The GWJ Adventure Game Club - Game 2: Tacoma

Tacoma (2017)

IMAGE(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/29055287/a22432413b9945b0293322ddbf716539f35a2878.png)

Tacoma is a sci-fi narrative adventure from the creators of Gone Home. Set aboard a high-tech space station in the year 2088, explore details of how the station’s crew lived and worked, finding clues that piece together a gripping story of trust, fear, and resolve in the face of disaster.

You can find the wikipedia page here, though I'd steer clear, because of spoilers. How Long to Beat estimates about 3 hours to completion. The only replayability I'd expect is in the event you'd missed little easter eggs. Currently available all over with a nice discount (Steam, HumbleBundle, it's not just PC but Mac too, and also on Xbox and Playstation)

Please be mindful of your fellow goodjers and spoiler any discussion of plot points. Have fun, everyone!

You can find the main thread over this way. We'll be playing Tacoma from December 1st to 31st, 2018, with an extra month behind for stragglers. Enjoy, folks, you're in for a real treat.

Eleima wrote:

Currently available all over with a nice discount

Appreciated this mention--on the PS4 at least, I'd call the discount "Profound." Until the 27th, it's 70% off.

That is profound. It's full price in the UK on PS4 at the moment (I've purchased it on Steam.) No doubt it'll be discounted soon though.

Cool. I've had this for a while but haven't gotten to it yet.

I bought it just a few days ago on the PSN black Friday sale in anticipation of this possible outcome. I'm so in!

Minarchist wrote:

Cool. I've had this for a while but haven't gotten to it yet.

Can't wait to see what you think of it. It's maybe my game of the year this year.

I've had the game for quite a long time, so this will help me push it to the front of the backlog. Now to finish my run through ancient Greece with Kassandra before next weekend.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
Minarchist wrote:

Cool. I've had this for a while but haven't gotten to it yet.

Can't wait to see what you think of it. It's maybe my game of the year this year.

There's a good chance it'll be mine too.

In my pile already, so I'm in!

I'm looking forward to it, thanks again for all your work with this, Eleima!

Eleima wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:
Minarchist wrote:

Cool. I've had this for a while but haven't gotten to it yet.

Can't wait to see what you think of it. It's maybe my game of the year this year.

There's a good chance it'll be mine too. :)

It'll certainly be on my list somewhere. I LOOOOOVED the ending!

Spoiler:

Actual Fiero/fist-pump moment!

(surprisingly i've actually finished very few games this year - i'm actually struggling to find enough to fill a top 10 list).

Eleima wrote:

We'll be playing Tacoma from December 1st to 31st, 2018

This is hilarious.

iaintgotnopants wrote:
Eleima wrote:

We'll be playing Tacoma from December 1st to 31st, 2018

This is hilarious.

Um... why? It's this month's game. I don't get it.

I found Tacoma a lot less interesting than Gone Home, which probably caused the sense of disappointment I ended up with. Still a nice game though.

Eleima wrote:
iaintgotnopants wrote:
Eleima wrote:

We'll be playing Tacoma from December 1st to 31st, 2018

This is hilarious.

Um... why? It's this month's game. I don't get it.

Just the image of somebody spreading out a three hour game over whole month. Obviously nobody is going to play it in six minute chunks but I thought it was funny.

And, just to be clear, I'm not taking a dig at Tacoma because of the play time. I loved this game.

Gotcha. well the sane kinda goes for Oxenfree, really. But we all have busy lives so shorter games aren’t a bad thing.

Definitely game to replay one of my favorites from last year, and the length certainly doesn't hurt. Maybe I'll do the thing I never do and replay with the commentary track on this time.

I picked this up on the PSN sale to participate. I skipped Oxenfree since I had played it not long ago, but I'd had my eye on Tacoma earlier. Adventure games seem like a good fit for my life right now.

I reinstalled it the other day and took a peek. Apparently, I'd been so into this earlier this year that I've already gotten all the achievements (which are missable). Definitely going to replay with commentary, I'm super fascinated to hear what the team has to say.

