Tacoma was released for PC (Windows, Linux, macOS) and Xbox One on August 1, according to this trailer announcing the game’s release.
In Tacoma, the player is a character who is investigating what happened to a crew aboard a space station named Tacoma. You can see everything the crew has done due to a surveillance system that is able to map out their bodies, showing the actions of these people right in front of you. These recordings can be rewound and fast-forwarded, which will help the player discover different clues scattered throughout the station.
As you continue to explore, you will discover the deeply interwoven relationships each crew member had with another and ultimately what may have happened to them. The only objective of the game is to follow these storylines and tie up all the loose ends, as opposed to featuring any combat or difficult puzzles.
Tacoma was developed by Fullbright, the creator of another exploration game Gone Home. The game was originally supposed to be released sometime in 2016, but was delayed to sometime in 2017 according to Polygon. Fullbright decided to re-think and change some parts of Tacoma after receiving comments and critique from play testers.
On Metacritic, Tacoma received a score of 78 from critics and a 5.1 user score for PC and a score of 70 from critics and a 5.7 user score for Xbox One. For PC, the game ranked 46 in Metacritic’s Best PC Game of 2017, 61 in Metacritic’s Most Discussed PC Game of 2017, and 83 in Metacritic’s Most Shared PC Game of 2017.
One review from Destructoid gave Tacoma a score of 90.
“Tacoma isn’t for everyone. Though short, it’s meditative and methodical. It’s a game for the quiet explorer and the empathetic. There’s no major action or combat, no perplexing puzzles or fail states. Instead, Tacoma gives players a masterfully crafted setting and encourages them to find out what made the people who once called it home tick. Life, even among the stars, can be mundane and familiar but Tacoma’s presentation is nothing short of spectacular,” said Destructoid in their review. You can find Destructoid’s full review of Tacoma here.
Another review from Metacritic user Noahsmith37 gave Tacoma a user score of eight.
“I don’t even want to get into the discussion of what constitutes a ‘game’, because it is dumb. Everything from story, to acting (if included), to production design, style, mise en scene, everything, they are all considered alongside gameplay as to what a video game is. So, yes, this is a video game, a very good one at that,” said Noahsmith37 in their review of the game.
Although I haven’t had the opportunity to play Tacoma myself yet, I’m very interested in the story it has to tell. With Fullbright having experience in creating exploration type games before, and a combination of the critic’s reviews, the game has piqued my own interest.
The only reason I would be reluctant to buy the game, though, is that for a $19.99 price point, the game offers only about two to five hours of gameplay. But, Steam user reviews are also very positive, so it would be a missed chance to not try out Tacoma before all of the spoilers pop up in my Twitter feed.
Tacoma is available for PC and Xbox One. If you’re interested in this kind of exploration game, you can find Tacoma on Steam for $19.99. Also, Fullbright has released a line of Tacoma merchandise that has shirts, mugs and more which you can find at Fullbright’s official store website here. More information about Tacoma can be found on Tacoma’s official website.
Featured image via Wikimedia Commons.
