I went into this game expecting a walking sim horror game, the type I've started calling a Haunted House Simulator. It in some ways looked pretty generic, but the fact it was a Thai game piqued my interest and made me want to give it a try. I started out feeling really negative on the game, but it ended up growing on me a lot. While I still wouldn't consider it "great" and I have some significant hang-ups, it ended up pretty alright. One big hang-up to be aware of is that this is just "Episode 1" apparently. It's deceptively just called Home Sweet Home and the second game has "Episode 2" in the title. I didn't realize this until basically the very end when the game hadn't really resolved anything, then ended on a cliffhanger with a "to be continued," which was super annoying.

The gameplay for Home Sweet Home is really nothing special if you've played any of these Haunted House Simulators. You don't fight the monsters, you hide, do a lot of walking, get some jump scares, and solve puzzles. This game is generally no different but I will say there's a greater emphasis on stealth than in some of these games where you're totally safe. Most of the game's antagonism comes from the scary woman in the picture above. I thought this was okay for the most part and the sections combining stealth with puzzle-solving were somewhat interesting. However, it definitely got stale and near the end I was finding myself more annoyed with the small windows for moving past the enemies that felt like they were just drawing out the final sequences more than creating an enjoyable experience. That said, there was one scene at the end with a saw that would probably piss a lot of people off but I personally thought was a super cool climax to the game.

In short, Home Sweet Home has our protagonist Tim running through a labyrinth of different environments that all appear to be linked to the space underneath the stairs of his house as he emerges and re-enters from there periodically. At the outset, Tim's wife Jane has recently gone missing and he's not handling it well. The story doesn't get a ton of development. Instead, most of the narrative examines a few more isolated urban legend type stories with this or that individual who was cursed or is inheriting the effects of their negative karma. At first it all felt rather disconnected, but as it went on I felt like I was starting to connect some dots to how it was all related and figuring out the mystery behind Jane's disappearance and Tim's despondence evident in her diary entries. It was actually turning out to be a really cool way to slowly reveal things...until the end when a few of the game's events made me think actually I wasn't on to anything and the game just feels a lot more disjointed instead. To further frustrate things, I won't really know how right/wrong I was, if at all, unless I play Episode 2, which currently I'm on the fence about.

Hey at least I didn't title this review "Look at this photograph..."

I thought the visuals in Home Sweet Home were generally pretty good. The character models definitely looked a little rough and awkward, but part of that was because the rest of the environments around them actually looked quite good and the comparison made the flaws more noticeable. I thought the monsters, while they suffered some from that same issue with models otherwise, did have a decent design that fit the lore revealed in the notes. I also find I weirdly kind of like the use of real life photos like those in the image above, at least when the rest of the graphics are decent enough it doesn't look too weird. Interesting how Tim's face is blurred out though, huh...

I partially came to this game because it is Thai horror and Home Sweet Home delivers pretty well on that front. The game features several aspects of urban legend and religious mythologies from the Buddhist canon that take a central role in its narrative. Each section of the game tends to focus on a different one and beyond that, the game takes place in a clearly Thai environment with Thai script covering the walls and documents. While I didn't like several things about the game, this was definitely an element I enjoyed. I did kind of wish it were less hand-holdy; nearly every stage of the game opens with some kind of pamphlet basically explaining plainly the bit of myth or legend that's relevant to that section. But I do understand that at least in this game, some of the segments would've felt very random without that background so it did make some sense to explain the symbolism.

Much of the game I'd say there's nothing too special about. When I very first started it, I seriously considered it more of a 1-star game and wasn't sure I'd get back to it at all. I'm ultimately glad I stuck with it and I don't regret playing it, but I'm still not sure I'd recommend it on balance, especially with the annoying cliffhanger that really doesn't even feel like a good break in the story. While this is probably more of a 2.5, I'm okay with rounding up given that it is kind of significant that it was able to turn around my opinion as much as it did.

Note: My sincerest apologies for the title of this review but in the game you find many diaries from your wife Jane and as I played this on stream I kept singing that song every time I found one and promised my friend I'd name my review after it.

Note 2: I'd like to give a heads up that I couldn't get the VR to work for this game. The first time I played it for a quick 15 minute session without VR and thought the game was very meh (the start was extra slow) but I noticed it had VR support and thought that might spice it up some. So I got everything ready for my discord stream with webcam and everything and...VR just wouldn't work. I could get the game to start and display in my headset but none of the buttons seemed to do anything other than pause. I'm not sure if I was doing something wrong, but at least tethering to the Quest 2, it just did not work. If you're buying the PC version for a VR playthrough and only that, I'd make sure to test it right away in case you want to request a refund if you run into the same.