Three Fourths Home is a visual novel that places you in control of Kelly, a 20-something who has had to move back home with her parents in Nebraska. A massive storm is imminent, and you need to get home before it hits. Your entire play through of the 1st part of the game takes place in your car as you rush home to avoid the storm, while talking on the phone to your family about various subjects, some serious, and others not so much. You’ll cover why exactly you have ended up back at home with your parents, the distance that has developed in the relationship with your family, and the various problems they have all had to face.
If you are not a fan of text based games then you will absolutely hate this, as there is absolutely no game play here at all, all you have to do is hold down the RT to make the car move, and the use A to pick the dialogue you want. You can interact with the radio if you want, and turn on/off the headlights of the car, but that is about as interactive as the game gets. Credit is due to the developers for managing to make such a simple concept relatively engaging, the story is pretty interesting, with questions and reactions changing depending on the answers you give.
As you progress on the journey the weather starts to worsen, and the choices you make really start to sculpt the direction the story takes, I’ll not give away any spoilers here, but it definitely keeps you hooked. The 2nd part of the story takes place after the storm; you again play as Kelly, when she is away from the family at college. It’s interesting to see this side of the story and definitely helps to build up more of an understanding as to why the family relationship is so fractured.
Again, control input is kept to a minimum, instead of a car you can walk from bus stop to bus stop, cleverly, the bus you get on depends on how the story has developed with your mum, and so multiple outcomes are available. It adds to the replay value of the game, which is just as well, as you can see pretty much everything it has to offer within an hour.
I did enjoy the look and feel of the game; the monochromatic scheme definitely fits the game. One complaint is that there really isn’t anything to see that takes advantage of this; it would be nice to have a little more to look at, especially since the input game play wise is so minimal. The sound also has a minimal approach to it, like I mentioned before, you can turn on the radio, and you get the sounds from the storm, but there isn’t much else to hear. If the dialogue was spoken it would maybe give the game more of an immersive feel to it.
This game is another title that will please fans of easy achievements; you can finish this in a few hours without really having to struggle. There are achievements related to the various endings of the epilogue, but these are easy to figure out. The only achievement I didn’t like was one related to the radio, it requires you to listen to every song, which takes around 50 minutes, and has to be done in one sitting, apart from that though it’s a perfectly sufficient list that does the job.
Three Fourths Home is a difficult title to recommend, whether you get any enjoyment from this will depend on if you like visual novels. If you do then there is plenty here to take in, if you don’t then you will find it pretty boring. I actually managed to enjoy this game, but I would have liked to see a little more in regards to the depth of the story, as just when it starts to get interesting, the game ends. I do welcome the fact that the developers of the game have been brave enough to try something different, it is a unique experience, and for that reason I would encourage you to give it a look.
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