Home Behind

Today I have a rather short review of a game called "Home behind" for you. Picking the refuge problem as a topic this game sets itself a nearly impossible task of handling the subject in the right way.

In "home behind" you play a father who lost his daughter while their home was attacked by the rebel armies. Promising himself he would find his daughter who has probably escaped together with his brother, the protagonist begins his journey. On the way he has to steal food, have an eye on his water reserves, fight enemies and therefore upgrade his weapon and armor.

To start from the positive, the game has a good crafting system. It is not phenomenal and does not give the crafting subject really new perspective but its a well carried out, modern crafting system. Extremely rewarding and motivation giving part of the game as the deep desire to get the new kitchen or workbench upgrade keeps the player moving forward. The problem in this is that the crafting system is but the only part that gives the player motivation to continue in the game. And in addition to the crafting system it needs to be added that the skill tree and skill points system is ill fitted for the game.

To continue with the graphics I think the decision to choose a 2d graphic is admirable as it is in general the right decision and the right graphic style for the general purpose. What total ruins the whole concept of this graphic are some contradictions in many assets of the game for example the "story" or the bad dialogues.

The dialogues are to long, do not have any depth and give the game rather flat out characters. This is especially bad as this game and its main topic would be living from the dialogues and the emotional connection you would build with the characters. And the main formula is bad dialogues equals bad story. A concept that sadly also applies for this game.

Furthermore the unnecessary boss fights and in general all the fighting is unfavorable for the game. As the fighting in my opinion makes the game more unrealistic which detaches the player even more from the fate of the real refugees. A critic which is also backed up by the fact that the fighting system is also mediocre in quality and game fun.

All together these facts make the game feel like a comic version of (the wanted to be explained) refuge situation. The only time when I really appreciated the game and thought that they made a point, a real statement on the refuge situation is when you finally arrive in a "civilized" region and after some minutes as a player you think  "o may god! This is even more difficult to survive in than the war region I fled from".

In general I have to give this game a rather bad review. A fact I am sad about because I really find it admirable from a game developer to try to tackle this difficult themes in a game. As I think games are (if made right and for the right costumer group) a good opportunity to make the players to think about certain subjects and maybe see them in another light.