Tacoma (2017)

Gone Home is near the top of my favorite games of all time list, and so naturally, I wanted to play Tacoma for a while now. I'm actually shocked to discover this game is already almost a decade old as I write this. From a technical viewpoint, Tacoma makes sense for Fullbright as an expansion on what they did with Gone Home. Instead of focusing on four players, you're now focusing on eight. You're no longer just hearing audio clips and reading documents; you're also watching clips of events that already happened. This isn't just a story of a family, it's a story of corporate greed and space travel told in the near future. It makes sense as an escalation of what they've previously done, yet it just doesn't have the same power as Gone Home.

Which isn't to say Tacoma is a massive disappointment either. I thought at the beginning that the amount this game was trying to do might be a bit overwhelming. But it doesn't take long before you grasp exactly what the game wants you to do, and it becomes exciting following these stories and individuals throughout the narrative. I particularly love how this game presents the smaller, quiet moments, where a character acts a certain way when they believe no one is watching. For example, there's one point where a character is reckoning with tragic news, and they just break down for a second before composing themselves. It's moments like this that Gone Home couldn't do as effectively, and it works quite well here.

I also find it impressive just how much Tacoma attempts to do in such a short game. Upon entering the space station, I thought there was no way I could fully explore this area in just a few areas, but Fullbright makes this game feel expansive and manageable in equal measure. It also feels more controlled in how you experience the story, but that's never a burden on the overall experience.

But my biggest issue here is that it is a game trying to do a lot in a short period of time. I got to know the six astronauts in this game quite well, and there's enough environmental storytelling going on here to give us a deeper look, but the story is spread too thin to have the same impact as something like Gone Home. I was also slightly disappointed that you don't learn more about these characters from simply exploring this environment. So much of what we find out about them is based on hacking their personal terminals during these recreations of certain moments. There's a point later in the game where I found the workplace of one of these astronauts, and I felt like I was able to learn so much about them just by being in that area. I wish Tacoma gave us more moments like that, moments like we had in Gone Home.

In terms of Fullbright growing as a studio, I do think this is a smart and natural progression of their formula, and I wish Fullbright was still around in the same capacity they were to see what the next step would be. But this doesn't have the weight or impact that Gone Home did because of that escalation of scale, and while it's still an intriguing game to explore, it doesn't capture that same magic. If anything, I might tell someone to play Tacoma before Gone H

I was looking forward to this game based on everything I had heard about it, and the first few minutes seemed to indicate I was in for quite a ride. There’s a mysterious tone permeating the entire opening of this narrative adventure that captivated me fairly quickly, even though the premise of arriving at a seemingly deserted space station isn't exactly groundbreaking. Unfortunately, this mysterious vibe quickly dissipates, taking most of the appeal with it.

Tacoma isn’t a bad game. It’s, at the very least, a decent one. But very early on I noticed a glaring omission, one which is, to me personally, paramount in these types of games: atmosphere. A good narrative adventure usually combines solid storytelling with solid ambience - be it achieved through either sight or sound -, and this combination alone is often enough to elevate them above their peers, despite whatever flaws they may also come with. A good narrative adventure makes you feel all kinds of good strange when you're done with it, and a big part of that is atmosphere. Firewatch has it. What Remains of Edith Finch has it. Oxenfree, Observation, The Suicide of Rachel Foster, Call of the Sea, they all have it. And SOMA (a fundamentally different game, yet one that still shares thematic similarities and gets compared to Tacoma fairly frequently) certainly has it. Unfortunately, this game doesn’t, not really. Or at least, not in the same way.

Tacoma’s concept is intriguing, both its presentation and interface are original, and I do feel that the game is able to convey a fairly compelling glimpse into a dystopian corporatist future that might await us. Additionally, I also enjoyed the bigger narrative twist (even if the ending isn’t quite able to land its final gut punch), and the broader questions it timidly asks about humanity and consciousness. However, to me, the absence of magnetism in virtually all of its parts impacts the entire game. Along with the already mentioned (lack of) atmosphere, which wants for appropriately captivating sound and setting, the characters are another clear example of this problem. In Tacoma’s world, they were meant to serve as the conduit, the resounding, unequivocal pull towards the experience that locks you in and makes you feel like a part of the journey. Yet they all lack charisma, and as a consequence, it was hard for me to naturally gravitate to either them or their laid out personal dilemmas. All their relationships felt somewhat shoehorned in for the sake of establishing emotional connection with the player, and all of them failed at that. Having the short runtime of about 3 hours doesn’t help, but shorter games have managed to pull it off quite nicely in less time.

