to its credit, the game has gone on sale for $2, which is more than acceptable for what this game has to offer.

Price issues aside, Hogtie is a surprisingly excellent Puzzle game, one well worth a look for fans of the genre, especially if you already enjoy Sokoban-style puzzles. There’s some really smart puzzle design here, and a really creative take on a classic style of puzzle. Just be sure to get the game on sale when you get it.

tl;dr – Hogtie is a Puzzle game that’s similar to sokoban-style gameplay, but where your character cannot push anything, but must instead pull using a lasso, roping pigs and dragging them back to a green pasture. This clever twist on a tired subgenre actually makes clever use of this mechanic with some superb puzzle design for some really clever puzzles. Just be sure to get the game on sale, as the standard price is overly-high.

Grade: B

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}

^{This month’s sponsors are Jamie and His Cats, Ben, Ilya Zverev, Andy Miller, Johannes, Francis Obst, Gabriel Coronado-Medina, Jared Wark, Kristoffer Wulff, and Seth Christenfeld. Thank you for helping to keep the reviews coming!}