El Hijo - A Wild West Tale
Honig Studios · 2020 · Casual, Exploration, Stealth, Strategy, Tutorial
PC
Mostly Positive71% · 10076Metacritic
Compare prices in Official Stores
Compare prices in Keyshops
Keyshops are third-party marketplaces — keys are resold and can be region-locked or a different edition. Check the listing's region & edition before buying.
Some store links are affiliate links — playze may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. It never changes the price you pay, and the cheapest option is always shown in the Best price box above.
Screenshots
About El Hijo - A Wild West Tale
El Hijo - A Wild West Tale is an exciting spaghetti-western stealth game, in which you guide a 6-year-old boy on his quest to find his mother.
As a six-year-old, "El Hijo" must always sneak past the dangers of his world. As he overcomes his challenges, he gains self-confidence and cunning and with it more schemes to get past his foes. On his journey, he will find himself in a remote monastery, a harsh and unforgiving stretch of desert and a frontier town rife with crime and villainy.
The journey begins when a farmer and her son El Hijo are attacked by bandits who raze their farm to the ground. The mother decides to leave "El Hijo" at a secluded monastery in order to protect him. However, El Hijo decides that the monastic life is not for him and decides to escape. "El Hijo - A Wild West Tale" is a non-violent stealth game. Violence is instead exchanged with the mischievous, playfulness of a young child. Shadowplay is in the core of the game and "El Hijo" will often have to hide. Without needlessly adding new mechanics, the gameplay is extended naturally, as variations of existing mechanics are gradually introduced and then combined with each other to increase the challenge. These twists on familiar mechanics are often a product of the varied, increasingly dangerous environments that "El Hijo" must traverse to reach his ultimate goal.
As a six-year-old, "El Hijo" must always sneak past the dangers of his world. As he overcomes his challenges, he gains self-confidence and cunning and with it more schemes to get past his foes. On his journey, he will find himself in a remote monastery, a harsh and unforgiving stretch of desert and a frontier town rife with crime and villainy.
The journey begins when a farmer and her son El Hijo are attacked by bandits who raze their farm to the ground. The mother decides to leave "El Hijo" at a secluded monastery in order to protect him. However, El Hijo decides that the monastic life is not for him and decides to escape. "El Hijo - A Wild West Tale" is a non-violent stealth game. Violence is instead exchanged with the mischievous, playfulness of a young child. Shadowplay is in the core of the game and "El Hijo" will often have to hide. Without needlessly adding new mechanics, the gameplay is extended naturally, as variations of existing mechanics are gradually introduced and then combined with each other to increase the challenge. These twists on familiar mechanics are often a product of the varied, increasingly dangerous environments that "El Hijo" must traverse to reach his ultimate goal.
Features:
- Survive the Wild West with the cleverness of a young hero
- Explore dark monasteries, deserts and boomtowns in a spaghetti-western world
- Merge with the shadows to hide from the lawless
- Solve playfully tricky environmental puzzles
- Use a playful arsenal of tactical toys to bypass and distract diverse desperadoes
- Inspire other children towards the path to freedom
- Enjoy the gripping storyline of a brave son searching for his mother
What Steam players say
Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.
Stealth mechanics is simplistic, instructions are sometimes unclear. Considering the game’s price $19.99 for just 3.5-4 hours of gameplay with a handful of slide-show cutscenes, it feels expensive. I finished the Monastery area, about 1/3 of the full game before I stopped. Normally I prefer to complete a game, but here the sneaking methods are repetitive and limited. The boy can throw rocks to distract guards at first, later swapping to a noise-making toy, but it functions identically aside from the range. Hiding spots (vases, bookshelves, coffins) are just change of skins of the same mechanic. Puzzles often boil down to pulling or pushing boxes and ladders in various locations (library, garden, tomb), again with nothing but skin changes. Later levels just add enemies to slow you down, but don’t change the experience. The mother character uses a sling to break barrels and locks, but the game doesn’t explain this upfront. When I first encountered a glowing lock, I assumed I needed a key, only to discover later that the sling breaks it. Similarly, crucial objectives like activating bombs lack clear instructions. If you miss the one at the start, too bad you have to backtrack all th…4 found this helpful
Wonky controls, especially when aiming. Bad Stealth and AI. The biggest culprits are the coyotes with a large line of sight and detection radius. Overall just feels like a chore when playing.
El Hijo – A Wild West Tale is an isometric-view, real-time tactics stealth game, especially suited for kids, where you have to help a little boy to find his mother unseen by various opponents/villains. Find some more details and screenshots at https://sascha.mehlhase.info/hobbies/computer-games/el-hijo/
El Hijo — developed by Honig Studios and Quantumfrog and published by HandyGames — is a beautifully crafted stealth adventure that reimagines the Wild West through the eyes of a six-year-old boy. Rather than gunslinging duels or dusty shootouts, the game presents a quieter, more intimate story about resilience, resourcefulness, and hope. After bandits destroy his home and separate him from his mother, the young protagonist is taken to a remote monastery for safety. But refusing to accept separation as his fate, he escapes and begins a determined journey across deserts, frontier towns, and outlaw hideouts to find her. This simple emotional premise shapes the entire experience, grounding its mechanics and tone in a way that feels refreshing within a genre often driven by violence. El Hijo unfolds through an isometric perspective, allowing players a broad and tactical view of each environment. Every area functions as a stealth puzzle: guards, monks, deserters, and bandits patrol predictable routes, and you must slip between their lines of sight while remaining unseen. The young hero cannot fight — and the game never tempts you to do so — instead giving you clever tools that emphasize…
No real story or instruction? It wasn't really shown why we were doing things.... I finished the game in 13 hours.... and don't feel it is replayable. Controls were really janky, really cumbersome tbh. I 100% prefer Shadow Gambit and Shadow Tactics instead.
Had to force myself through the first half of this game. Not planning to play through the second half. It's a lot of the same puzzle with different faces.
Community reviews
—
0 reviews
Sign in to write a review.
No reviews yet. Be the first to review this game.
