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Tacoma (PS4)

Status: Finished playing
I started playing this game on Saturday 26 September, 2020  //  I stopped playing this game on: Saturday 3 October, 2020
Current opinion of this game
No comment, yet.

September 27, 2020 02:44:11 PM
This was way shorter than I expected. Somewhat unfulfilling I must say - I felt that everything was building up in an interesting way (the narrative you're uncovering/discovering) and then you get a reveal and its over. Ok, there are a few reveals. But it was a bit anti-climactic. It did make me realize that for a game in which, basically, nothing really happens - it's quite hard to build tension. And in this, I think Tacoma actually does a really good job! Of course this depends on the player reading everything, and picking up all the different pieces...at least I think it does.

In the game you mostly have to move from area to area while you leave a "computer book" downloading some stuff. I think the progress on the download is tied to your listening/watching the AR captured story moments rather than it being on a real running clock timer. I didn't really want to experiment with that, but it makes sense? (the few times I went back to see the download and it hadn't moved at all). I guess that's really the forcing function for you to interact with at least some of the AR story moments - obviously you can still wander around and not actually listen to the characters or anything like that.

I really enjoyed the AR stuff - the interface was pretty easy to manage and it was nice to walk around and find the "ideal" spot to listen in on what was going on. I also think that the abstraction on the characters really helped me keep track of who was who and what was going on.

The game was short enough that I went back to pick up some trophies, fortunately finding an area I had missed entirely. I'm only annoyed that I wasn't able to get the 3-point basketball trophy because the basketball disappeared! (and the trophy doesn't unlock if you get a three-pointer with the skull). Oh well.


 
kudos for original design to Rodrigo Barria