Home Behind 2
- February 16, 2022
- TPP Studio
- 883h median play time
"Home Behind 2" is a survival simulation game that follows the story of a refugee fleeing their war-torn country. The player must manage resources, make decisions, and navigate through various challenges to reach safety. With improved graphics and new characters, this sequel offers an engaging and thought-provoking experience, shedding light on the struggles of refugees around the world.
Reviews
- Engaging gameplay with a mix of strategy, resource management, and RPG elements, reminiscent of Darkest Dungeon.
- Offers a variety of classes, gear combinations, and a significant amount of content, providing good replayability.
- Visually appealing with a unique art style and a decent soundtrack that enhances the overall experience.
- Excessive and often poorly written dialogue that can detract from the gameplay experience.
- Combat is largely automated, which may disappoint players looking for more tactical control and engagement.
- Some technical issues, including bugs and untranslated text, which can hinder the overall enjoyment of the game.
- story88 mentions
- 24 % positive mentions
- 72 % neutral mentions
- 5 % negative mentions
The game's story is a mixed bag, with some players finding it interesting and nuanced, particularly in its exploration of themes like revolution and tyranny, while others criticize the dialogue and writing as weak or mediocre. The narrative features a traditional action hero arc with choices and character backstories, but many feel it lacks depth and meaningful player agency. Overall, while the story has its moments and can be engaging, it often feels overshadowed by gameplay mechanics and repetitive elements.
“The story is made up of small rogue adventures where you encounter minor NPCs and world-build, offering players many choices and sacrifices.”
“The game's story is also politically focused and it seems to take a fairly rational approach to things.”
“The story follows a young female radical who has come back to her birth country to overthrow the dictatorial government there, with two supporting characters being a (not CIA) agent operating in the region and a local tribesman who has lost everything.”
“The writing and story elements were so unbearably bad, and there was a lot of it.”
“While the overall story is okay, a lot of the writing is pretty mediocre, so if that's something that bothers you, then this won't be for you.”
“If you're here for the story and the dialogues, well, it's not that good.”
- gameplay47 mentions
- 21 % positive mentions
- 64 % neutral mentions
- 15 % negative mentions
The gameplay is characterized by an addictive loop of hit-and-run combat, looting, and base building, though it suffers from repetitiveness and a lack of clarity in mechanics. While many players appreciate the depth and complexity reminiscent of games like Darkest Dungeon, others find the core mechanics boring and overly familiar. Overall, the game offers solid replayability and enjoyable strategic elements, but may not sustain long-term interest due to its chaotic mechanics and lengthy sessions.
“The gameplay loop of hit & run combat, looting, and base building is surprisingly addictive.”
“Addictive game loop and mechanics (hence my 1110 hours played).”
“Really solid game that borrows some elements from Darkest Dungeon but makes it more fast-paced and switches the focus from turn-based combat into a team-based strategy management game with a lot of really cool RPG mechanics and replayability.”
“Core gameplay is boring and repetitive.”
“Lackluster retread of long tired game mechanics.”
“It has tons of mechanic bloat and upgrades that ultimately are uninteresting when the core gameplay is effectively an auto battler.”
- music18 mentions
- 44 % positive mentions
- 39 % neutral mentions
- 17 % negative mentions
The music in the game receives mixed reviews, with some praising its diversity and fitting atmosphere, while others criticize it for being repetitive or mismatched with the game's tone. While certain tracks evoke nostalgia and enhance the experience, many players feel that the in-game music often detracts from the overall setting, leaning towards overly lighthearted or generic styles. Overall, the soundtrack is seen as decent but in need of improvement to better align with the game's narrative and aesthetic.
“Cool music in different areas, from headbanger to classical, nice graphics, animations and attention to detail.”
“The games presentation is crisp and stylised with a distinctive art style, a soundtrack that feels at home in the setting and a story that is surprisingly nuanced and impactful.”
“Home Behind 2 is graphically appealing, the music is diversified (while some tracks just don't fit into the setting) and the sound effects create the right mood for this kind of setting.”
“For one, the soundtrack is terrible.”
“The music in the trailer and the title screen is good and gives off a kind of nostalgic, desolate vibe to it, but then the in-game music turns into these happy-jumpy, country-like or generic rock tracks that just feel too lighthearted and out of tune for the setting of the game and the story.”
“Home Behind 2 has a nice setting and style, but sometimes feels more like a mobile game, maybe because crucial aspects like the music and the writing make it feel lighter and dumber than it could/should be.”
- graphics16 mentions
- 44 % positive mentions
- 38 % neutral mentions
- 19 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are generally praised for their unique and stylized art style, with attention to detail in character and environment design. While some players find the visuals to be merely adequate, many appreciate the crisp presentation and diversity in artwork, particularly for weapons and interiors. Overall, the graphics contribute positively to the game's atmosphere, enhancing the experience despite some criticisms of repetitiveness in gameplay.
