Tacoma - Game View

Tacoma finally came out today.
I actually had the chance to help beta test this game a few weeks ago

Let me just say this. I loved Tacoma.

There will inevitably be some comparisons to Fullbright's 2013 game, Gone Home. However, where I felt Gone Home was missing 'something' to really bring it together, Tacoma feels like a complete experience.

Tacoma basically requires you to walk around this abandoned space station after a tragedy has occurred, and you see various scenes of what happened to the crew. This is shown through a rather brilliant "Augmented Reality" overlay, where you can pause, rewind, and walk around and through the scenes as you're watching them.
What I really found most brilliant, is that characters can and will walk around and even go away from each other. So you would end up rewinding a scene to follow a specific character, to see where they go, or even to see where they were coming from. This would be required a few times to access specific rooms.

Everything will basically push you in a firm direction in the story, and you are not affecting it. Everything you see has already happened.
However, with the way you follow the scenes, you get to see more information about each character, and you come to empathize with each unique person. I am trying hard to not give away anything, but I will say that I was totally surprised by the ending, and it had me experiencing several emotions in rapid succession.

Once you really feel like you're getting into it, it comes to an end. I wish there were more to explore. I also wish that there were more interaction involved. Perhaps more puzzles where paying attention to different elements of the AR playback would be required to access other areas, or find other secrets/lore.

That being said, I still ended up feeling very satisfied when I finished.
If you like games like Gone Home or Her Story, then you'll love this game.
If you want to just relax and get lost in a story for a few hours, then give this a try.

I think Fullbright has a real winner on their hands with Tacoma. I just wish it would last a bit longer.