Who doesn’t love facing overwhelming odds and being trapped deep behind enemy lines? Well, maybe not everybody, but that is precisely the sort of situation that we find ourselves in Home Behind 2.
The action takes place in the fictional country of Scaria, where a decade of internal turmoil has culminated in a revolution. While a part of the country is ravaged by war and people are still figuring out where their allegiances lie, Akadullah, the malevolent dictator, rules with an iron fist deep within the capital, protected by the might of his armies.
After finding yourself stranded behind enemy lines, you and a bunch of unlikely allies take up arms and begin a long and arduous journey to topple the regime once and for all. Without going much more into it, the story is nothing to write home about. For the most part, the dialogue feels too overdramatic. A lot of times, the characters feel completely out of place. It’s almost as if they were trying to make them memorable in some way, but they just ended up making the dialogue sequences feel like such a drag.
As for the gameplay itself, it’s got a lot of stuff in it, both good and bad, but I think that this can be a pretty divisive game, so you might want to read some more about it to make sure that you don’t end up disappointed, one way or another.
At its core, Home Behind 2 is a party-based RPG with real-time pausable combat and a strong focus on party and resource management. If you’ve played games like Darkest Dungeon or Iratus: Lord of the Dead, then you’ll find this game to be extremely familiar. It’s worth noting that, while you can play through the game once and be done with it, this is one of those games that was made with multiple playthroughs in mind.
The main reason why you’d want to replay the game would be due to all the gameplay possibilities that stem from the game’s vast array of classes, abilities, weapons, and, more importantly, random events. Besides that, the game also features a meta-progression system that allows you to unlock upgrades that will make your life easier in future runs. Therefore, there’s more than enough reason to revisit the game if you end up becoming a fan of the gameplay loop.
As you play through the campaign, you’ll slowly explore the map of Scaria, which gets increasingly more difficult the deeper you into the regime’s territory. At the same time, as the war continues, things will slowly escalate, so there is definitely a certain degree of urgency. The game doesn’t really force you to keep moving forward, since there’s no game-ending consequence for taking your time clearing every town and camp, but you might still want to prioritize.
During missions, you’ll scavenge resources, which you can then use to upgrade your camp and gain access to new mechanics and tools. Furthermore, you’ll also slowly build up your roster of companions, and this will allow you to send idle members in solo missions where they’ll gain resources and increase your reputation with various factions. A huge aspect of Home Behind 2 is the resource management, which comes in many forms. Whether you’re building up your stockpile to upgrade your camp’s facilities, crafting new weapons and armour, or treating and levelling up your companions, there’s a lot to keep track of.
When you’re not managing your war camp, you’re be exploring the numerous locales or fighting innumerable enemies. All these aspects of the game are interconnected, as one couldn’t possibly exist without the other. For the most part, the game can feel a bit grindy. However, I enjoyed how I was able to slowly build up my camp and equip my troops with better equipment. With that being said, exploration can feel monotonous, while combat is sort of a mixed bag.
The party system gives players plenty of options to customize their dream team of revolutionaries, but ultimately, I think it all falls apart since you can automize the whole combat system. Sure, this might not be the most efficient option, especially on higher difficulties, but I still found it to work most of the time. Essentially, it almost feels like it removes the combat from the game, since you don’t really have to think much about it. The end result is that you end up just having to worry about managing equipment, stats, and healing your companions. It will certainly not be everyone’s cup of tea.
Overall, Home Behind 2 provides a pretty compelling setting and a series of mechanics, but it ultimately fails to deliver a memorable gameplay experience. The combat is repetitive, the dialogue doesn’t match the tone of the game, and exploration feels pretty much the same throughout the entire game. Sure, this is one of those games where you can probably spend a hundred hours if you’re really into it, but I’m afraid that not many people will remember this game fondly. Hardcore fans of the genre will most likely find it fun, or at least engaging in some way, I certainly do, but you have to keep in mind that it doesn’t reinvent the wheel. For what it is, it’s pretty alright.
When you look at each individual aspect of Home Behind 2, whether that be the combat or the management side of the game, they might not seem like much or be the most compelling, but, as a whole, Home Behind 2 is greater than the sum of its parts. This is definitely not the kind of game that will appeal to everyone, and it surely isn’t one that I consider a “Must Play“, but fans of the genre should have no trouble having a good time with it. As long as you’re not expecting anything groundbreaking, Home Behind 2 won’t disappoint.
