Homebody instantly had me hooked; survival horror? Retro-nostalgic presentation? Devious puzzles? Yes please! But then; time loop? Uh oh… I’ve not traditionally been a big fan of the time loop idea in gaming, although Deathloop certainly had me warm to the idea more than any other effort. Well, with Homebody, Rogue Games have only cemented the idea that I was wrong – not only is this a fantastic time loop title, but it is just packed with excellent ideas from start to finish.
We follow the tale of Emily as she arranges a meet up with some friends at an old, seemingly in the middle of nowhere house. They’ve been somewhat estranged based on the awkward conversation between Emily and the various crew, with Emily herself feeling the brunt of the social anxiety.
What begins as a slightly awkward re-integration of friendships soon take a turn when a bandaged, meat monster turns up and starts killing everyone.
I like to go into games often knowing very little about it, and this aspect genuinely caught me off guard. I was in the middle of solving one of the puzzles I found, and next thing I know I’m watching everyone get murdered as I run around the small house looking for any clue as to how to survive. Obviously I didn’t, and as soon as the game reloaded back at the front door I was instantly impressed and concerned at once.
From here, I began to pay more attention to the clues and objects I could interact with and, after a few more deaths, it all started to click into place. In fact, one of the best aspects of Homebody‘s time-loop mechanic is how I found there was never a loop that didn’t yield at least one more clue or discovery, be that from solving a puzzle or simply ruling an option out.
The puzzles themselves are smartly designed, making frankly excellent use of the limited play space we have in front of us. I’ll not spoil solutions here, but I’ll just say to make notes of things as you come across them as you’ll never know when down the line it may come in handy. One of the solutions was actually genius in it’s simplicity (I’ll just say it was regarding an item in a drawer and a book) and from this early example on I found the flow of the puzzles and loop just got better.
As we discover clues they are logged in our memory bank which can be accessed at any time. These are simple screenshots of clues that are linked by a line map showing the order of discovery, eventually leading us to a solution that’ll likely let us skip most of the earlier steps. It’s not a perfect system though, and still requires a little memory to place some steps in the chain.
I genuinely enjoyed the level of difficulty here, with just enough to tempt us into madness without being overly hard or unfair. Again, the way the puzzles are rooms are smartly integrated into one another throughout was excellent. The only time I truly got stuck was when I stopped playing for a weekend getaway, only to come back and be a little lost as to what my next move was.
Thankfully, in between murders we’re treated to a random selection of scenes, some filling in more of the story, some just creepy vignettes, and some that are gentle nudges as to where we should look next. These are a great touch to set us off in the right direction without being too blatant, and considering there’s no kind of to-do checklist to follow, are a big help to get going again.
Which is good, as the other people in the house are about as useless as a wet paper bag in terms of helping out. Emily is the only one that understands there’s a time loop going on it seems, and when trying to talk to them (before the murdering starts) the conversation revolves around the trip, the upcoming Perseid shower they’ve all gathered to see, and why Emily hasn’t talked to them for seemingly a long time.
Another neat touch, especially after the first death, is how the dialogue is handled. As we talk to the guys our options change from ‘how are you’-type stuff to ‘oh my god what is going on why are you not dead’ sort of options. Brilliantly though, Emily is only able to ask the former questions out loud, leading to some frustratingly maddening exchanges as we try to ask about the monster only to hear a long diatribe about their drive here. It’s a smart way to accentuate the horror vibe, and pays off nicely as the story progresses.
As you may expect, each loop follows the same pattern, with us given approximately 10 real world minutes (2 hours in game) to move freely about before the monster arrives. Unlike titles such as 12 Minutes though, we’re able to make the loop last as long as we like providing we can survive. Avoiding the monster, we can continue to solve the puzzles and find clues as long we like, though eventually we will need to succumb and reset to make use of what we’ve learnt.
It’s all very enjoyably messed up, and the retro presentation apes PS2-era visuals and design. For the most part this is great. The chunky, painterly visuals, the excellent use of sound, and even the way the dialogue text (there’s no voice acting) changes the tone of the audio beep based on who’s talking – all feel very nostalgic for an old like me, but even younger players should be able to appreciate the coherent style throughout.
What may not be as appreciated are the controls. Again, it feels like an era-appropriate game, and this includes some clunky movement and not-quite-spot-on interaction. Homebody is viewed from survival horror’s favourite camera – the static one. Classic Resident Evil players will be at home here (though there is a small amount of movement rather than being completely still) but the issue arises when moving between them.
As much hate as it gets, the best way for this camera set up to handle is with tank controls. Here though, we have full 3D movement, which means that as we move between cameras what was forward suddenly turns to left, or backwards, or any other manner of direction. For the most part this was bearable, but one section in house – as we exit the cellar into the foyer – has three very quick camera changes, leading to Emily doing a little pirouette almost everytime I tried to move through here. I found myself yearning for some tank controls, especially when trying to our run to monster only to turn back and run head on in to it. This aspect is far from a deal breaker, but it definitely put a dampener on what was otherwise a great game.
Conclusion
Other than some awkward controls at times, Homebody has risen up the ranks to be one of my most enjoyable gaming experiences this year. The time loop/puzzle/survival horror combo is smartly put together, with a fantastic sense of progression constantly. Combined with the retro presentation and well written, engaging tale, Homebody is an easy recommendation to make.
This game was reviewed based on Xbox S|X review code, using an Xbox S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.