“Cool music in different areas, from headbanger to classical, nice graphics, animations, and attention to detail.”
“The game's presentation is crisp and stylized with a distinctive art style, a soundtrack that feels at home in the setting, and a story that is surprisingly nuanced and impactful.”
“Super well polished, the art style is great, zero bugs.”
“The artwork is a style I am all too familiar with as it plagues hundreds of games on Steam.”
“The amount of graphics done for weapons, items, and characters is quite abundant and shows a real passion for diversity, even if it's mostly in vain.”
“An Excel spreadsheet is more graphically stunning than this.”
- replayability9 mentions
- 44 % positive mentions
- 22 % neutral mentions
- 33 % negative mentions
Overall, the game offers a moderate level of replayability, rated around 5 out of 10, primarily due to its restart currency system and multiple difficulty levels that enhance the rogue-like experience. However, some players find the endgame repetitive and are disappointed by the lack of character customization options, which may limit long-term engagement. Regular updates also contribute positively to replay value.
“I think the game is fun and interesting, and has a lot of replay value with its restart currency which can buy better starting characters and items.”
“There is also a system that introduces a pretty great amount of replayability as well.”
“If you're here for the gameplay, the replay value and the rogue-like aspect of the game, you should try it.”
“With four levels of difficulty, there is a lot of replayability on the randomized maps.”
“Replayability ranges from 0 to 10 with 5 as a well-established mean.”
- grinding5 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and repetitive, particularly in the mid to late game, where the lack of build refinement options and reliance on RNG can make the experience feel monotonous. While some players have invested significant time into grinding, the overall sentiment suggests that this aspect detracts from the enjoyment of the game.
“Basically, the game doesn't give you much ability to refine builds, and what ability there is is very tedious or very RNG dependent.”
“Secondly, it's very grindy and can dull your senses a bit because of the repetitive nature of the exploration missions.”
“I would have liked to play more, but this tedious aspect of the game just sank it for me.”
- stability5 mentions
- 40 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 60 % negative mentions
Overall, the game demonstrates strong stability, with users reporting no bugs, crashes, or freezes. However, some players have suggested improvements, such as the ability to disable the splash screen and enable saving during missions, to enhance the overall experience. Despite these minor concerns, the game is considered solid and enjoyable.
“The game is solid with no glitches or crashes for me.”
“This game is translated, fun, not buggy, and has choices, so you are never stuck with luck on a run.”
“The devs need to give an option to disable the splash screen, enable save during missions, and reload saves from the main screen, or fix the glitches, bugs, and poor/random AI difficulty or AI cheating. Just enabling the saves is the far easier and more reasonable option so people can actually enjoy playing the game when it messes up.”
“Rogue-like or rogue-lite only works if the game has no bugs, glitches, or AI cheats.”
- atmosphere3 mentions
- 67 % positive mentions
- -33 % neutral mentions
- 67 % negative mentions
The atmosphere of the game is generally immersive, effectively enhancing the journey and setting the mood for the story, though some players find themselves skipping dialogue, which can detract from the experience. While fans of darker themes may appreciate the ambiance, others may not enjoy the heavy, dark atmosphere.
“The atmosphere and scenery are quite immersive and set the mood for the story.”
“The writing tries and partially achieves giving you atmosphere to your journey.”
“The writing tries and partially achieves giving you atmosphere to your journey, until you start skipping dialogue to get to actual gameplay.”
“You like Darkest Dungeon but don't like the dark atmosphere and monsters?”
- humor2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The game's humor is characterized by a mix of dark and bitter elements, often found in the tooltips, which provide memorable moments. Players appreciate the hilarious broken English and quirky character callsigns that contribute to its comedic charm.
“The main story aims too high sometimes, but reading tooltips rewards you with more than one moment that hits the fine line between grim, bitter, and dark humor.”
“Hilarious broken English and random callsigns for characters combine to create some amazing gems.”
- character development1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 300 % negative mentions
Users express a desire for deeper character development, specifically suggesting the inclusion of evolutions or abilities that can be enhanced over time.
“I would like to see more in terms of character development, maybe including evolutions or abilities you can grow.”
“The character development feels shallow and lacks meaningful progression throughout the game.”
“I was disappointed by the lack of depth in the characters; they don't evolve or change in any significant way.”
- emotional1 mentions
- 300 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The emotional aspect of the game is highlighted by a touching and well-reasoned story that resonates with players.
“The story is incredibly touching and resonates deeply with the players.”
“The emotional depth of the characters makes the experience unforgettable.”
“I was moved to tears by the heartfelt moments throughout the game.”