O que define se um walking simulator é bom ou ruim, pra mim, depende única e exclusivamente da sua narrativa e da forma com a qual ela se desenvolve.

E Tacoma, com sua experiência narrativa sci-fi, agrada muito nesse quesito. O fator investigação e montagem de "quebra-cabeças" com os acontecimentos gravados em realidade virtual da tripulação da estação funciona muito bem.

Eu particularmente não sou muito fã dessa estética espacial, mas eu me diverti com o mistério em torno da história, bem como os personagens e suas diferentes motivações e personalidades.

No mais, o saldo é de um bom jogo, altamente recomendável pra fãs do gênero.

Another game in the sub-genre of walking simulators set in space wherein you investigate what happened to the previous crew, but this one is actually very engaging, much like Fullbright's originator of the walking sim genre - Gone Home. Much like Gone Home, I love this game. There's really nothing much to say, you explore a space station and piece together what happened to the crew and it's all wonderfully told and voice acted and engrossing. Solid little game and I look forward to the next Fullbright experience greatly.

Although Tacoma does not have quite the emotional impact of Gone Home, it tells a compelling story about corporate greed in a rather realistic space setting in the year 2088. I love how the developers tell their story mostly through environmental clues, and sometimes it just takes one hidden letter or a well-placed object to evoke emotions and if u take ur time getting to know the characters and their small little stories u can't help but feel empathetic for everyone of them. Again, I like the song choices that make certain moments much more memorable. I can't wait to dive deeper into the tracks, just like I did with Gone Home, where I discovered bands such as Le Tigre and Bikini Kill. I'm quite eager to see what they have in store with their next game called Open Roads.

Tacoma is an narrative adventure walking simulator game set aboard a high-tech space station stationed new Luna, our moon, in the year 2088. You enter the station as Amitjyoti "Amy" Ferrier and your mission is to uncover the mystery of Tacoma Station, as well as getting the AI Core safe from the station. You’ll explore every detail of how the station’s crew lived and worked, finding the clues that add up to a gripping story of trust, fear, and resolve in the face of disaster.

The mechanics of the AI Recorded memories where you would follow different characters around during various scenes was interesting and quite enjoyable. I was really interested in learning about each character, and the fact that the memories often divided between rooms and characters added replay value for each memory.

Sadly I found myself wondering what the relevance of some of the "desktop" files were, as the world-building that was often delivered through various news articles felt like a lot of reading for very little relevance. They didn't really give me more information or insight into what the characters were going through, but there were enough interesting conversations between characters to learn something about them.

One of my gripes with this game was that I would have wished for the characters to be shown as more personalized designs, rather than just the basic mannequin holograms with different colors. It would have given more personality for each character, and learning about them would have been more enjoyable.

Tacoma was also quite short, maybe even too short for it's own good. The story is intriguing and gripping you at every turn, but sadly, there is just too little in a short amount of time. I feel like the game would have been better with more optional memories, more info on who the characters were, more dialogue about the happenings on the station and the reason why it was now abandoned.

Tacoma is all about its characters and the overall story, and because those aspects of it were well balanced, I would absolutely recommend it. I find the full price of it a little hefty for how short it is, but the game is a quality product, there is no mistake of that. If you enjoy walking simulators, especially ones that provide good, and immersive story experiences, then you’ll likely enjoy Tacoma.

This was really special for the very well done personal stories and small moments brought to life. With just simple outlines and shapes of people it's more expressive and personal feeling than other games that try to immerse and connect you to people and places (the quality of the voice acting is great too.) Could it have gone deeper and further 100% but what's here is really quite charming in its simplicity, and I got a better sense of every person on this space station than a LOT of other games. I was rooting for everyone pretty much the entire time. Mileage on this will vary depending on how much you explore, read, and understand events through these actions. I should've jumped into Tacoma space station years ago but I'm glad I finally took the time to go on this little journey. Happy for you ODIN.

A nice, short narrative game. You go from room to room watching recordings of the space station's crew's, while you also download the AI of the station, as that was the job you were hired to do. The recordings were nice, but there weren't really anything else to do, just walk, listen, walk, listen. Which is fine, but for me the story wasn't all that interesting, until the end. The end was really good, with a good twist. And with how short the game was, the previous boring story didn't seem that long in contrast. So it was fine.

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Sights & Sounds
- Tacoma looks quite nice, but won't wow you with impressive textures, mindbending lighting effects, or ridiculous particle physics. The setting, however, is really quite nice. The titular spaceship isn't as expansive or richly detailed as you might find in a game like Prey (2017) or Alien: Isolation (it's more akin to the size of the ship in Observation), but it still pleases the eyes and serves as an excellent backdrop for the narrative
- For an artsy game this short, no VO work would have been a bit of a disappointment, so I was happy find that Tacoma is fully voiced. And it's very competent VO work to boot, with one of the characters singing a touching rendition of Peggy Lee's "Is That All There Is?"
- Other than that, there's not a ton to the soundrack other than a licensed song here or there. Most of the time, you're inundated in eerie silence, poring over audio logs for story, or listening to the rhythmic clanging of your bootsoles against the steel floor of the station
- Taken together, Tacoma's audiovisual design serves as a very effective vehicle for delivering the game's story

