Home Behind 2

Sometimes I'll browse Steam hoping to find the same kind of magic flash games had from 2007-2013. To which end, Home Behind 2 is a great continuation of the "premium" genre of flash games, particularly: Strike Force Heroes, The Last Stand: Union City, Sonny (2) and Sinjid (Remake). Overall, it hits all the aspects I was looking for at the discounted price. With the amount of content and replayability, I'd say the product earns its $10 price tag. The presentation and style are well done. The character/background designs, color tones, overall art style, (and the drawing of the guns) indicate the work of a mature and refined artist. A prejudice I hold against Chinese visual design in modern pop media is the artists and designers will often steal design elements from other IPs without caring about the integrity and "soul" of their characters. I am pleased to say that the art and design is in possession of its own integrity and soul - elements that I see echo SFH, Last Stand, Darkest Dungeon, Sinjid, etc. are done in a artistically respectful manner; borrowing rather than stealing. The one minor complaint I have about the design is that it is slighly reminiscent of "lite" game design - a certain design language in which the animations and sprites are dumbed down in order to make it easier to port to mobile devices (which is far more profitable). This is due to the animation rigging being similar to games such as Earn To Die (2) and Hill Climb Racing 2. Writing wise, it's not going to win a Pulitzer, but I am surprised at the amount of mature nuance (in human relations, in world history, in politics) it has, and how it explores those topics with nuanced justice. Maybe I'm too old to find it as "good writing," but I think the story can likely touch the soul of many young teenagers to think more deeply about the world around them. The worldbuilding is also surprisingly nuanced. The encyclopedia entries are light, compared to Middle-Earth or Gundam, but in spite of that alongside the use of proxy country naming, the overall care put into the worldbuilding is such that Scaria feels like a country of its own - it has it's own generic-yet-grounded/rooted history and culture, rather than being a handwaved caricature of another country. The gameplay loop is fairly enaging, the mechanics are fairly deep in relation to the scope of the game (and its price). One weakness is that it tries to be both a desktop game and a mobile game, this makes the navigation and UI/UX weaker in both aspects. The overall exploration and combat tempo is a touch too slow for my liking. Perhaps this was intentional; for the player to spend more time within each encounter and each stage, in which case, I think the weighing is okay if audience is only meant to play/watch/experience the game once. However, there is a certain lightness, and therefore repetition within the gameplay loop. For players wanting to 100% the game or for speedrunners, the tempo becomes a burden in which the game feels artificially extended. The leveling and powerscaling is okay from the early to mid game, however, it shows itself as rather underdeveloped once you cross the hump into the mid-late game. I think the game should have been designed around a higher player level cap (enemies will outlevel you at the endgame), and there should have been more mechanics + perks to promote synergy and optimisation when it comes to team composition and equipment choice. I still don't know what giving a character their class' preferred armor and gun type does. I have only completed the game on the normal difficulty. I want to challenge the harder difficulties, but optimizing my gear, completing all the side and faction quests was exhausting and challenging enough, I can't say I'm really looking forward to trying it out on a harder dificutly.