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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.

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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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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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36 comments
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Liam Dawe Aug 3, 2017
Well, this sure escalated quickly...
Anjune Aug 3, 2017
I grabbed Gnome Home for free on itch.io a while back but never got it to work past the title, loading screen and menu. So I can’t say if it’s 50% ideologically-fuelled preaching... I doubt it’s that bad. People thought Life is Strange would be tumblr: The Video Game, too. It's funny how much instant anger Gone Home still seems to provoke, or games that aren’t gamey games so much as explorable narratives in general. I have my own issues with the more dogmatic “SJWs” — about as many as with the Pepe-and-Kek shitposter brigade — but gay or lesbian or trans or non-white characters aren’t one of them (though their political instrumentalisation might be, if applicable). I’m happy to grant game designers and other creatives the same freedom of expression I want for myself. This goes for the female Doctor (a possibility established ages ago, not just with Missy) as well as for that upcoming 3D-but-pixelated cyberpunk game set in a socialist dystopia. Do what you want. Criticise what you want. Just try to make sense while doing so. (Said I after posting a vague rambilation.)

(Personally I don’t see a need for an ignore button on a low-volume forum like this, but I guess it won’t hurt either.)


Last edited by Anjune on 3 August 2017 at 1:00 pm UTC
Eike Aug 3, 2017
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Quoting: AnjuneI grabbed Gnome Home for free on itch.io a while back but never got it to work past the title, loading screen and menu.

I had problems with it because my locale is one with a "floating point comma" (so it's 3,14, not 3.14 here). Don't know if they ever fixed it. If you do as well, here's a workaround:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/232430/discussions/1/666827315982607634/
Anjune Aug 3, 2017
Quoting: Eike
Quoting: AnjuneI grabbed Gnome Home for free on itch.io a while back but never got it to work past the title, loading screen and menu.

I had problems with it because my locale is one with a "floating point comma" (so it's 3,14, not 3.14 here). Don't know if they ever fixed it. If you do as well, here's a workaround:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/232430/discussions/1/666827315982607634/

Thanks, LC_ALL=C makes it work! Should know by now to try that one...
Eike Aug 3, 2017
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Quoting: AnjuneThanks, LC_ALL=C makes it work! Should know by now to try that one...

Does anybody know why this doesn't seem to happen on Windows (they would have cought it if it would)?
Windows surely should have the same localized string to float algorithms...?
Liam Dawe Aug 3, 2017
Quoting: Guest
Quoting: liamdawe
Quoting: DrMcCoy
Quoting: EikeWould still appreciate an ignore button for some people.

I second that.
I will make that a priority after the admin centre upgrade I'm doing at the moment.

Just want to quote from the article about from you:

"I'm very open minded when it comes to everything..."

Except maybe comments you (and maybe others) didn't like. Openess means you accept other people's other opinion, which you might not agree with. As far as I see that comment didn't hurt anybody. It wasn't offensive, it didn't said anything bad about developers or the game (either Gone Home or Tacoma).
Whut

An ignore list has been requested by many people and it's a great way to help keep the peace. If people don't want to see content from specific users, they shouldn't have to. It's about having an open mind on what my users want. It's called being a good admin.

Also, just to point out, I haven't said anything in disagreement with anyone's comments. My usual stance stays: sharing opinions is fine, disagreements are fine, unwarranted insults are not. As far as I can tell everyone has been reasonably respectful so far.
tuubi Aug 3, 2017
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Quoting: GuestWe have to accept that words, symbols change meanings over history. Some people indeed hide behind *social justice* (especially on social media), to preach (bad word, couldn't find better, sorry) about the things they don't like.
If a group misuses a term, giving it a negative spin, that doesn't mean the meaning has changed for anyone else. A quick search provides this definition of social justice:
QuoteJustice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society.
Please provide a non-biased alternative definition if you can. Oh wait, nevermind that. Could we not talk about games on Linux instead?
Nezchan Aug 3, 2017
As I recall, the vitriol about Gone Home had little if anything to do with the game itself, but because it was popular among the early targets of GamerGate, and thus ended up on a number of associated boycott lists. There was also quite a bit of gatekeeping what a "real game" was about that point, to define casual games and "walking simulators" (a term originally intended to be insulting), which tended to have a larger female audience, as separate from manly games like Call of Duty and CS:GO.

I would imagine anyone sensitive (or ideological) enough to bristle at the pretty mild social commentary of Gone Home would likely spontaneously combust at Tacoma. I've played only an hour or so of the game, and I've already seen a couple of things that would be conniption-causing, so I'd recommend they give it a miss and go back to bragging about how they can do level one no-armour runs of Dark Demon's BloodSouls or whatever.

For the rest of us, the first little bit looks promising. Hopefully I'll be able to play more over the next few days, especially once I get my work submitted.
Nezchan Aug 3, 2017
Quoting: GuestLol, mind telling us what this "conniption-causing" concept was just for laughs? X3

Oh, nothing much so far but I don't really want to spoil things.

Spoiler, click me
There's what appears to be a lesbian couple openly flirting in one of the first areas I went to, one of whom is plus-size, the crew roster is clearly multinational, and I'm pretty sure there's reference to a poly relationship in the trailer. If you're so uptight a sweet little lesbian love story makes you rant about Ess Jay Doubleyas, then just that would be enough to give you a heart attack.
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