In Home Sweet Home : Online by Yggdrazil Group, you have to do what you can to hang onto your humanity–until the rules change on a dime, and you become the hunter who stalks the darkness for fresh blood. Four players then struggle to survive against the beast’s onslaught. It’s a familiar gameplay scenario, but there’s a big difference with Home Sweet Home : Online’s structure: It does away with the imbalance issues and clogged lobbies that plague other “massive monster versus tiny hunters” 4v1 games. There’s no delay, and easier matchmaking.
Home Sweet Home : Online’s mechanics guarantee that everyone is playing by the same rule set, so you always have a shot at coming out on top. Everyone starts every match on the same footing, but strategy, planning, and teamwork are still the keys to a win.
That’s because Yggdrazil’s rebalancing of the traditional 4v1 match reinterprets the genre by making Home Sweet Home a 4v4 PVP game. The battlefield in Home Sweet Home : Online is dominated by the “hunted” (Visitors) while the numbers for the “hunters” (Wardens) are much thinner. This careful balance ensures you’re never waiting to get back into the fray.
When you’re dropped into a Home Sweet Home : Online match, you and the other players must find and pray to their ritual altars to receive a “Warden Soul.” Using a Warden Soul turns you into a Warden, a ghostly beast that can kill with a touch. That’s your invitation to work your dark magic on the rival team–but they won’t surrender easily.
The Warden’s life energy drains over time. Once the gauge is depleted, the Warden loses its Soul and reverts back into a visitor. Teammates can regenerate their Warden’s HP at their altars, and can acquire the Warden Soul for themselves again.
A Visitor’s death is good for one point. Visitors can respawn by reviving each other, or by waiting for their death timer to deplete. This gameplay adjustment lets you keep on playing instead of waiting idly by for the match to end. At the end of the match, the team with the most points wins.
Horror survival fans who are already familiar with last year’s Home Sweet Home : Survive will notice how Home Sweet Home : Online is designed to be a tighter, more polished experience. All that said, if the chaotic asymmetry of typical 4v1 games is your jam, you can sate your craving with Home Sweet Home : Online’s “Survive Mode.”
Home Sweet Home : Online has hidden depths. A system of Curses and Relics lets you create your own unique fighting style. There’s a dedicated community that’s eager to help newcomers, as well as challenge veterans. You can design your own character and your own skins. The dev team listens closely to their fans, and is transparent about news and updates. Yggdrazil Group promises swift updates that will never leave you feeling bored. Not that it’s easy to get bored when your own worst nightmare is chasing you through the bloodied woods.
Home Sweet Home : Online is free-to-play. It arrived on Steam on June 22, 2023. If you’re a player, look forward to upcoming updates like an academy system that’s meant to keep the community engaged and growing. For more information, keep an eye on Home Sweet Home : Online’s official website, or visit its Twitter, TikTok, Reddit, Discord, Facebook, and YouTube.
