The NO Longer Home exam is a little strange in itself. It never looks like a game as much as the work of someone - a passionate project between two developers based on their real experiences. Can you report? That's the question.

How do you react to these experiences and the sum of its parts is really less a question of whether you like to play No Longer Home and simply how do you make you feel and what parts of your life invites you to examine. I clearly remember where I was at a time of my life where some of the issues raised in the game were circulating in my head. Everything seemed so important, but now nearly a decade after the university and in my career, I struggled to connect to this story. And much of this is simply my own personal growth and my decline.

NO Longer Home As a game is mainly a style of experience point-clicking. You walk from characters in an isometric space, interact with objects and learn more about the history, the characters and conflicts they face. The presentation is first-rate and almost closer to Lara Croft Go in his abstract rendering of a world, which really attracts you. Later, you have the opportunity to rotate the isometric landscape, revealing new pieces of parts that you have not seen before. The sound design is soft and not too melancholy. It's relaxing and soothing as you go in history.

This is the story with which I have the most problems. Basically, many characterizations are repetitive without hanging on the conflict itself. Bo and AO, the two protagonists in history, face many changes of life. They are at a stage of life where society often expects you to understand it. You have finished school, so of course you can find a job. You know what the next 10 years will look like.

I can personally identify this period of my life, because I decided not to go to the university right away while all my friends were looking for diplomas without a clear answer on the work that the degree would give them. I remember being a vagabond at my parents, work in a retail store and party. I also remember when I returned to school to find a better job.

Repeating to my own stories, like those of Bo and AO, I realize now that even if I thought it was super important and so stressful, it was finally not. It is difficult to connect with both tracks when both of their feelings appear as personal importance in the egocentric vacuum of twenty. The Bo's dialogue is prey to its anguish about things like ... change apartment and try to find a job. Their friends are eclectic hipsters in the same space, speaking of similar problems around a barbecue. Not once the game offers something new or totally unique to allow you to take your place in its history.

Where Max in Life is Strange can go back in time to change its point of view, or the gone home environment leaves you with the clues to reconstitute, no longer home can not stick the landing to authorize the agency of player and construction of the world. He just has a lot to say instead of showing you. They play with the idea of ​​recognizing their own privilege, but I could not commit to it. Yes, they face experiences and important life choices. However, when you enter thirties, you quickly realize that all this personal importance is a trifle, especially through a pandemic that affects the world in a profound way.

Overall, it was difficult to take an interest in the story of Ao and Bo. The dialogue was a chore. The prospects of the character often changed too fast. And by ironing their dilemmas, again and again, I found myself not to want to play. I just prefer to go out a beer and tell them in person and let them know that life will be fine. High school and college are just footnotes in, hopefully, a long healthy story of yourself. In the end, if you are at this particular moment of life, it could be worth living their story. But if you have passed it, you may not find much here with which to resonate.