Tacoma [GOG, Steam, Official Site, itch.io], the sci-fi narrative adventure from the developer of Gone Home has officially launched. It includes day-1 Linux support so I took a look.
Please be aware this may contain spoilers, I’ve done my best not to give much away.
Note: The game does not have a SteamOS/Linux icon on Steam, but it can be downloaded and played it’s just not advertised yet. The game has some technical issue with SteamOS directly, which is preventing it being listed. See more info on that here.
Disclosure: Both GOG and the developer sent over keys.
Tacoma is set in the near future of 2088, as a contractor you’ve been sent to investigate the space station Tacoma, which has been abandoned. You’re tasked with piecing together information played out through Augmented Reality, to find out why everyone left. The AR system is like a futuristic “black box” where you literally retrace the exact steps people took.
The AR mechanic where you playback recordings of conversations from the crew is pretty weird at first, but I grew to love it. It’s strange, since some conversations sound a little private and you end up a little like a voyeur peeping into the lives of these people. I mean, it seems to record everything they do, including going to the toilet (not the we see that, but it’s implied).
What made me truly appreciate it, was that I could fast forward and rewind as many times as I wanted to while it was playing. I often thought I misheard something, so a quick key-tap and I would go back a little. It really made it an enjoyable experience, since I’m admittedly a little slow on the uptake at times.
These recorded conversation often happen between multiple groups of people, each having a different conversation. So you will be stopping, walking into another room, rewinding and listening in again. It so weird and unique, but it can end up feeling a little messy. There’s also times you need to interact with other systems while it’s playing, to recover more lost content, like private conversations between crew or or their families.
It’s a very interesting narrative-driven "walking simulator" game, where a lot of it will be spent just standing around and listening to the wireframe characters talk. It’s quite short too, but memorable and I enjoyed it quite a lot. It’s almost like actually being inside a film, with you piecing together the story bit by bit.
I appreciated the diverse cast they had for the game, both in terms of race and sexuality. I'm very open minded when it comes to everything and I thought what they had done with the characters was fantastic. Learning about some of their backstory from their private conversations was a good touch too, especially a certain joke about sunglasses, which I will leave you to discover.
For me, the ending came too soon. I was really getting into the atmosphere of the game, feeling more and more connected with the characters and I feared the worst as the conclusion to their story drew near. The ending though — wow, didn't see that coming!
Very rare for me to play an entire game through in one sitting. Not really a game with huge replay value, given how linear it is. While you go at your own pace and listen in to who you want in any order, the outcome is the same. Still, I found it to be an absolutely fascinating experience overall.
As for the Linux version: It seems the Linux port was done by Aaron Melcher of Knockout Games, who also ported other Linux titles including Darkest Dungeon, Sunless Sea, SOMA and more. He was even listed in the ending credits, which was really nice to see.
The game completely locked up on me twice in my play-through. The developer has been sent a log file, hopefully it helps. Each time my progress was saved just before, so it wasn't really an issue.
There’s also an AR cat you might find in some funny places. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Please be aware this may contain spoilers, I’ve done my best not to give much away.
Note: The game does not have a SteamOS/Linux icon on Steam, but it can be downloaded and played it’s just not advertised yet. The game has some technical issue with SteamOS directly, which is preventing it being listed. See more info on that here.
Disclosure: Both GOG and the developer sent over keys.
Tacoma is set in the near future of 2088, as a contractor you’ve been sent to investigate the space station Tacoma, which has been abandoned. You’re tasked with piecing together information played out through Augmented Reality, to find out why everyone left. The AR system is like a futuristic “black box” where you literally retrace the exact steps people took.
The AR mechanic where you playback recordings of conversations from the crew is pretty weird at first, but I grew to love it. It’s strange, since some conversations sound a little private and you end up a little like a voyeur peeping into the lives of these people. I mean, it seems to record everything they do, including going to the toilet (not the we see that, but it’s implied).
What made me truly appreciate it, was that I could fast forward and rewind as many times as I wanted to while it was playing. I often thought I misheard something, so a quick key-tap and I would go back a little. It really made it an enjoyable experience, since I’m admittedly a little slow on the uptake at times.
These recorded conversation often happen between multiple groups of people, each having a different conversation. So you will be stopping, walking into another room, rewinding and listening in again. It so weird and unique, but it can end up feeling a little messy. There’s also times you need to interact with other systems while it’s playing, to recover more lost content, like private conversations between crew or or their families.
It’s a very interesting narrative-driven "walking simulator" game, where a lot of it will be spent just standing around and listening to the wireframe characters talk. It’s quite short too, but memorable and I enjoyed it quite a lot. It’s almost like actually being inside a film, with you piecing together the story bit by bit.
I appreciated the diverse cast they had for the game, both in terms of race and sexuality. I'm very open minded when it comes to everything and I thought what they had done with the characters was fantastic. Learning about some of their backstory from their private conversations was a good touch too, especially a certain joke about sunglasses, which I will leave you to discover.
