The first 15 minutes of Tacoma sets up big trouble in outer space

Tacoma is a first-person exploration game in the works at The Fullbright Company, the team behind indie hit Gone Home. It takes place aboard a space station overseen by a vaguely malevolent-sounding AI that may or may not have killed everybody on board. For one reason or another, they're all gone and your job is to figure out why. We got some hands-on time with it last year, and while there was clearly a lot of work left to be done, I thought it sounded promising. Now IGN has posted the first 15 minutes of gameplay, and I still do.

The video demonstrates Tacoma's zero-g and gravity-enabled environments, as well as the holographic representations of the crew that can be paused and replayed for viewing from different angles. It also makes clear that something has gone wrong very with Odin, the AI running the station, although whether that “something” is a HAL-like tendency to kill its meatbag oppressors is left unexplored.

The video will probably go a long way toward helping you decide whether Tacoma is a game you have any interest in: I'm intrigued and absolutely looking forward to giving it a go, but I wouldn't argue that people who look at it (unflatteringly) as “Gone Home but in space” don't have a point.

Tacoma is set to come out in spring 2017. Find out more at tacoma.game.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.