Fullbright’s Gone Home was one that drifted well below my radar when it originally released. It wasn’t until the hysteria died down years later, after its release on home consoles, that I found myself wandering the halls of this beautiful, mysterious Oregon home. I remember being unsure of my aim but enamoured by the sense that the Greenbriar home was a real, lived-in place.
Tacoma fails to recapture that initial intrigue Gone Home had, perhaps because we’re aware of Fullbright’s work now. But that doesn’t make the game’s story any less impactful. You walk and, sometimes, float through Tacoma’s eponymous space station as sub-contractor Amy Ferrier, assigned by the station’s parent company Venturis to collect data and retrieve the ship’s A.I. unit, ODIN.
But this isn’t Amy’s story, she’s merely the vehicle in which we experience the real story at play. The relationships of Tacoma’s six-person strong crew, those both onboard and back on-world, as they find themselves in a dire situation following a meteor impact.
On the whole, I do think Tacoma’s story is more enjoyable than Gone Home, simply because I feel like it actually has a beginning, middle and end. I think it’s somewhat fair to say Gone Home lacked some of the linearity and pacing needed to tell a great story in this medium, while Tacoma is wiser about coercing the player in the right direction.
Using this device, you’ll be able to happen upon clues to help you progress throughout Tacoma’s vast facilities, such as sifting through often slightly-corrupted messages between the crew and even opportunistically observe the input of door codes. It’s a neat and simplistic design that doesn’t get in the way of Fullbright’s natural strength of storytelling.
Unlike the Greenbriar residence, Venturis clearly favoured clean, sleek futuristic decor for their Tacoma habitat. It is 2088 after all. The game’s bright, lush aesthetic is a stark contrast to its bleak, doomsayer tone, which helps in maintaining a dreadful tension as the story’s mysteries unravel. The almost wire-frame, colour-coded models that represent each crew member is certainly charming and add a splash of colour against the station’s very clinical, white backdrop. No crew member is alike either, as Fullbright further adds to their reputation of developing really inclusive games catering to all demographics. There’s a whole diverse range of body types, races and sexualities mixed throughout Tacoma’s cast, and that can only be seen as another step in the right direction.
The only gripe I have with Tacoma’s performance come during the game’s poorly disguised ‘loading screens’, where Amy transfers between wings on board the Tacoma. There’s a jarring amount of slowdown during these infrequent transfers, and the sheer length of them makes me wonder just how big this damn station is. Having gazed at parts of it through the ship’s windows, I’d have to say it hides it well.