For me, the ending came too soon. I was really getting into the atmosphere of the game, feeling more and more connected with the characters and I feared the worst as the conclusion to their story drew near. The ending though — wow, didn't see that coming!
Very rare for me to play an entire game through in one sitting. Not really a game with huge replay value, given how linear it is. While you go at your own pace and listen in to who you want in any order, the outcome is the same. Still, I found it to be an absolutely fascinating experience overall.
As for the Linux version: It seems the Linux port was done by Aaron Melcher of Knockout Games, who also ported other Linux titles including Darkest Dungeon, Sunless Sea, SOMA and more. He was even listed in the ending credits, which was really nice to see.
The game completely locked up on me twice in my play-through. The developer has been sent a log file, hopefully it helps. Each time my progress was saved just before, so it wasn't really an issue.
There’s also an AR cat you might find in some funny places. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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The comments on this article are closed.
puppieshatecapitalism Aug 3, 2017
Yes, please do add an ignore button. Better yet, give us a way to automatically block anyone who uses "SJW" as a slur.
4 Likes, Who?
GustyGhost Aug 3, 2017
Oop, sorry guys. Almost stepped out of line with my independent opinion there...
3 Likes, Who?
Yeah, they're after you. *yawn*
You were using "social justice" as something negative, which is, sorry to say, plain stupid.
Social is good and important, justice is good and important.
And no, "independent" doesn't make anything better (or worse).
Last edited by Eike on 3 August 2017 at 2:24 am UTC
You were using "social justice" as something negative, which is, sorry to say, plain stupid.
Social is good and important, justice is good and important.
And no, "independent" doesn't make anything better (or worse).
Last edited by Eike on 3 August 2017 at 2:24 am UTC
3 Likes, Who?
Quoting: GuestQuoting: EikeYou were using "social justice" as something negative, which is, sorry to say, plain stupid.
Social is good and important, justice is good and important.
To be fair, that term has come to refer to those who are bigoted while purporting to be anti-bigoted, but of course it often gets used by bigots to mud sling against anyone who is actually anti-bigotry which may or may not be the case here.
We should not let them get through with giving "social justice" a new, bad meaning. It's something inherently good, and if they are to point out bigotry or something else bad, they should call it like this. (Which in the course, as you pointed out, would make it much harder to apply the word to Gone Home).
Funnily enough, social justice is often blamed not by people who would suffer from more social justice, but by ordinary people who could actually benefit from what they are debasing.
Last edited by Eike on 3 August 2017 at 7:28 am UTC
2 Likes, Who?
Yep, I'm missing a Linux/SteamOS icon too in the Steam client, so not released for Linux yet?
0 Likes
Quoting: BoldosYep, I'm missing a Linux/SteamOS icon too in the Steam client, so not released for Linux yet?
How dare you talking about the actual game in question? ;)
It's available for Linux, but as they've got launch problems on SteamOS, they didn't yet mark it as such:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/343860/discussions/0/1458455461499293622/
(Didn't see that in the article. If I didn't just miss it, it should be added.)
0 Likes
Quoting: EikeIt's available for Linux, but as they've got launch problems on SteamOS, they didn't yet mark it as such:Right below the trailer:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/343860/discussions/0/1458455461499293622/
(Didn't see that in the article. If I didn't just miss it, it should be added.)
QuoteNote: The game does not have a SteamOS/Linux icon on Steam, but it can be downloaded and played it’s just not advertised yet. The game has some technical issue with SteamOS directly, which is preventing it being listed. See more info on that here.Reading between the lines is a useful skill, but there's something to be said for reading the actual lines as well. :P
3 Likes, Who?
Quoting: RedfaceI just bought this from humble where you get both a steam key and a DRM free download (including the Linux version)
Did the same yesterday. The game's running flawlessly on SteamOS, but I somehow can't change to 4K resolution -- at least not in BPM.
0 Likes
Oh, so we reached bargain bin evopsych in less than a day now.
2 Likes, Who?
Quoting: GuestWhen you open any random history book you can observe that many societies have been sick to the core. Even now, the world is still capitalistic, producing things as fast as possible, destroying the biosphere as fast as we economically can. 50% of the species died in the last 40 years.. This happened in the past when there was a natural disaster. Now human behavior is the core reason. Where is your social justice?
Quoting: GuestAnd please don't blame the politicians. It's the fault of the average human being. It's in our DNA that we follow the general behavior. Because prehistoric humans died when they didn't follow the general behavior. "social justice" isn't inherently good, it's often the oposite.
Your posting seems to be self-contradictory to me. The first half implies social justice is something good which we have not reached to a large extent, which I would agree with, while the second suddenly says social justice isn't inherently good.
1 Likes, Who?
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