Three Fourths Home - Faint tears in heavy rain

Originally released on PC back in March, Three Fourths Home split audiences right down the middle.

The mechanics are basic, the game is over within an hour, and its entire narrative is focused on a woman talking on her phone while driving. Which is illegal.
Yet the experience is - at times - as gripping and compelling as some of this year's biggest releases. Particularly the interactions between Kelly and her younger brother, Ben, which are both heart-warming and painfully awkward. Nebraska rain

After a visit to her grandparents' old home, you drive Kelly through the cornfields of Nebraska during a blistering storm, steering with the rear touchpad.

Kelly is 20 miles from home and the weather around her is getting increasingly worse. The game uses distance from home to let you know how far through you are, with changes in scenery giving you a visible sense of your progress.

Holding the right side of the rear touchpad accelerates the car, while the left side puts on the brakes, pausing the action. Using the shoulder buttons you then have a back and forth conversation with Kelly and her mother, her father, or her younger brother.

There are a variety of choices available to you in the dialogue tree, and each one will shape the story - and Kelly's relationship with her family - accordingly.

For instance, when mom asks you why you went out for a drive on your own in the storm, you can either bite back and say "I'm not a kid!" or apologise and tell her it'll never happen again.

Whatever you decide, your choices will impact both the main story and the newly implemented epilogue in this Extended Edition.

They also open up new dimensions to each character, all of whom have their own issues to scratch at.

Nebraska is where I'll stay

In addition to the epilogue, the Extended Edition has tweaked the main game so that some of your dialogue choices affect the story slightly differently.

A radio has been added so you can listen to music in the background while driving, and there are some additional stories and photos which give further depth to these mostly non-illustrated characters.

Despite the inclusion of all these extra features, it's still a bit steep at £5.49. For a game that you'll likely only play once or twice, and with similarly priced titles offering much more bang for your buck, it's a bit of an ask from Digerati Distribution.

But Three Fourths Home dares to be different and should be commended for trying something fresh with a format most publishers and developers seem to have forgotten about or neglected entirely.

Three Fourths Home - Faint tears in heavy rain

Three Fourths Home is practically over before it begins, but the themes, characterisation and narrative direction will haunt you for a long time afterwards
Score
Ray Willmott
Ray Willmott
When not objecting to witnesses in Phoenix Wright or gushing over Monkey Island, Ray does social things for Steel Media. He also pretends to look like Han Solo in his profile picture.