Tacoma

A clever and absorbing interactive story set in an expertly built sci-fi world.

A diverse narrative-driven space adventure for people wanting actual emotions and relationships in their games; that is Tacoma.

A piece of art that challenges conventional storytelling to build a socio political critique of our present from our close future. Essential and necessary.

Though the game only takes a few hours to play through, the multiple layers of story — which each unlock additional meaning in the others once uncovered — make for a groundbreaking narrative system unlike anything else. But more impressive is the emotional impact of the stories themselves, not just the tale of a crisis aboard a space station and the perils of corporate-controlled AI, but the intertwining stories of six people's lives, loves and losses.

Tacoma is a great experience that’s not only wonderfully designed and produced, it’s one that that richly illustrates a side of videogames that’s worthy of further exploration. I would happily recommend it to nearly anyone – the themes and emotions here will resonate.

Tacoma's augmented reality cast allow it to tell its engaging story in a unique way. It's a slow burn of a game that deftly interrogates interpersonal relationships in an engaging sci-fi setting.

By the end of the game, I felt like I knew these crew members quite intimately which I’m guessing is part of the charm of Tacoma. Like us, these people are flawed individuals and given your involvement as an observer, it almost feels like a psychological experiment. On that note, Tacoma developer Fullbright should be commended on creating a very original game and given they were responsible for Gone Home, it’s great to see them using this premise and adding another layer of complexity with some very clever story telling.

Tacoma is a high quality walking sim that tells a brilliant story of hope, whilst delivering complex and interesting characters.

Another smart entry into the interactive narrative adventure/walking sim genre, Tacoma is a sci-fi story that's engaging from beginning to end. To state the obvious, if you dig this kind of game, then you're going to love Tacoma too.

Tacoma shines where it counts, and that is with the story it tells and the feeling that each character within it feels real. Including the on-board AI called Odin. As an interactive story, getting to pause, rewind, and check out the movements and activities of different people in a digital recreation of past events works flawlessly. And it’s the sort of mechanic that feels fresh, whilst also being something that could only really exist in this form. Lasting roughly two hours or so, Tacoma also never feels laboured or padded with extraneous content. But, as it also doesn't present a story focusing on one character as the lead there’s a feeling that something is missing. Which, robs the ending of some of its emotional weight.

Although Tacoma is short, it does a fantastic job telling the stories of the different characters throughout the game, using the non-sequential AR memory recordings to build emotional ties to each. Tacoma is a simple, yet fun narrative driven game that brings time and space together.

A compelling three hours narrative experience, sustained by an interesting memories playback mechanic and a good sound design, but without excelling in any particular department.

Tacoma excels at creating deeply relatable characters without the extravagance and big budget flashiness that pours from AAA titles, making other games feel almost unauthentic. Experiencing the crew’s highs and lows at your own pace instead of constantly being pushed along lets players relish in what makes Tacoma special; its ability to capture people’s emotions. It’s hard not to fall in love with Tacoma’s crew. Still, it’s difficult to overlook the lag as frequent as it is, so I hope Fullbright continues to patch the game. With a few fixes, Tacoma can stand out as an excellent title.

If you’ve played games like Gone Home, Dear Esther or Firewatch, Tacoma is instantly recognizable, but it remains distinct by introducing a wildly exotic space setting and a mechanic that keeps the “look and listen gameplay” from ever becoming a bore. It can, at times, devolve into too much of a linear experience, giving way to predictable pacing, but this is forgivable, because when your time is done on the Tacoma lunar station, your heart will be a little fuller for the people you met while you were there.

Less personal than Gone Home but still an enjoyable experience. If a walking simulator is what you’re looking for, Tacoma is able to provide a few strong emotional moments searching for signs of the crew of the space station Tacoma, during their last days aboard. A lack of real empathy with the crew, however, is its weakest point, one that is difficult to forgive. The AR functionality is a very good addition, that we’d like to see in other similar games.

Tacoma is a very interesting exploration game that will allow us to recompose a history. It is a failure in some technical aspects, however.

Mostly, though, I'm deeply attached to the Tacoma crew, who I only got to know through projections and the things they left behind. Out of everything, that's Tacoma's greatest accomplishment: getting you to care about people who aren't even there.

The cold, aseptic and recursive structure of the Tacoma space station is unfortunately reflected in this (almost) emotion-free title.