There’s a slight underlying sense of tragedy in Tacoma. Not in its story, or even its inception, but in its implementation. A different soundscape, a more ominous tone, a more impactful message delivery, more compelling voice acting or personality imprints, all of these elements, either individually or combined, would have resulted in a significantly better outcome, and are more or less budget-independent. Reflecting on it, maybe this is all actually on me, and I was looking for a particular something that Tacoma had never set out to give me. As it stands, however, I didn’t regret having played this game, as I think it did enough to justify such a short playthrough. I just never enjoy the feeling of ending a game thinking not about what I just experienced, but about what I could have experienced instead. 6.5/10

Finished my second playthrough and reminded why I enjoyed this game so much. There's just something so enchanting about it. It's a shorter game at about 3-4hrs of play, but it packs a punch in that time.

Like any good "walking sim" style game, Tacoma focuses on story, atmosphere, and characters. You play as Amy, a contractor dispatched to the Tacoma space station to collect data, as well as the AI core ,to bring back to the company that owns the station. We come into things after the station has been hit by a meteor shower, the facility quickly losing O2. Using an AR system, you're able to glimpse into the past of the ship and its 6 inhabitants. You witness not only the flurry of activity in the last few days, but going back even further into their year long mission. There are also plenty of messages and other secrets to find. All of this combines for a rich story, and a winning ending.

The diverse cast of characters are delightful. The voice acting brings them to life, as you only see them in pictures and AR playbacks where they're represented by different colorful outlines. The devs have also included sign language, which was such a nice addition. My only complaint would be that they didn't have an option for viewing the text of things in an alt text format, as some of the handwriting can be difficult to read. It's even more of a shame considering their otherwise inclusive nature.

Overall, I would highly recommend this to those who are fans of walking sims/narrative games. And, for those new to this style of game, I think it's an excellent place to start. This one is a gem.

Game Summary : Dock at a seemingly abandoned ship to figure out what went wrong and retrieve the hardware for the ship's AI.

Review Portion : Right off the bat, it's a walking simulator game. If you hate those, you won't like this. It's a couple hour experience exploring the ship and piecing together what went wrong. Each section of the ship has a playback of some events that happened there, with silhouettes of the people that were there moving and talking in real time. You can inspect their silhouettes to see more details about them such as recent messages they've sent to others. Since the silhouettes move in real time you'll have to explore each area a bit to hear the various conversations that occur.

Story Review : I have some conflicting feelings about the story. The reason for the ship having issues and being abandoned was solid, but didn't feel all that led up to. Not that the game needed to heavily hint at it before hand, but I definitely felt they could have better foreshadowed the motivation instead of just spelling it out right at the end. The crew trying to make the best of a bad situation was interesting, including some hidden drama and the hiding of information for the sake of others. I'm split however on whether I think they were far too positive and conflict free in order to better sell their pro-human and anti-corporate lesson or whether that lack of conflict and interpersonal drama was refreshing. While I did enjoy the ending, it did feel like the most non-twist twist they could have done and actually had less impact to me as a result.

Summary : I don't often bring up the price when expressing my thoughts on a game unless it's very cheap or expensive, but 20 does seem like a bit much for how much time you'll give to this. If you can play it for 10 or under I would recommend spending a few hours experiencing it.

Personal Score : 8.5/10

"Objective" Score : 7.5/10

Tacoma, much like Gone Home, builds upon the exploration of the previous game in a eerily doomed space station investigated by the player. The player has an augmented reality device that can review real-time recordings of the crew of said station. The player may scrub through the recording and find key bits of information as well as figure out passcodes to travel further into the ship.

The game itself is fairly straightforward and isn't too challenging, but the details put into a subcontracted space station are impressive. Right on down to magazine articles and toothpaste containers, many objects can be picked up and can be examined to give a bit of flavor to Tacoma. It helps that the clean futurism of the game mixed with the messiness of human life in the characterization makes for a gorgeous setting, with plenty of ambiance in the sound design.

Tacoma has plenty of surprises in its little package, and while the game isn't too long it's definitely worth playing if you enjoyed Gone Home.

I got this game for free from the Epic Game store so I feel that might have helped me enjoy the experience more.

The graphics and setting was pretty cool, though things always start to look similar in a space station. I liked reading the crews messages and listening to their experiences on the station.

The story didn't make me cry like Gone Home did but I enjoyed the story. Towards the end I found it got compelling and I always wanted to see what would happen next. I would recommend this game!

In interviews for Gone Home Steven Gaynor of Fullbright would talk about something he called the “Christmas Duck.” In his family there was this little wooden duck that sat in a drawer. It wasn't particularly festive, and wasn't likely made to be a Christmas Duck. But every Christmas Gaynor's mother would pull the Christmas Duck out of its drawer and place it on the side table. There the wooden duck would sit until Christmas was over. He used this as a way of explaining the quirks that every family inevitably develops. This is one of the most human concepts I have ever heard articulated. We develop illogical comforts that others might not understand, but they themselves would have their own illogical comforts.

The Christmas Duck actually appears in Gone Home, in the opening porch in a little drawer where the game begins.

Tacoma does not have a Christmas Duck.

This is the best way I can explain my dismay with the experience.

It's hard to not compare Tacoma to Gone Home, both being these sort of exploration snoops through other people's garbage (both social and physical). Tacoma tries to focus on six crew members aboard an endangered space station. This six way split might be its greatest downfall. It follows them as they try to find a way to save themselves, but never spends enough time with any one of them to let me care. Instead of focusing on a family as one interconnected unit, we get six people who are written reasonably well, but simply not written enough.

There's also less to snoop through, and what you can find doesn't reveal many juicy secrets or human moments, save for one. There's a fantastic scene where one of the characters has a bit of a panic attack and an on-board AI talks her through it. I liked that moment.

The game also plays more tedious than a normal walking simulator due to the way the content is doled out. You sit and watch wireframe models of these crew members talk, and it's interesting in the beginning but I found myself getting sick of it towards the end. It's also quite linear, and feels like the exploration is less open than some other games.

There's a sort of twist at the end that seems like a lame plot by a comic super villain. I just rolled my eyes, and hoped that something would come of this. But then the credits rolled. I exclaimed, out loud alone in my apartment, “That was it?!”

Yes, that was it.

Tacoma, you've lost the Christmas Duck.

7/10

Well made for what it set out to do. Unlike Gone Home, which operated as a mystery of sorts, Tacoma is more so about learning about the characters on the space station for two hours, until the big reveal exposing the big bad corporation. I'd say the world building and characters are more interesting than the plot itself, which is really Tacoma's greatest downside. Although, saying one thing is negative because it wasn't as good as the other aspects of the game is pretty good as criticisms go. It's very low stakes and railroad-y by design and I can see a lot of people losing interest very quickly. I will say though that the AR segments are easily the highlight of the game. I can't even begin to imagine how much of a pain in the ass it must have been to script and perform every bit of dialogue so it all lines up as perfectly as possible. As a game mechanic, it makes for a much more engaging experience when you choose which conversations to listen in to. It's very clever and a step above the endless letters and audio logs from Gone Home. Basically, everything Gone Home did well, this game does better, except for the main story holding it all together which, in Tacoma's case, feels almost incidental. It does fit together with the world building, however, so I can't say it's bad, just underwritten perhaps. It's a very easy-going experience but if walking sims are something you enjoy, I can safely recommend Tacoma as 'another one of those'.

An interactive story - a walking simulator if you will set in an abandoned space station.

This is essentially a story so the story is what makes or brakes it. You play as a sort of data retrieval arriving at the abandoned space station Tacoma. Your job is to gather ghost like recordings of happenings on the station. As you go along you learn more about the accident on the station and actions the crew took to try to save themselfes. With each visited area the story becomes fuller as you learn more and more details.

Visually it's not bad. The space station and general area design is spot on - everything is basically as you'd expect from a space station. The recordings are a bit less cool though. The ghost like figures while nicely coloured have no faces or details that would make them something more than just a manekins acting out past happenings.

