Originally published on Trevor Trove on January 26, 2016
TL; DR(eview) – Like other games in the interactive short story genre, three fourths home: extended edition tells an emotionally resonant, powerful story of a girl attempting to re-connect with her family, warts and all.
Along with Actual Sunlight, I picked up three fourths home: extended edition during the recent PSN Indie sale last weekend. As a 30-year-old who lives a few miles from my family but only talks to them occasionally, the central conceit of three fourths home: extended edition – a 20-something girl’s phone call with her family driving home during a storm – hit very close to home.
Another story-over-gameplay game, the whole game plays out as a short story, choose-your-own narrative (an early trend of my 2016 gaming experiences with Oxenfree and to a lesser extent the aforementioned Actual Sunlight and Gone Home). Playing as Kelly, the game has you guiding the phone conversation with your somewhat hyper-critical mother, your father suffering from PTSD after an accident, and your brother who seems to fall somewhere on the Autism spectrum. Throughout the 30-60 minute “drive home,” the story delivers insight into all of these characters piece meal, as the storm around you gets worse and worse.
Included in the extended edition is a prequel epilogue where you play out a flashback to a hypothetical conversation about some of the angst she’s facing at college. While I don’t typically focus on Achievements/Trophies when talking about a game, there was definite care put into how to trigger some of these meta-game rewards that speak directly to the narrative [bracket]games is telling, both within the stories themselves, as well as the extra content, so I encourage you to play through to the 100% if you pick up the game.
As I alluded to above, three fourths home: extended edition will probably resonate the strongest if your relationship with your immediate family is or has ever been somewhat strained but this is another short-story-as-game worth dropping a few bucks to experience.
three fourths home: extended edition is available now on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, PC, Mac, and Linux. Visit threefourthshome.com for more information.