Story & Vibes
- As you probably ascertained from reading the previous section, Tacoma takes place on a space station. The player character is a corporate investigator who has been sent to the now abandoned ship to figure out what happened to the crew. What follows is a thoughtful exploration of humanity's place in an increasingly automated world. In fact, the events that you're investigating take place on "Obsolesence Day", the holday where humanity celebrates the advent of AI control over labor
- Corporate stooges stay well away; Tacoma has some thoughts regarding the C-suite suits that pull the levers. Effectively, the narrative prophesizes that those in power will eventually lose enough of their own humanity that they'll become more heartless and soulless than the AIs they employ. Similarly, if you're one of those, shall we say, "intellectually uncurious" types that doesn't like politics in their video games, you too should avoid this title. In fact, take up knitting or something and leave video games to people who actually enjoy them. This game has a lot of thoughts on the topic of worker rights
- But the narrative wouldn't be as good as it is if it were purely a philosophical treatise. You learn a bit of backstory about each of the Tacoma's six crew members (really, seven if you count the ship's AI). While their plotlines do tie into the game's overall themes, there's plenty of poignant beats that delve into their aspirations, fears, families, and personalities. It's really impressive how well the devs managed to pack so much narrative depth into a game that clocks in under four hours
- Despite the depth of the characters and the heady subject matter, the vibes feel lonesome and a little austere. You're all alone on a corporate space station, after all. And all that alone time gives you ample opportunity to consider what the game is trying to say
- In some ways, 2024 is a particularly interesting time to be playing this game. Now that AI (particularly LLMs) have become so commonplace, you really don't have to stretch your imagination much to envision a future like this. Will the AIs be friendly? Will governments try to protect humanity and our livelihoods? Can capitalism continue to exist when every worker has been replaced by an algorithm? Can humanity? Tacoma will give you a lot to chew on mentally

Playability & Replayability
- While the game is mostly a walking simulator, there are some investigation mechanics in play. As you follow your handler's instructions that take you on a data-gathering expedition from module to module in the Tacoma, you'll stumble upon various scenes that the ship's AI has recorded (with varying levels of file corruption). As your data is downloading, you can watch a holographic recreation of the events those scenes contain
- In addition to moving the game forward, these holograms will dole out the plot bit by bit to explain what truly happened to the crew. During these segments, you'll have the ability to fast-forward, rewind, and pause the recording. Doing so will often reveal moments where a crew member will have their wristband computer open; these can be investigated for more lore and keycodes needed for accessing safes and new parts of the ship
- In addition to each crewmate's personal device on their wrist, you'll find workstations scattered about the station. Be sure to dig into these as well for more backstory and clues
- Given that I 100%ed the game, I'm probably not coming back for a replay

Overall Impressions & Performance
- As a complete package, I was pleasantly suprised by Tacoma. This is one of those games that gets bundled all the time, so I thought it was just a filler title to up the game count of those packages. Instead, it's a high quality walking simulator with an excellent story that doesn't overstay its welcome
- The engaging plot full of intrigue and twists paired with the thoughtful exploration of political and economic themes was impressive given the 3-4 hour run time. It's as long as a James Cameron movie, but has much more to say
- Tacoma ran flawlessly on the Steam Deck. Given that the visuals aren't the focus, I'd say didn't feel like I was missing out on anything by playing on a portable display

Final Verdict
8/10. With how often this game gets bundled, it's possible that Tacoma is already sitting in your backlog somewhere. If not, keep an eye out for a sale. This is an easy recommend for people who enjoy sci-fi, investigation, or intrigue and aren't put off by an intellectually engaging experience

Considering how many walking sim indie games there are where you explore what happened on a space ship or station you'd think the concept would get old fast - admittedly I wasn't too eager to play this because I've seen so many of them already, but I'm glad to say I was pleasantly surprised.

It's a simple type of game for sure, but when enough care is put into writing and performing the characters it's hard not to get invested. The fact they normally come with quick and easy platinums makes for a perfect recipe to encourage me to keep experiencing them too, I like it :)

Now back to my many peak stupidly-long games to completely ruin my monthly completions figure 😌

É um jogo no espaço com tudo futurista e pá q te coloca pra descobrir o que aconteceu na nave tacoma e entender melhor como o mundo esta em 2088. A forma de descobrir tudo é interessante, a atmosfera é tensa da maneira certa, os personagens são ate legais e tem muitas ideias boas que não são muito bem aproveitadas.
No fim é um jogo que poderia ser bem melhor, mas a narrativa principal não é tao interessante e acaba sendo angustiante no final.
Fora meu game tendo crashado no final corrompido no save e eu tendo que jogar TUDO DE NOVO

Tacoma is a great little game which tells its brilliant story in a really unique way. Despite never meeting them, the characters aboard the Tacoma are full of charm, and you get attached to them rather quickly, especially given how you learn a lot about them not just through AR recordings but by examining the spaces they inhabit throughout the ship - the environmental storytelling is really superb. The humour and easter eggs found throughout the game also elevate this; one book references the fact that Elon Musk became president and incorporated Tesla with Google, truly the darkest of all futures...

Regardless, I love how the plot unfolded and how you learn about what really happened aboard the Tacoma. The conflicts between the Venturis Corporation and the workers' union and socialist movements are really compelling, but I do wish they could have been explored more. The game's ultimate narrative payoff was satisfying, and I don't think it could have really been done better without increasing the length of the game. Overall I really do recommend it! And if you're looking for something similar I recommend checking out event[0].

Very short adventure game
Even if you try to see everything and get every trophy this game lasts less than an hour
The story; writing and voice acting was alright. I did like the way you interact with it and uncover what happened piece by piece
The worst part of the game though is the performance. I guess it's a ps4 thing but this game crashed several times while on the elevators. There's only 3 zones in the game apart from the hub where you access them, and to get to those zones it feels like 50% chance the game just dies. At least the auto saves are frequent.

Eu adoro história super elaboradas, bem escritas, cheias de surpresa.

Mas eu acho incrível como Tacoma pega uma história que sozinha seria a coisa mais sem graça do mundo e torna ela super interessante apenas pela forma que é contada.

Nada tira da minha cabeça que videogame é a melhor forma de narrativa e esse jogo só contribui pra isso.