Tacoma (v2019.12.19)

A near-empty lunar transfer station becomes the stage for an intimate sci-fi mystery where every corridor holds traces of the people who recently fled it. Set in 2088, Tacoma casts you as contractor Amy Ferrier, sent to retrieve the station’s artificial intelligence after a catastrophic systems failure. Rather than fighting monsters or solving elaborate mechanical puzzles, you piece together a human story about corporate control, workplace bonds, fear, and survival. The mood is quietly tense and reflective, with the sterile comfort of a luxury orbital facility gradually giving way to a more unsettling picture.

Most of Tacoma unfolds through exploration and its clever augmented-reality reconstruction system. You roam detailed living quarters, workspaces, and maintenance areas while watching recorded crew conversations play out as translucent figures moving around you. Recordings can be paused, rewound, and fast-forwarded, letting you follow different characters, inspect their private communications, and revisit scenes from whichever angle reveals the most useful context. There is no traditional combat, no fail state, and little pressure beyond your curiosity, so progression comes from opening new areas and understanding why the crew abandoned the station. A first playthrough usually lasts only a few hours, but the density of environmental details rewards players who check every terminal, object, and optional conversation.

What makes Tacoma stand apart from many walking simulators is its use of space: the story is not simply told at you, but reconstructed through overlapping perspectives that often change the meaning of an event. The station feels lived-in thanks to convincing personal spaces, believable workplace chatter, and a future that looks polished on the surface while exposing familiar labor and privacy concerns underneath. Fullbright’s follow-up to Gone Home trades that game’s domestic mystery for a more ambitious speculative setting without losing its focus on character-driven storytelling. Fans of Gone Home, Firewatch, What Remains of Edith Finch, and thoughtful narrative adventures will find plenty to appreciate, while action-focused players should know that Tacoma is a compact, dialogue-heavy experience built around observation rather than challenge.