[Review] PC : Home

"Keeps you intellectually engaged even when you aren't playing it." - Gamespot

Here's a rather interesting little horror indie game that's perfect if you've got a couple of hours to kill on a dark spooky night. Unlike any other horror game, Home is a side-scrolling game that features no interactive NPCs or mobs.You assume the role of a man who finds himself in a mysterious house and cannot recollect how he ended up there. The story basically follows the man retracing his steps, trying to piece together the events of the night. (Think the Hangover movies with a little pixelated blood)

Sleeping on the job again? Unacceptable!

Essentially, you navigate through rooms and environments with a flashlight, while encountering clues along the way. However, you get to make certain key decisions in the game that let you determine the outcome. Simply something like whether or not you want to pick up an item might give you a different interpretation at the end of the game. Locations range from seemingly abandoned homes to a sewer system to a dark factory to a spooky forest. In terms of graphics, there's not much to be said about Home. It was purposefully created to resemble old-school pixel art games like Dave and Biomenace. However, that does not mean Home is devoid of its fair share of scares. The soundtrack consists of ambient noise that greatly enhances the atmosphere and even leads to a few jumps as you'd expect, but Home is far from being all about cheap frights.

While the dialogue is in first person, it is rather cliche

Still, possibly the game's only pitfall is the narration, which can sometimes be extremely tedious and repetitive. While the game itself is rather unique and immersive, I was put off by the constant transition between the grey dialogue windows and the in-game action. Sure, the game is based on simplicity and minimalism but I felt that having a dialogue box open in-game would have made for a more continuous experience. For some players, the super simplified gameplay might be  frustrating, especially since you're expected to play through the whole thing in a single sitting. Another problem a lot of players seem to have was the ending of the game, which came rather abruptly (and if I may say, rather unsurprisingly). It's not too difficult to see where the game is going halfway through, and most adept players could probably guess the ending within the first half an hour.

At the end of the day, Home doesn’t fully realise its ambitious core concept but it’s still a worthwhile and interesting experience in every sense of the word, and at such a low price ($ 2.99 on Steam) you’d be a fool not to at least give it a try.

FINAL VERDICT :
Gameplay: ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

Graphics:   ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Storyline:   ★★★★★★★☆☆☆