Since this is a repurchase for me, I'm hoping for a sale on this on Xbox before the end of the month, but if not, I'll probably jump in at full price. What a gem.

Well, it IS December. I’m willing there will be a sale before the end of the month. Or I’ll eat my lightsaber-candy-canes.

Oh, there'll be sales galore, I'm sure. I'm just not sure if there'll be a sale on this game on my preferred platform.

Hey, there are non-standard body types in this. Are we sure this is a videogame?

Also, one of them is named "Roberta Williams."

stupidhaiku wrote:

Hey, there are non-standard body types in this. Are we sure this is a videogame?

Also, one of them is named "Roberta Williams." :)

Amazing isn’t it? Some of the many reasons why this game is awesome.

oh yeah we can start playing this now. better reinstall it then!

I did chuckle at Roberta Williams.

After bouncing off Oxenfree, I decided to play this one as soon as possible. It was the first time I've played it, and it was really good! The controls to rewatch the scenes and find the clues were very intuitive.

stupidhaiku wrote:

Hey, there are non-standard body types in this. Are we sure this is a videogame?

Also, one of them is named "Roberta Williams." :)

The multiple body types, along with the colors, really help visually differentiate the characters. The nod to Roberta Williams is great.

Don't click unless you finished:

Spoiler:

I was so happy that there was a "happy" ending to the game. The reveal towards the end was somewhat to be expected, but stories like this often end in despair. I was half expecting a "choice" at the end about how to deal with ODIN, but I am glad there was not one. They told the story they wanted to tell, and they told it well. If it was in a TV show or movie, it could have been pretty rote, but the ability to thoroughly analyze the characters and resolve the scenes non-sequentially made it a great game.

Aristophan wrote:

Don't click unless you finished:

Spoiler:

If it was in a TV show or movie, it could have been pretty rote, but the ability to thoroughly analyze the characters and resolve the scenes non-sequentially made it a great game.

Spoiler:

I agree with you completely. It's not the freshest and most original story, and it doesn't veer off into any really unexpected territory, but the way that the story is told is wonderful, new, and exciting. I loved scrubbing back and forth between moments in a scene, seeing how it played out from different perspectives and what each character was doing when.

It's also a storytelling method that's unique to gaming. Functionally, it's a stage play with multiple, intersecting stages, like those house plays you'll see in large markets. But you have total and complete access to it and control over it, able to move around freely in both space and time in each scene.

It's incredible and innovative, and I hope more games follow in its footsteps.

I agree wholeheartedly with both of you. It’s the kind of storytelling that truly makes Tacoma special and one of the reasons why I want to rank it highly on my GOTY list this year. And why I’m so pleased it’s made the cut for our club.

OK. So I started playing Tacoma today...

So far, I've made it to what seems to be the halfway or near halfway point of the game.

Spoiler:

I've recovered the AI data from two of the four main sites of the space station thingy-ma-bob, managed to find a skull and proceeded to shoot it at everything until I dunked it on the hoops in the central hub, which then did something really weird: a bright white light flashed, a song began to play which was sung/instrumented by kittens, all the while spectral cats made their way across the hub and exited into space after passing through the observation dome... Yeah. That was certainly something.

It's been very interesting so far; the human interactions, the crisis situation, the difficulties of being so far away from family and loved ones...

Looks like this one I'll be beating rather quickly. I'll have to think of mopping up trophies thereafter. Jolly good time!

brokenclavicle wrote:

Looks like this one I'll be beating rather quickly. I'll have to think of mopping up trophies thereafter. Jolly good time!

Is this a game where it's not too incredibly difficult to get all the achievements? Every once in a while, I enjoy trying for that sort of thing.

brokenclavicle wrote:
Spoiler:

I've recovered the AI data from two of the four main sites of the space station thingy-ma-bob, managed to find a skull and proceeded to shoot it at everything until I dunked it on the hoops in the central hub, which then did something really weird: a bright white light flashed, a song began to play which was sung/instrumented by kittens, all the while spectral cats made their way across the hub and exited into space after passing through the observation dome... Yeah. That was certainly something.

Spoiler:

It's a call back to an easter egg in Gone Home that also involved dunking and a cat song.