Home review: there's no place like hell

In Home's opening moments, the protagonist wakes up in a room he doesn't recognize, his identity a mystery to the player and even his face obscured and undetailed thanks to the game's pixel art style. The rickety house is eerily empty save for a dead body rotting nearby. The hero - is he a hero? - has no memory of his recent past and knows only that his wife is waiting for him at home.

With that setup, you take control. You can move the character left and right, examine items you come across, and enter doors or climb ladders. And...that's pretty much it.

Home occasionally blocks your path with a simple puzzle. These involve flipping nearby switches or searching the surrounding areas until you've found an item that will clear the obstacle, but they rarely require much thought. Anyone searching for a challenge of wits or reflexes should look elsewhere.

While Home's puzzles won't slow you down, it forces tense pauses at the numerous points where you decide how the main character acts or what he believes. When he stumbles across a gun, you choose whether or not he picks it up despite how uneasy it makes him feel. When he finds a key in the sewers, you decide whether he takes his time exploring every locked door for secrets or rushes out into fresh air at the first opportunity.