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- David Wehle
- David Wehle
- David Wehle
- David Wehle
Home is Where One Starts...
Released On: May 12, 2015
Metascore
Available after 4 critic reviews
6.9
Where to Buy
Where to Buy
All Platforms
Home is Where One Starts... is a beautiful story about lost childhood, rural America's broken home and the importance of memory. But is also another good example of what ambient narrative can do.
An early experiment in a genre that has already seen some very sophisticated entries.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 7 User Ratings
6.9
29% Positive
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
71% Mixed
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 7 User Ratings
6.9
29% Positive
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
71% Mixed
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
This was a very beautiful atmospheric experience. It had a really calm but equally chilling feel to the game and I really enjoyed it. The story plays out through the objects that you can pick up and examine. The game leaves it up to you to put all of the parts of the story together and it can really give you some thoughts to ponder after playing. One of the best parts IMO is that there are other parts of the story you can find if you look around hard enough. There are even multiple secret endings to the game. DISCLAIMER- You get out of the game what you put in. If you go in expecting an intense and exciting story and not a beautiful and artistic experience, then it wont be for you. I enjoyed this game very much and I thought it was very beautiful while still having a chilling feel to it. When you play it, just do one thing for me, make sure you take a second to look out and enjoy the view.
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Another beautiful first person exploration (FPX) game. Although NOWHERE near as well thought out as gone home, which may be the best this genre has to offer, it is an admittedly short piece that beautiful describes notions that many of us experienced as children. The author here clearly has some history with the subject matter and beautifully expresses a few seemingly disjointed thoughts into a beautiful whole. I found myself smiling throughout. The music is gentle and thought provoking without being intrusive. And for a very short game, the graphics are truly beautiful. Make sure to stop and enjoy the sky :)
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I had played The First Tree before I played Home is Where One Starts... so I had an idea of the type of game to expect. It gave me just that, nothing more nothing less. You explore a trailer that was the home of your character at one point when they were younger. Judging by your height I would say you are exploring it when she was a child. You aren’t given any buildup or backstory before you begin. You aren’t directed to any specific parts besides one. You will get voice overs when you arrive at certain places that start to fill in the girl’s story. One thing I didn’t like to see, for an exploration game, was invisible walls. I understand that with a limited budget it was probably the easiest option but it still is not fun to see when exploring. The music was well done as well and sets the mood. The voice actress did a very good job as well. The graphics are a mixed bag. The water was good and the little details like the posters on the walls were well done but things such as structures, and surfaces like wood looked pretty low resolution, especially next to the other better done assets.
I played Home is Where One Starts... on Linux. It had the odd drop to 40-50 fps but was above 60 fps for all but a minute or so of the odd drops. It didn’t crash on me once. The controls were not remappable although there are only a few buttons to use. Alt-Tab didn’t work. The game used about 12% of my CPU and my total RAM usage while playing was 3.5GB. The game uses 550MB of disk space. The game took me 24 minutes to beat although I didn’t discover all the voiceovers.
If you enjoy games such as Tacoma, The Station, or Gone Home you will probably enjoy this. It isn’t quite in the same elague as those but it’s still a solid game. I would also recommend checking out The First tree which is made by the same developer. I paid $3.29 CAD for the game and I feel that is a good deal for what you get. I would even say it would be worth it at $5 CAD.
My Score: 7/10
My System:
AMD Ryzen 5 2600X | 16GB DDR4-3000 CL15 | MSI RX 580 8GB Gaming X | Mesa 18.3.3 | Manjaro Mate | Kernel 4.20.11-1-MANJARO
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PC
Clearly inspired by games like Dear Esther, Home is Where One Starts takes a sandbox approach. Wander and explore to trigger the voice-over, examine items for story clues. All is done in a small but nicely detailed open world (built in Unity) while soothing music plays. Despite its short length (about 60 to 90 minutes to experience everything), worth a look for fans of the genre.
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Home is Where One Starts is a true walking simulator. And it is short. But I give it a 7 because it's good at what it does and it's worth playing if you like this kind of thing (I do). For reference, I've liked similar games like Gone Home, Dear Esther, and perhaps Lifeless Planet. These games excel at letting you explore a world, and learn the story of what happens as you go. In this game, you start off as a young girl who has missed the school bus, and explore around the area of her home to uncover her story. I grew up in the rural US south, and the rural setting and story in the game rings true. The story itself is an optimistic one of growing up, and the endgame mechanics bring through this feeling effectively.
The main negative to me is the story length. I played it through2 times so far, and have 2 slightly different endings, but I think I've found most of what is in the game. Expect anywhere from 30minutes to 2 hours depending on how much you like to explore. There's a few things I didn't find (haven't found the dog yet) so there's a little more I haven't seen, but I think I've seen vast majority of what is there. I enjoy a well developed world even if it doesn't have much to do with the story, and just wish there was "more." There are several things in the environment that you'd think you could interact with to help develop the story, but unfortunately they're not taken advantage of.
I had an initial issue with black screen, but in the steam forums the developer helped - so +1 there.
Anyhow, if this sounds somewhat interesting to you I recommend you give it a try.
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Summary
Platforms:
- PC
Initial Release Date: May 12, 2015
Developer:
- David Wehle
Publisher: David Wehle
Genres:
