THE LONG JOURNEY HOME Review for Xbox One

The Long Journey Home is a space adventure exploration game developed by Daedalic. After an award winning PC release, Daedalic recently released The Long Journey Home on both Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

The game starts by choosing four crew members capable of performing many different tasks. These four crewmen are then flung far across the universe after an accident occurs during the first hyperspace jump. These four end up being stuck together for a very long time and end up displaying some surprising and interesting personality quirks.

After being stranded on the other side of the universe, The Long Journey Home does a great job of making the travel back to earth feel like an impossible journey. From encountering aliens to landing on a planet to catching some odd infection, the player is always battling against one thing or another in an effort to make it just a little further. The player is given every opportunity to make choices that affect their mission’s well being. Picking up an alien device on a random planet could end up with the entire crew becoming infested with tiny critters or further investigation into a site could leave the player with an uncomfortable dilemma – do I take this resource or leave it for the helpless race of aliens watching as the decision is made on whether or not to wipe out their civilization so the crew can make it to the next star system.

The game itself feels very reminiscent of a bygone era, taking three favorite childhood classics and inserting them into a very interesting setting. The Long Journey Home feels very akin to The Oregon Trail, a classic that most everyone has at least seen screenshots from. The brutal march through the solar system feels very much like the cold march westward made in many a middle school computer lab. Gathering resources feels very inspired from both Asteroids and Lunar Lander, having to either navigate an asteroid field or land on a planet to collect resources.

Overall, I very much enjoyed the time I spent with The Long Journey Home. It keys in on one of my very favorite mechanics, discovery, while hitting a ton of nostalgic undertones with its gameplay. I found myself continuously wanting to see what was next and what else was out there for me to find. I always felt like I was in control of my own destiny and felt like all of my decisions would have lasting effects on my ability to make it back to earth. The pacing was exactly what I wanted for a relaxing afternoon of gameplay and managed to keep me invested and intrigued with the suspense of what was coming next rather than the excitement of explosions.

Unfortunately, The Long Journey Home arrives at a time where it is going to have to contend with some heavy hitters this December. I really enjoyed this game, so much so that I did not want to turn it off. The 40 dollar price tag is very fair for the amount of content. I would definitely recommend The Long Journey Home to anyone who enjoys thinking their way through challenges and is not afraid of what the unknown emptiness of space holds for them.

Score: 7.5/10

Check Out The Long Journey Home Release Trailer:

The Long Journey Home is available for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC via Steam.