Emily, Homebody’s main protagonist

A Nostalgic Trip

Exploring the living room in the remote house

An Unsettling Getaway

I do really appreciate the visuals and the general vibe that Homebody gives off. The killer was very interesting and his sound design was rather cool. He arrives at around 9PM when the same bolt of lightning strikes the power out at the house and you can hear him proceed to rip your friends apart with a knife one by one. You can run away and/or hide in a cupboard if you’re unlucky enough to stumble upon the killer. You’ll notice Emily begins to breathe heavily, the screen turns hazy and a close-up of Emily’s face appears in the top left of the screen. Stumbling upon the killer was always a tense moment and I credit that to the old-school style fixed cameras which aren’t always the easiest to navigate with but this only adds to the atmosphere.

After my six hours with Homebody, it became clear that the puzzles are the main attraction here, as it functions as more of an escape-room-styled game than it does a straight-up survival horror game. This heavy focus killed a lot of my enjoyment a majority of the time and I’ll put this down to me not being the smartest of gamers, as looking through the Steam reviews shows a very positive reception with lots of praise for the puzzles in particular. Unfortunately for me, these didn’t land and I found myself struggling more times than I did having a eureka moment, god bless the internet and game guides! The puzzles were cool and unique though and sort of all molded into one, making the entire house feel like one big puzzle to solve. For the times I didn’t need to refer to a guide, I did find myself muttering “oh cool” under my breath when I managed to solve something myself and sometimes I was just winging it, hoping for the best and getting lucky with the puzzles. Although they didn’t land for me and without spoiling them, there are some very cool puzzles throughout that are worth experiencing. There is also an in-game journal that will keep track of clues and important notes as long as you’ve interacted with them in a previous run which is a very useful touch I must say.

PS1 aesthetic cutscenes

Conclusion

Overall Homebody is a somewhat enjoyable horror(ish) experience that might be best suited to people who love a good puzzler. Unfortunately for me, this game falls flat a majority of the time. While it starts off with a good atmosphere and some great levels of tension and mystery, this soon dissipates after a few deaths and a frustrating puzzle. Maybe I came into this expecting something it wasn’t or maybe I’m not the full ticket and can’t work out simple puzzles, but it just didn’t land for me.

The fixed camera, PS1 aesthetics, and mysterious plot all work in this game’s favor, and even though I couldn’t fully keep up with what was happening with the story I still wanted to see this through to the conclusion to see if I could make any sense of it. I did have to refer to a guide to complete some of the puzzles during my six hours of playtime. Overall, I wouldn’t recommend this if you’re looking for something terrifying but it’s a shoo-in if you love to have your brain rattled as Homebody won’t be keeping you up at night, but it will make you think.