A Way Home

As an upfront disclaimer, I've had a part in teaching the developers of this game, and therefore, I'm inclined to review their work favorably!

On the whole, I like the premise, being a dog trekking back to their owner who has moved away. It's easy to remember and sustains the motivation of the adventure end to end, even when events get more fantastical. I didn't expect the twist ending, and in retrospect, it makes sense from the start, so the surprise is well earned! The 2D art accompanying significant story beats in the game are also appreciated, as they help to keep things fresh.

The variety of platforming contexts is also a strong point of the game: the scenery changes often, so aside from some staple elements (such as climbing through logs to bridge one segment of gameplay to another), you'll have novel environments to explore at each new turn. I was frankly surprised by the quantity of content in the game, which surely was aided by borrowed assets, a wise choice for this situation. Being in first-person view also feels appropriate given the narrative direction, though this sometimes leads to some awkward platforming timing (not uncommon for games like this) and the camera occasionally clips through surfaces at close-range due to the size/relative positioning of the character's bodily collision. The hunger meter depletes at just the right pace, and food items were located in places I'd hope to find them—those locations were more challenging to reach as the game progressed, comfortably raising the difficulty level in a satisfying way!

I'm tempted to say that the hunger meter is the glue that brings everything together, but I think it's a close second to the game's quest readouts, which are narrated by the dog character. The monologue was particularly charming for me, and it seemed as though whenever I was reaching a point of "what now?" the prompt would update just in time! Those checkpoints, and the restore points for platforming challenges, are frequent and encouraging. I spent a lot of time eager to see what the dog's next thought was going to be!

All in all, I feel the team did well to juice each component of this game for its latent potential, and I look forward to seeing what each dev will do next!