And..? It's not that kind of game. It's designed for exploration and uncovering a story. Some people will like it, some won't. I didn't like 1000000000 and regretted that purchase, and you are in the same camp here it seems. Controls are spot on, though Consider it an visual, interactive short story.
I just spent about an hour playing this game and I found it awesome! Unfortunately the ending I ended up having wasn't really good, I still have a lot I questions on what happened. Therefore, I will play it again as soon as I have time. Very good game, looking forward to play it again.
I had the same reaction to nihilumbra. It was mostly jus walking around with the most basic of environmental puzzles to overcome. It just wasn't challenging enough for me. Still, I'm interested in Home, and for a buck its not a huge gamble if I buy it.
Yes, as I came to realise, a short, interactive story is precisely what it is. I might have come at it from a different angle had that been what I expected at the outset. By the time I finished, I'd already stopped asking myself whether this was a "game", and was instead left only with the question of whether or not it had been a worthwhile experience. Did I think that it was a worthwhile experience then, or not? YES/NO
How far in Nihilumbra did you get? It's actually pretty hard in the post-story levels, not so much because it's hard to figure out, but because you have to be pretty quick and time things well. That game didn't really jive with me either though; I don't really like having to draw on the screen while platforming. --------- Anyway, I like Home. I've played through it once rather hastily so as to get some idea of its parameters. I think it took about 45 minutes and a message at the beginning of the game even recommends playing it in one sitting for what they expect to be an hour and a half, which is probably about what it would have taken me if I were more thorough. So, I think they structured the game to be the right kind of scope for the experience they were trying to give the player. We'll see how it holds up through future runs though. A lot of the interaction involves simple puzzles, key use and stuff like that, but there's also a good bit of arbitrary choices as well as choices at the end regarding what you THINK was going on, which is rather unique. Depending on how much decisions branch into other decisions, this could prove to be a fairly large game. At any rate, I definitely like the art style and atmosphere of the game.
On Nihilumbra, I played nearly to the end. I just didn't feel motivated to finish it despite everyone saying there were some great harder puzzles ahead. It just felt like I was wasting my time and the game world felt so hollow. The touch mechanics worked most of the time and weren't an issue for me. I think I would have loved the game if you unlocked all the powers in the first area and then the game puzzles ramped up significantly after that. I don't think I used my brain much at all the entire time. Granted, I really love Star Sky by Marten Jonsson (on PC, iOS, etc)... but that game was all about the environments and triggering events and trying to do things while walking the path in the game world. Each run required you to make different decisions on which events to trigger if you wanted see everything the game had to offer. It was a nice relaxing experience and a pleasure to replay. I appreciate your feedback on Home. In many ways it sounds like a lot of what I loved about Star Sky and is worth my $1 to check out. Again, thanks.
Then you haven't played the really challenging part of the game. For all intents and purposes Nihilumbra was designed around Void Mode, and the various puzzles were then toned down or stripped out entirely to create the first "half" of the game, the normal mode. Giving up right before the actual difficult part that multiple people told you was coming up – and then claiming the game was too easy – is a weird sort of cop-out. This is exactly how Void Mode works: you start with all of the powers at the very beginning, and even the very first screens are designed to kill you repeatedly.
We all have to decide what is worth our time or not. To me, it wasn't worth my time to keep pressing on through an overly boring game to get to the good parts. Others are free to fully enjoy the game, it just felt like all those areas I passed through were some elaborate tutorial and after an hour or two of it I had enough as I wasn't having fun. Thankfully I didn't have to write a review on it ... and for the record I wouldn't post a review on the appstore for a game I didn't bother finishing unless I was just having the time of my life or something and thought it could use another solid review. Home, seems like something I'll enjoy based on other games I've enjoyed in the past.
I'm glad I waited. Looked interesting from the TA review but my backlog of games didn't let me buying it... Now for this price I didn't have any second thoughts
After a few playthroughs of Home, I'm left wondering if there's a magic combination of choices that will provide insight beyond what I personally apply to the game. The big question is who's the guy who runs away from you just after the woods if you backtrack? The narrative sort of reminds me of Memento, minus the reverse chronological aspect. I think, overall, it's set up so the backstory is based entirely on what you think happened within a set of parameters. Some conclusions ring more true than others though, so it's more of a continual process rather than a finite issue.
It tends to drop back to the desktop quite often on my Touch 4G, but it always appears to restart from the last room you entered so you never really lose anything. It's not a deal breaker.
I just got it yesterday and it i can't make it past the 1st story box narrative cause it keep crashing
