Hey everyone, Cinnamon730 here, and we’ve got a pretty spoopy indie game to review for you today. The game that I’ve reviewed for this month is called Home: a unique horror adventure. It was developed by Benjamin Rivers Inc. What’s really interesting is that this game is available on the PlayStation 4, the PlayStation Vita, Steam, and iOS. With so many platforms, there’s no excuse for the game being unavailable to people.
The basic premise is that there is this murder-mystery going on. Your character wakes up in a dark room, and then walks around and finds blood, a dead body, and he begins questioning what happened and where his wife was. The whole game is the main character figuring out what happened while trying to get home. The twist is that the player’s decisions vastly change the ending of the game. There’s even a forum on the website discussing all the different endings, but they do contain a lot of spoilers. Only go if you’re prepared to have things spoiled for you.
The gameplay itself is very simple. The character moves left and right, and interacts with objects. That’s just about it. There is some dialogue to click through, but it’s usually just a few lines to throw to the player so that they know what exactly is going on. What is strange is that the primary movement to advance the game is right to left instead of left to right, though it does switch back and forth between the two.
The design is a simple pixelated world, but with a bit of a dark undertone. There is nothing that is bright and cheery, and the game even recommends turning off the lights in order to play, just to add to the spook factor.
The most complex factor of Home is the story. With everything that is done, the story changes. Even something as small as not interacting with an object, or choosing to pick something up drastically changes the tone of the rest of the game. The attention to that kind of detail brings it from being another boring pixel walking simulator to a game that comes to life as you play it.
If you’re looking for a horror game, I’m not entirely sure this would be the right fit. There are some jump scare tactics of sudden loud noises and flashes of lightning, but this is much more of a psychological thriller than a horror game. There’s less that actually scared me in this game, and much more that provoked thought for hours after finishing the game. Not to say that it’s a bad game, just that it doesn’t fit the horror genre very well. There are some spooky elements, but they just aren’t that scary.
I would definitely recommend this to anyone who wants a game that is simple to play, but has a story that will make you think. If you do want to buy the game, you can get it on the PlayStation Network, in the Steam store, or in the App Store.