Game: Back To Home
Genre: Walking Sim
System: Steam (Windows)
Developers | Publishers: Teo Georgiev
Controller Support: None
Price: US $9.99 | UK £8.50 | EU € 9,75
Release Date: July 12th, 2024
A review code was used, and many thanks to Teo Georgiev.
Back To Home is a walking simulation about a cat trying to walk their way home. In order to get back, you will have to solve little puzzles and jump over obstacles.
The Look and Feel of Back To Home
As a walking simulator, Back To Home doesn’t have many controls. It’s mostly moving and jumping, though you can occasionally interact with some items out in the wild. You mostly move through beautiful backgrounds and see a variety of landscapes.
The music in Back To Home is beautiful. It’s the perfect accompaniment to the story and the journey, and the song changes as you move through different locations. You also get to hear a lot of good ambient noises like owls hooting, bugs buzzing, and other natural sounds that make the world feel whole and alive.
Overall, Back To Home is a great-looking game for an indie title. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the visuals and the sounds.
The Movements in Back To Home
Unfortunately for Back To Home, games are more than just the way they look. The movement in the game is pretty janky. The jumps are floaty and very, very slow. Sometimes, the run key just doesn’t work at all. It doesn’t matter as much as it would in a platformer, but it is very difficult to control. It does sort of mess up the feeling you are supposed to get from walking sims.
There are also a lot of no-go places that aren’t blocked off from being walked into. I managed to jump through a window into a house that wasn’t actually “real,” and I got caught inside until I started the game over. I also fell into a pond that I had a lot of trouble getting out of.
Puzzle Issues in Back To Home
Near the beginning of Back To Home, you need to find three light balls. The game doesn’t really explain why, but it was something interesting to add to this kind of game. I ran all over the place and only found two of the three of them, and the game has no direction to help you get closer to an answer. There are no hint systems, maps, or directions if you are lost.
I wandered around, looking for a way into the tower I was supposed to go to, but I kept getting stuck inside the geometry. I did manage to find a cute stuffed sheep and turn some lights on and off, but even after 30 minutes of wandering in the area, I never found the third light.
There is also the grammar. I’m not usually a stickler for indie games mis-spelling a couple of words, but this one seems like it was poorly translated. It’s to the point where I am having trouble figuring out what is going on some of the time. For example, the opening screen says, “Without any power, the cat with a” then it has a blank for you to finish the rest of the sentence. I am not sure what they were looking for with this question; I think a multiple-choice question would be better in this context.
Conclusion
Back To Home is okay. You can really tell that this game was created by a very small team with little to no quality checking. It’s cute, it’s wholesome, and it features a very cute cat, but it’s just very hard to play. I really love the music and the look of the game, but the movements and geometry could use a little bit of work.
Final Verdict: I’m Not Sure.
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