The game takes you through various meetings which you can play, pause, and rewind as you see fit. Your task is to access their personal reading devices as they open them at various times and read whatever is on them thus "collecting" data. Additionally you can solve a couple of "puzzles" where you can acquire passwords to locked areas but that just gives you a little bit to explore.

When summing up the game the main thing boils down to deciding - was the story good or not. And yes - the story was cool - I liked it and felt invested in it by the end. However I think I would actually prefer to see it as a movie than a game. As a game it suffers from you needing to replay the same scene couple of times to get everyones perspective. Additionally you're not sure who to follow so sometimes the order of happenings is out of place and it feels just wrong and you feel like a well directed perspective would add a lot to the story.

But in the end I liked it. And if you're into sci-fi stories - you should be fine with it too.

In this snooping simulator, you play as Amy Ferrier, a subcontractor that is tasked with the mission of retrieving an advanced AI from the Lunar Transfer Station Tacoma after it was abandoned some days prior. First thing inside the station, you are outfitted with an Augmented Reality gadget that allows you to see text and signs that orient you while you make your way trough the station and -the main plot delivery system- to watch holographic recordings of the crew.

You advance linearly from room to room inserting a tablet-like device that takes forever to download the data. If and when you get bored watching the painfully slow progress bar fill up, you can go and snoop around the station, piecing together what happened in Tacoma before you arrived.

And this is where the game trully shines. Being holograms you can see in the real world means that you actually have to walk around following these projections.

In other games, having multiple interacting conversations at once is not desirable because the player can only hear one of them. Delivering important plot elements in that fashion is for this reason, completely verboten. In Tacoma, however, most of the time, there's multiple conversations happening at the same time in different rooms. The way game solves the 'problem of choice' is with the ability to pause, rewind and fast-forward through the recordings, allowing the player to listen to every conversation happening at once.

This simple fact gives the game much more 'bandwidth' to deliver the story. Multiple threads can be happening at the same time and the player has to move around and repeat recordings to the the whole picture. As characters move around, they can enter and leave conversations and you can chose to follow them or stay behind. This is delightful and a master class in how to deliver convincing dialogue. The way the characters intertwine feels totally natural thanks to the excellent voice acting and the way they interrupt each other.

The mixed nature of the recordings (virtual holograms placed in real spaces) also makes for a weird experience. The virtual people you see make pantomime interaction with the real objects, but since they are not there, the objects don't move. In some scenes, you might be seeing recordings that happened before some event dramatically changed something on the environment; watching this avatars interacting with the past version of it makes for a strange but interesting experience.

It's also a amazing how you can learn so from the world as a whole. Just by overhearing conversations and reading emails you start to get a complex picture of this sci-fi society. There are political struggle about the roles of Artificial Intelligence, a ruthless corporate environment, and changing political boundaries. The attention to detail is palpable in every small little object you can pick up and examine.

There are, however, some issues that consistently broke the immersion the developers worked so hard to build. While the small details such as canned food and sachets of wine make for a realistic space environment, as a whole, Tacoma station doesn't make any sense. Crew quarters are spread across the station, placed near each crewmember's workplace and far away from common areas. That separation means that instead of common bathrooms (which would be much more efficient), each quarter has it's own toilet that usually have packets of shampoo even though the showers are near the gym. Their placement, obviously more influence by the pacing needed for the plot than by any regard for efficiency or comfort, is a constant reminder that Tacoma works better as a story delivering device than an actual space station.

It's a shame that after spending about 600 words praising the method of plot-delivery, there's so little to say about the plot itself. Aside from a small twist at the very end, I found it predictable and cliché. And that's about what I could say without going into 'here be spoilers' land.

No review of Tacoma should lack praise for it's diverse cast. Not only there are multiple nationalities and sexualities represented, but also there's a very realistic plethora of body types. Once can speculate that this is, in part, motivated need for very clear ways of identifying each avatar and by the fact that the nature of the game restricts the amount of animation to a very limited set of interactions. Be it as it may, it's a welcomed change from the cookie cutter characters in most games.

Tacoma is an excellent experience with lot's going for it even though the seams are clearly visible.