Tacoma (PS4) Review

<p><em>Tacoma <&sol;em>launched to a favorable 79 Metascore August last year on Xbox One and PC&period; This PlayStation 4 review isn&&num;8217&semi;t a port report&period; Written from a first-time player&&num;8217&semi;s perspective&comma; how does <em>Tacoma<&sol;em> stack up to other walking simulators&comma; including Fullbright&&num;8217&semi;s own <em>Gone Home<&sol;em>&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Premise<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p><em>Tacoma<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s bog-standard premise is its first strike&period; You control Amy&comma; a subcontractor&comma; hired by Venturis to extract a defunct space station&&num;8217&semi;s AI core&period; The fate of the station&&num;8217&semi;s six crew-members in their final days is the game&&num;8217&semi;s driving force&period; Much like other walking simulators&comma; how much you learn is contingent upon how much effort the player puts in&period; Amy acquires an augmented reality device before boarding the station&comma; allowing her to view holographic recordings of past events&period; If this sounds familiar&comma; that&&num;8217&semi;s because it is&period; <em>Tacoma <&sol;em>treads worn-out ground that you can find in just about any science fiction story or video game with an autonomous AI&period; <em>Gone Home<&sol;em>&comma; on the other hand&comma; set itself apart with the mundanity of its setting&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;137827" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-137827" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-large wp-image-137827" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;05&sol;04115123&sol;Tacoma&lowbar;201805032059091-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-137827" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Tacoma&comma; Fullbright<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<h3> Gameplay<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>In typical genre fashion&comma; characters in AR recordings are represented by human shapes and colors rather than fully rendered models&period; Amy can fast forward&comma; rewind&comma; and pause recordings at any point while traversing a recording&&num;8217&semi;s area of effect&period; To prevent from overwhelming players&comma; <em>Tacoma <&sol;em>clearly delineates sectioned off zones&period; Crossing a static mesh in a hallway means you crossed the bounds of whichever synced up recording you were observing&period; This makes following the more complex scenes manageable&period; A recording may begin with all six crew-members crowding around a centralized spot&comma; but they&&num;8217&semi;ll soon veer off into their own directions&period; Conversely&comma; members may begin in isolated areas&comma; then gather in a group as the recording finishes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Cordoning off recorded zones prevents the experience from feeling overwhelming&comma; funneling players to the next plot beat&period; Following each character&&num;8217&semi;s story from recording&&num;8217&semi;s beginning to end is engaging&period; Piecing together an entire scene bit by bit provides a more substantial level of interaction than walking simulators are known for&period; Through the level design&comma; color direction&comma; and signposting&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s impossible to get lost&period; Because of this&comma; <em>Tacoma<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s narrative doesn&&num;8217&semi;t suffer from the pacing issues you&&num;8217&semi;d come to expect&period; You won&&num;8217&semi;t witness awe-inspiring plot points&comma; then spend twenty minutes wandering aimlessly until you forget the scene that compelled you to move forward in the first place&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Environmental Storytelling<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>At specified recording points&comma; Amy can walk up to characters and view their AR visors&period; These optional moments provide meaningful character insight&period; Sifting through messages and browsing histories isn&&num;8217&semi;t as excessive as other games with environmental storytelling&period; An influx of characters is an issue many games of this nature suffer from&comma; making it difficult to follow straightforward events&period; Most messages remain between the six crew-members&comma; leading to an intimate experience&period; While it allows the story to flow from plot point to plot point with ease&comma; it also means repeat playthroughs are unlikely to reveal vital information&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s little a second playthrough would accomplish&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Different characters&&num;8217&semi; rooms and offices appear reasonably lived in with books&comma; posters&comma; and other miscellaneous items that tell so much about a person&period; While individual characters aren&&num;8217&semi;t incredibly in-depth human beings&comma; everyone has a distinct personality with character traits you&&num;8217&semi;d only pick up on if you carefully examined their rooms&period; The information you learn isn&&num;8217&semi;t superfluous as once you see someone&&num;8217&semi;s room&comma; certain character traits&sol;quirks begin to make sense&period; Contextualizing characters through optional environmental storytelling is where <em>Tacoma<&sol;em> shines&period; Just be sure to ignore that horrendous plot twist anyone with a brain would have seen coming the moment they started a new game&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;137823" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-137823" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-large wp-image-137823" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;05&sol;04114427&sol;Tacoma&lowbar;201805031922101-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-137823" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Tacoma&comma; Fullbright<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<h3>Technical Issues<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p><em>Tacoma<&sol;em> crashed twice during my roughly two to three-hour playthrough&comma; introducing an omission on the ps4 pro after its second crash&period; The game features a &&num;8220&semi;4k rendering&&num;8221&semi; box that can be ticked in the menu&period; This doesn&&num;8217&semi;t seem to increase resolution&comma; though it does improve the following visual settings&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<ul>&NewLine;<li>Shadow maps<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Draw distances on light sources<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Ambient occlusion<&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ul>&NewLine;<p>Disabling the &&num;8220&semi;4k rendering&&num;8221&semi; box allows an unlocked framerate with a reduction in the aforementioned settings&period; After <em>Tacoma<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s second hard crash&comma; checking and disabling &&num;8220&semi;4K rendering&&num;8221&semi; did nothing&period; As something I have never experienced on either the PlayStation 4 Pro or Xbox One X&comma; <em>Tacoma<&sol;em> could have used a bit more time in the port optimization oven&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Conclusion<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p><em>Tacoma<&sol;em> is a decent walking simulator made only for extreme fans of the genre&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s short and fast-paced&comma; but the narrative and game structure are so straightforward that it won&&num;8217&semi;t make the player think critically about anything&period; It is a fine way to escape real world obligations for two or three hours&comma; but its easily telegraphed plot twist and hand-holding narrative are disappointing&period; <em>Tacoma<&sol;em> is good if you&&num;8217&semi;re into games like this&comma; but I wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t wholeheartedly recommend it to non-genre fans&comma; in the same way&comma; I would with <em>Everybody&&num;8217&semi;s Gone to the Rapture<&sol;em> or <em>What Remains of Edith Finch<&sol;em>&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s a competent&comma; but safe effort&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Disclaimer&colon;<&sol;strong> A review code was provided by the publisher<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;