60
Gone Home developers tackle the issue of corporate hell aboard futuristic space station. Unfortunately their sentimental style does not go along with the brutally down-to-earth (oh, the irony!) subject too well. [10/2017, p.67]
90
A bold, ambitious step forward for the - hnngh - "walking simulator." [Issue#266, p.54]
51
Walking simulators live or die by the strength of their narrative, and Tacoma gives away its main plot just minutes after you start playing it. It does have other secrets, but they aren’t worth your time.
1
The whole thing is boring as sin. I couldn't play it for more than 30 minutes at a time without falling asleep. The SOMA comparisons are insane. There is no great music like in SOMA, no atmosphere, no intriguing plot, no nothing. Oh, but here you can pick up and spin useless junk in your hands. Wow, bravo! Someone forgot to tell the developers that this feature only works if the items are a) relevant or b) well modeled and nice to look at, and the items in Tacoma are neither.
Why should I even care about these people or anything that happens? In Soma, you get a clear understanding that something is seriously wrong, and you are gradually led deeper and deeper into the plot. But in Tacoma? No introduction, no explanation except a few lines of text in your journal (which is boring as hell), and that's it. Now go listen to some boring conversations for three hours!
Oh yeah, right. This game is three hours long. Two if you're not interested in seeing sights on this ship (not that there's much to see). Compare that to SOMA's 10 to 11 hours and you get a game that is superior in both quality AND quantity.
The visuals are downright pathetic. The ship is so squeaky clean and empty, it looks like a sterile testing environment rather than a lived in place. It's probably the most boring and plain-looking Unity game I've ever seen. It's as if the developers took some stock assets and didn't even bother adding any textures or effects on top of them.
Oh, and how could I forget the DEI. A lot of the astronauts aboard the station are frankly obese, which is like... Huh? And here I thought astronauts were supposed to be in tip-top shape, both mentally and physically. Okay, I'm supposed to cut them some slack because this is the future where everything is inclusiv... I mean, where the standards are a little lower than they are today, but damn, look at the engineer from the second crew recording that you come across. Are you telling me that this, this right here, is an engineer, as in someone who goes around the ship and fixes things? She looks like she has trouble staying on her feet for more than five minutes without a big mac and pepsi break, let alone doing hard physical labor.
I suppose it could be worse, though. I'm surprised you don't see the characters' pronouns next to their names.
Overall, it's a rare case where I don't have at least something good to say about the game. It's just pure garbage.
10
I love that the scenes happen simultaneously. There's a realistic touch to the exploration of the story. It really fleshes out the inhabited world of corporate 2080s space travel. No other mechanic of storytelling fits the rhythm of life displayed here in my opinion.
7
Great setting and mechanics as they really are the star in this one. Unfortunately the story didn't hit at all. They tried to do some twists, but I felt they were fairly obvious and even if they weren't, it would still not be that shocking or interesting.
Tacoma
Released On:
Aug 1, 2017
Metascore
Generally Favorable
76
User score
Mixed or Average
6.3
My Score
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Metascore
Generally Favorable
76
63% Positive
35 Reviews
35 Reviews
36% Mixed
20 Reviews
20 Reviews
2% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Aug 1, 2017
95
If you want a great story told well, that will last an afternoon, then get Tacoma. It knows what it wants to be, and it does that perfectly.
Aug 1, 2017
85
Although Tacoma has a less emotive story than Gone Home The Fullbright Company has created a very interesting game. Their approach to humans relations is one of the best in the medium.
User score
Mixed or Average
6.3
41% Positive
82 Ratings
82 Ratings
39% Mixed
78 Ratings
78 Ratings
20% Negative
39 Ratings
39 Ratings
May 7, 2024
10
I love that the scenes happen simultaneously. There's a realistic touch to the exploration of the story. It really fleshes out the inhabited world of corporate 2080s space travel. No other mechanic of storytelling fits the rhythm of life displayed here in my opinion.
Aug 1, 2017
80
Tacoma is a beautifully told story filled with real characters and real emotion that you won’t be able to put down until you’ve experienced it in full.
Aug 2, 2017
72
The puzzles and the forward and rewinding function have been implemented too half-heartedly, for which the action ends too often in predictable and unconstrained paths.
Aug 1, 2017
70
I liked Tacoma though, even with its fumbles. I felt more engaged watching (and rewinding, pausing, fast-forwarding) how things played out than I had in a lot of games like it. That's likely because it's the rare game where the player is in direct control of what, when, and how they see everything.
Aug 23, 2017
40
Sadly, Tacoma, the new game from the creators of Gone Home, is not the best example of interactive storytelling.
Jul 8, 2020
10
One of my favorites. If you like walking sims or time manipulation, you love this gem
Mar 12, 2024
7
Great setting and mechanics as they really are the star in this one. Unfortunately the story didn't hit at all. They tried to do some twists, but I felt they were fairly obvious and even if they weren't, it would still not be that shocking or interesting.
Nov 7, 2023
7
Amazing worldbuilding, although only with a glance at a spaceship! The game mechanics and specifically the holographic audio logs felt really fresh, even about 5 years after release when I played it. It really pointed out a method of storytelling only possible in the videogame medium.
My only major problem with this game is that the ending left something to be desired, partly since it failed to pay off the plot it had pleasantly built up.
Short & sweet!
Feb 15, 2022
4
This game has two big problems: it's boring and ugly. The effect is somewhat reminiscent of a low budget System Shock 2 - sterile, grey environments and "ghostly" crew members - with all of the gameplay stripped out. There's no inventory or combat, so your primary method of interaction is tediously picking up objects, looking at them, and then putting them back down. There's no way to tell which items are significant, so you need to pretty much look at everything, just in case it's important. The space station has a deliberately maze-like layout, presumably so you won't finish the game too quickly. I suppose this comes as no surprise as the game is from the developers of Gone Home, and the space station is just as unconvincing as the enormous, sprawling house in that game. But unlike the grounded setting and emotional storytelling in Gone Home, Tacoma's bland, poorly-realized sci-fi setting never really grabbed me.
Aug 2, 2020
4
To call Tacoma a game would be quite a stretch. Like all other walking sims all you do "Playing" it is walking around learning tidbits about the story. Story in which you have no stakes since it all ended before the game even began. In Tacoma you aren't an actor but just a spectator of other "people" stories and i find it quite boring. Even though the game's extremely short (finished it in around 2 hours). The story could be intresting but as i said you have no stakes in it. The characters are quite bland. Gone home did a much better job by just focusing on ONE character instead of six. I would not recomend Tacoma to anyone to be honest.
SummaryTacoma is a narrative-driven adventure set aboard a high-tech space station in the year 2088. Explore every detail of how the station’s crew lived and worked, finding clues that add up to a gripping story of trust, fear, and resolve in the face of disaster.
