return to home

Listen, I appeared in the interactive fiction community a year or so ago, straight out of visual novel community, therefore, I’m used to creating and playing choice-based games. I’m still getting used to parsers and trying to destigmatize them in my head, where they’re still clinging to the association of hours-long, puzzle-filled ordeals (don’t come after me, I’m trying to make a parser myself!). That’s why I was actually kind of happy to see return to home, which advertises itself as a “little IF romp”. Also, today I learned what “romp” means.

I have Lectrote installed but it wouldn’t run the game so I installed Gargoyle as instructed and everything worked as it should. I’ve never heard of GAGS or even Gargoyle for that matter so I’m glad I got to learn. I’m aware that it’s customary to attach transcripts of your parser playthroughs alongside your reviews (on IntFiction forum, where this review was first published) but truth be told, not only I don’t know how to do transcripts with Gargoyle, I also absolutely forgor that I should probably record the playthrough. I’m sorry, it will most likely happen again.

The premise is pretty simple: you’re on your way home but your usual route is blocked. You decide to leave your car by the blockade and just walk to your house instead. Along the way, you can decide to take random detours, take in the views, and encounter a variety of objects you can take with you. Short, neat, very slice of life.

I visited 13/14 locations and gathered 3/4 objects you can find, which translates to 13/14 points. The greatest difficulty I had with this game was trying to enter the house because I simply don’t know how directions work. There’s not a lot I can say because it very much has a vibe of a test project – something you make just to test out a way to make a game, and if I understand correctly, that was essentially what it was meant to be. I’m kind of sad that I couldn’t, for example, examine the house or the car, but that’s understandable within a “test game” scope, I suppose. I won’t comment on the language because the author requested so (European English-As-Foreign-Language solidarity?) but I didn’t have trouble understanding what’s going on, which is great.

Overall, the game has a very calm atmosphere. There’s just something nice about “walking simulators” where your only task is to walk and maybe go on little detours. You know, you need to switch up things from time to time, break the routine, go on a different path. Variety is the spice of life. Did I enjoy playing through it? I actually did. Might even go on a walk today.

return to home is a short walking simulator, doing exactly what it says in the title. The road back home is blocked, forcing you to leave your car and finish the "journey" by foot. Along the path, going up and down a hill, you're given the option to sidestep and visit a grove, or go up a knoll and check out the view. There are also 4 objects you can find and pick up (just for fun, they are not used anywhere). And when you finally get home, you can enjoy a well-deserved rest.

Though the piece is short, and parse in its implementation (trying to X whatever noun in the description won't give you much), it knows exactly what it's about and doesn't pretend to be more than that: an atmospheric little walk back home. Its strength lies in fulfilling the expectations formed by its synopsis, no more, no less. Though, part of me did wish you could examine a bit more your surrounding, as the game does nudge you to take little detours and take your time. I don't know, maybe sit on the knoll and take the landscape all in, or interact with the items you find in some way... But that's out of the scope of a romp creation.

It's an atmospheric tiny piece, that reminds you to enjoy the journey, and the little things you find along the way.