Three Fourths Home: Extended Edition Review October 15, 2015

Three Fourths Home was an independent game title which originally released for the PC and Mac earlier this year.  The game touts itself as a visual graphic novel, and personally after having played it for myself, I can’t think of any better way to describe it.  Earlier this week, the game found itself on the PS4 and Xbox One digital marketplaces with the name Three Fourths Home: Extended Edition.  All of the original game’s story, graphics and achievements appear to have made the transition to console.  Is it worth your money?  Read our review and find out.

Editor’s Note:  A review copy had been provided to this website by the game’s publisher.  GameXcess.net has an official policy that we will guarantee a review of any game provided to us.

As Three Fourths Home started up I was immediately drawn in by its unique art style.  Immediately the color white filled my 40″ HDTV, and then the shadowed outlines of the game’s environment began to come into my view.  It is obvious the game’s developers wanted to portray the farmlands of Nebraska in the most unique way they could, and let me say they really did a great job in providing a fresh take on a corn-filled farmland.  Take a look at the game’s trailer so you can see what I mean.

As I said in my introduction, this is a game which has been described as a visual graphic novel, and for a game with this much of an emphasis on its story, you would think this review would want to talk about it in detail.  I mean, this is the website which features the So, What Happened? video series.  However, I have decided to keep this review as spoiler-free as I possibly can.  I went into this game knowing nothing about its background and I’m glad I did that, it would be horrible for me to try and direct anyone reading this review how I believe the game’s story should play out.  That all said, I just want to say that this game’s story rang a very personal tone with this reviewer.  As the game’s plot unfolded, I immediately felt a very deep connection with the game’s protagonist.  With the exception of our genders, I share a lot of similarities with Kelly, the main character of Three Fourths Home, and I don’t think that is unintentional.  There are a lot of in-game hints that the plot was based on a true story which happened to the game’s developer, and I would be really interested to know more about what their inspiration was to make it.  Beginning to end, this game’s story had me hooked, and I was not able to put my controller down until the credits rolled.

Once you complete the main game’s story, you’ll find a lot of extra content to interact with.  First off, there’s the game’s Epilogue, which unlocks right after you complete the game. The Epilogue does continue the game’s story and features new visuals in a new environment.  I recommend everyone play it immediately after finishing the game as it answers a lot of questions you may have.  Next up are three extra menus that unlock after completing the game. From here you can listen to the game’s soundtrack, read further stories written by one of the game’s supporting characters and view an important project alluded to in the story.  If you like the music, any track in the game can be played in its entirety. The soundtrack is very good and you can be sure I’ll be using the game’s radio feature to listen to every song.  I don’t want to go into too much depth about the other two extras the game features, but I just want to say that both of them succeed in fleshing out the game’s atmosphere and I’m happy they were included.

During my time playing the game I never experienced a single performance hitch, crash, or graphical tear.  The polish on this game really shines through.  The game’s art style may look minimal at first glance, but tons of little details can be seen occasionally fluttering in the background as you play.  If you want to know just how polished it is, I have to give props to whoever programmed the game’s rumble feature.  Crackles of thunder actually echoed through my controller very realistically, making it feel like I was actually playing this game in a thunderstorm even though I had clear skies outside my window.  This was a nice detail which, along with all of its other extras, in my opinion contributed to raising the overall quality of the game.

So it all comes down to this final question, is Three Fourths Home: Extended Edition worth your money?  Well, at a price of $4.99 US I would say it is.  While the game’s main story (not including the Epilogue) won’t take too long for some players to complete, the diverse amount of dialogue options the player has during the campaign is going to offer players a lot of replay value.  It also has multiple endings so achievement junkies might find a lot to like about that.  I know for sure that I’m going to want to replay this game multiple times just to see how other dialogue choices would play out.  I encourage you to do the same.

Three Fourths Home Extended Edition is out now and currently available on the Xbox One, PS4, PS Vita, PC and Mac. Game was reviewed based on the Xbox One version.