Adventure · 2020 · The Game Bakers · local
Haven
Two people ran away together and now live on an abandoned planet off whatever they find there.
What it is about
Yu and Kay are a couple who ran away from home together, because somebody there had decided their future for them. They are stranded on a planet made of fragments, crossing it on glide boots — the whole ground is threaded with energy flows you slide along instead of walking.
Half the game is that movement and the other half is daily life: gathering plants, cooking, extending the nest, sitting down and talking. There are fights too, turn-based and in lockstep — both choose an action, and striking at the same moment does more.
Playing as a pair, each of you takes one of the two, on split screen with one copy or over Remote Play Together. Both can do the same; there is no lead role and no supporting one.
Our verdict for couples
Yu and Kay ran off together because somebody wanted to separate them, and are now settling in on an abandoned planet. Each of you steers one of them, gliding side by side across the surface and dealing together with what daily life demands: gathering, cooking, resting, making up. Even the fights run in lockstep — strike too early and you wait for the other, or the attack only half counts. For a couple that makes for a strangely close experience, because the game is telling the same story you are living. After twelve hours, though, you have cooked every recipe and fought every fight twice, and that is exactly where the press scores hang.
Pros
- One copy is enough on split screen
- Both roles can do exactly the same
- It tells the story of the very thing you are doing
Cons
- After twelve hours you have seen it all
- The story runs on dialogue; skip the reading and you lose the thread
- The fights start repeating early
Suitable from
Casual
- Conflict potential
- Serene
- Cosiness
- Very cosy
- When you can stop
- After 30–45 minutes
- How long it lasts
- 5–15 hours
What other co-op fans say
Strikingly often, people here write about the person they played it with — and just as often about the person they wish they could have. Praise goes to the fact that it works with somebody who otherwise does not play, and that playing alone misses the point. One practical note comes up repeatedly: over Remote Play Together it is a struggle; split screen is what is meant. The criticism is not about the co-op but about the game around it — some find the combat and characters too thin.
- “A really nice game to play with your partner, even if the person is not *that* much of a gamer. ..........which is not my case! My partner is the best gamer. Love you, babe.”
- “Not really oen to be played alone. Play with a partner via remote share, or by swapping the controller back and forth if you must. Aside from that, its cute. I enjoy it :)”
- “I couldn't get through much of this game because the characters felt unlikable, the gameplay shallow, and bad writing.”
Summarised by machine from 60 Steam reviews, not written by our editors. The quotes appear verbatim in those reviews.
If you like this one
Runs on the same devices as this game.
Fourteen professions on an island you build up, plus a trip to a past age you build up as well.
Four knights punch their way across the kingdom to rescue princesses. That is all the plot anybody needs.
The Lord of the Rings: War in the North unreviewed
A Middle-earth role-playing game for three that finally gets a split screen on PC.
An action role-playing game in a grim world where two people can set out from one television.