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No, children are to be feared because of their insatiable hunger for content. Richard Trenholm is CNET's film and TV editor, covering the big screen, small screen and streaming. A member of the Film Critic's Circle, he's covered technology and culture over the past 15 years from London's tech scene to Europe's refugee camps to the Sundance film festival.
Home Sweet Home brings the rich and terrifying stories directly from Thai culture for this nightmarish ride... The realm of VR presents this devilish title in the best way, putting you right in the middle of the terror at hand." Sign in to see reasons why you may or may not like this based on your games, friends, and curators you follow. For the purposes of transparency, this review was created using a code provided by the company or their respective PR company.
Customer reviews
When you are hiding in a locker, peering through the slots as some awful presence stalks about the room moaning for your blood, it is easy to forget that this is “just a game”. I found myself literally holding my breath, desperate to not be discovered by the awful chittering spirit that was searching for me. There are still some concerns with repetitive game design and enemy awareness, but this is definitely one scary experience in the PS VR headset.
Though the plot — which shouldn’t take more than six or so hours — might be lost on some people who don’t choose to explore, Home Sweet Home actually offers a surprisingly deep amount of backstory. The game takes the time to explain the lore that comes into play through environmental storytelling. Of particular interest and importance is the legend of the haunting “Preta”, a restless and vengeful spirit that is forever hungry and thirsty. The entire game is steeped in Thai imagery, from the newspaper clippings to the graffiti on the walls, and the unique setting adds to the sense of displacement and disorientation for western players. Home Sweet Home is a great PSVR game and a good regular title. The mystery surrounding the story and unique set pieces mix incredibly well with superb horror elements.
Afterlife VR
I was ready for some cool scares and a peek through a window at some new cultural imagery I wasn’t familiar with. While what I ended up with was definitely creepy and had its moments of thrilling, intense horror, it was often held back by rough gameplay snags that would turn big moments into drags. When it comes to length the game takes around four to five hours to get through given all the trial and error involved.
I had to complete the game without VR cuz of constant crashes and it felt so much better but still bad game. This is a game with some really good ideas and sequences, but it also make too many mistakes that could’ve been avoided quite easily. Even the VR implementation feels quite rushed, although the experience is interesting overall. Not responding quite on time or walking into a wall while looking for the protagonist, the game runs really well. These sorts of bugs are generally whipped out before or shortly after release.
Critic Reviews
It’s the perfect hangout film before it turns into the perfect horror movie and these two are fighting for their lives against a malfunctioning RoboSanta+. It doesn’t overstay its welcome with this single night of never-ending chaos. There’s a nightmarish quality to your journey, reminiscent of Bloober Team’s Layers of Fear series, where familiar surroundings are set askew, an unreality that does as much to unnerve you as your soon to be introduced foe.
In games especially, so much is communicated through sound, from your emotional state being manipulated through music, to being able to gauge your surroundings, to all the “fun” stuff. In this case, after playing Home Sweet Home, the sound of a box cutter’s blade protracting and retracting might stick with you for a long time. Especially since that sound is tied not only to the central threat, but also all the dying and continuing you’re going to be doing. I have heard opinions from some that the horror experience in this game drops off and becomes stale after a while, and I respectfully disagree. I’m almost certain that I did not blink or breathe once during my time in Home Sweet Home (ok, that’s an exaggeration but you get my point). With a fantastic blend of hide & seek stealth gameplay and Thai mythology and folklore, Home Sweet Home strikes a pleasant balance of horror, challenge and storyline.
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This includes your path, the problem of the moment, and of course your tools to deal with the threat. This is not an impressive game from a visual fidelity or content volume standpoint, but where it does excel is its sound design. Despite doing a bunch of things right, Home Sweet Home is certainly not without issues. Elsewhere, the game does a poor job of guiding the player, so expect to be stuck in the same room looking for clues or figuring out how to get past an enemy for some time. Home Sweet Home does an excellent job of creating a solid foundation for fear, yet overly relies on cheap jump scares to carry the horror.
So while I might rant for several paragraphs about things that I found frustrating about Home Sweet Home, I want to make it clear that I’m recommending the game anyhow. It’s not the greatest game ever made, but it is one hell of a horror experience. As you wander through frightening environments, surrounded on all sides by foreboding images, silent triggers start yelping inside of you. Your mind knows that you are just playing a game, of course.
Armed with only a flashlight and your wits, your only goal is to get out. The game is best played seated in my opinion, as you really don’t need to stand for any reason. To control your character you will be using the DualShock 4 in VR mode, as you would in TV mode. This means the controls are mapped well, and lets you concentrate, which can be essential for the trial and error element.
These are not too difficult to accomplish, but do add to the overall length of the game. If you learn anything from Home Sweet Home Alone, it's that children are evil. Not because the kid in this 2021 reboot is a giggling sociopath torturing grownups with an array of horrifyingly vicious traps.
I would tell you to play with the lights out, but in VR, it simply doesn’t matter. The lights are always out in Home Sweet Home, and what you can’t see may kill you. Well after the first level, this title takes a sharp right turn into Thai mythology that I didn’t see coming. Sure, there is a stereotypical ghost girl walking around and looking to kill you, but Home Sweet Home separates itself from the expected. With its issues, it’s not going to redefine the horror genre, but this book shouldn’t be judged by its cover.
There is no combat to speak of in Home Sweet Home, with Tim turning tail and hiding every time he sees a spirit. As she constantly slides the box cutter up and down, the noise reverberates throughout the area and put a chill in my spine every time. Doors will randomly close or open when you pass by them, items will move subtly in a dark room, and even a giant frickin’ Attack on Titan wannabe will smash the house suddenly. Gameplay is super simple, and the game design is even simpler.
Never bites off more than it can chew, but many of the movie’s most satisfying sequences are the ones where the storytelling doesn’t feel trapped by its setting. Home Sweet Home is a molten jumble of horror game ideas, poured into a cracked gameplay mold, but its imperfections can’t hide its true horror qualities. Never as aggravatingly bad as something like Weeping Doll, but far from the polish and care of The Persistence. Mainly it just doesn’t click with the control setup all that well, but it does amplify the panic of being chased by a demonic woman wielding a box cutter. Beneath the promising concept, Home Sweet Home is as generic and bare bones as it gets for horror titles on PlayStation 4. Playing it with PSVR might be a game-changer, but without it, expect a mediocre and pedestrian first-person adventure.
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