Confabulation: Homestead Reviews

Same formula as the original Confabulation, with some additional gameplay mechanics. Great graphics, excellent audio. The world is inspired by the movie "Signs". The FOV is not as obnoxious as the first Confabulation. However, it is not as good as the first one. It might be because the first one had the novelty of gameplay. Or it might be because, overall, it is shorter, less grim, less scary (still great jumpscares), has less puzzles. The story is a bit lacking, although, I only got one ending so I might miss something here. The maze is really unfun and the lowpoint of this game. It feels like it was added only to pad the game. All in all, still a good game but the original Confabulation is way better despite the gameplay enhancements of this one.

I admit I didnt know what the heck I was doin durin' my attempt. Main issue was that I didnt manage to spot the alterations. I do realize there is a good game underneath. Gameplay here: https://youtu.be/vacUVmMzyUA

I love the "hidden object" style horror games in general, but this dev really kicked it up a notch. With their first game, it was the first I knew where you weren't just monitoring cameras, but actually looking for changes in your environment itself. For Confabulation: Homestead, the overarching story, puzzles that take thought but aren't frustrating, plus additional fear elements made it even BETTER. I was SO uncomfortable playing this in the very best ways. The sound design especially regularly caught me off-guard and made me whimper or just want to flee. I streamed the demo and my community adored it. When this released I snagged it immediately! Fun for both people playing and viewers, "Gaslight Yourself: The Game - Now With Aliens!" is just fantastic. I'm excited to give Endless Mode a shot! Also, I really, truly despise mannequins.

A very competently made game that had me jump quite a lot. All of the puzzles felt very well made, I quite liked it. I think the game starts to fall off a bit around the ending, but it didn't bother me that much. I really like how it adapted "Observation Duty" gameplay into a 3D format like this. I think there was more that could've been done with this though, overall I'm extremely satisfied with my purchase. This is a good game and I hope the developer keeps making good stuff.

These Confabulation games are awesome. The balance of jump scares, puzzles and suspense is phenomenal. I purchased both Confabulation games ("Confabulation" and "Confabulation: Homestead") and streamed them back to back because of how positively they were received by myself and my community. I can't wait for the next in the series.

The first one is great, this one is better. Its puzzles and observation duty with a better frame story, multiple endings, and improved puzzles

Graphics and the idea are overall great, the downside which doesn't make me want to finish the game is unfortunately the "mechanical" punishment which directly ends the game for no reason at some point. Probably this is done because of the small amount of puzzles available making it become a game in which you must do multiple runs to finish it. You're relying too much on variables and not enough on testing your own product and trying to understand what could make the experience better for the customer

Love the various aspects of the game- feels like a mix of Observation Duty and an escape room. The jump scares are effective since you are focused throughout finding the anomalies as well as solving the puzzles. The noises add the creep factor. Awesome game and fun to play.

A fantastic follow-up to the first Confabulation! There’s really no overlap in the two stories or settings (Homestead leans toward the extraterrestrial, while the original leans toward the demonic), so feel free to start with this newer and more polished game, but do consider the first one if you want a similar experience with a slightly different vibe or if you want to explore more of the Confabulation universe.

I'm a bit torn to not recommend this, having loved the original Confabulation, but this one simply falls flat as a successor. Although it boasts more puzzles and a bigger map, this follow-up title does little to build upon the previous game and in some areas does worse. Bunch of stuff under this explaining why, but this may have benefited from a bit more time in the development oven. [h2]Gameplay[/h2] There's something about the puzzles in this one that don't work, not in a mechanical sense but an interconnected way? They are a bit more fun than the first game, but they feel too isolated from the rest of the house. The prior game was hiding puzzle pieces all around the map in cabinets, nooks and crannies, under and above things, etc. This one is very on rails besides searching for the fuses and the shovel in hardmode. And that's a shame! You have this whole outside section and all this extra inside space to put things and get the player going all around and it's wasted! I feel like I only care about the house to not lose versus it holds the pieces I need to win since everything is so contained to its own puzzle room. The final "puzzle" being a maze, oh boy. I get the inclusion of the corn maze in something sci-fi/alien themed, but it's such a drag and seemingly has no danger. At one point I thought I had lost only for it to be a gag scare, which was lame honestly. If I hit multiple dead ends it would suck to lose (which is probably why there doesn't seem to be any sense of losing in the maze) but I feel I should. However, I suppose this is in line with the previous game as while doing the final puzzle you couldn't lose either. I'm not really even sure what the blinds mechanic does to the game. It's supposed to make it harder or something? I don't really feel like I interacted with the blinds much at all outside of my first run. Either the mechanic didn't need to be included or it needed a tuning pass to be threatening. [h2]Tone[/h2] The suspense and urgency is a clear step down from the last game. Sound design feels worse I think because of the blinds. When they're open a lot more noise happens ruining the tension; it's just obnoxious noise. The boarding also playing the sound every board is bad. The aliens don't... do much. Almost every time they appeared they were just in an A-pose. Compare that to the previous game where the demons were posed all over the place and animated actually doing things you can see it's an obvious downgrade. Lights don't turn off, they don't close doors, they rarely appear in the flashes; they don't pose any threat or scares outside of a face full of alien. And although neither games are master storytellers, the first at least had a conclusion that felt complete (even before the update that changed it from a suicide to a dream). This one... entirely cliche, rushed even. The first ending is kinda camp but doesn't make up for how boring and unsatisfying the two endings are.