Developer/Publisher: The Game Bakers
Genre: RPG
Reviewed On: PlayStation 5
Also Available For: PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, PC
On December 3rd, 2020, French studio The Game Bakers released their sophomore title, Haven, which is about two lovers who, in order to be together, flee an authoritarian dystopia where everyone is matched up with a life partner. Being a big fan of their debut game, Furi, I was naturally very excited to see what they had to offer this time around, but in between publication of some early reviews by other sources and Sequential Planet receiving a review code, some troubling details came to light. Despite my excitement prior to its release, I wasn’t super fond of Haven’s core concept, because making stories about “forbidden love” between a man and a woman when much of the world is engaged in a culture war surrounding LGBTQ+ people is – in many cases, at least – rather tone-deaf. These misgivings turned into a full-on distaste when it came to light that a rather significant aspect of the game’s story involves the threat of the main couple being “recalibrated” to be with their assigned mates, which in conjunction with other aspects creates a deeply unfortunate implied question of “what if there was conversion therapy for straight people?”
Ultimately, Sequential Planet declined the opportunity to review Haven. However, at the beginning of March 2022 The Game Bakers released a free update to Haven adding the options to play as same-gender couples – either women-loving-women or men-loving-men – including a fair few reworked art pieces and basically completely re-recorded script with new voice actors for the gender-flipped versions of the protagonists. In light of this, we/I decided to re-evaluate our stance and at least give the game a more full and proper assessment, and so without further ado: here’s our review.
The Basics: Haven is an exploration-heavy action role-playing game wherein the player (or players, as the game has some light optional co-operative elements) assumes the role of lovers Yu and Kay as they attempt to carve out a life for themselves on a deserted planet. Much of the gameplay involves gliding around in gorgeous, vibrantly colored open fields picking up ingredients for meals and various knick-knacks you find while occasionally fighting off local wildlife infected by a mysterious substance known as “rust”. Combat is surprisingly simple, intuitive, and easy considering it involves simultaneously controlling two-characters in real time, and though it’s my least favorite part of the game it’s still very well designed… aside from being disorientingly noisy and cacophonous, particularly when it comes to the couple’s mid-combat voice lines.
By contrast, the gliding and exploration are a consistent delight. Traversal gives an excellent sense of speedy and flowing movement (though I do recommend turning the field of view up to its absolute maximum for best results) and the couple are charming little chatterboxes throughout all of it. Their voice lines during exploration don’t grate the way their combat lines do, and instead kept a near-constant smile on my face when they’d remark on various actions and sights even after I had long since stopped hearing anything new. Even though the environments are pretty simple and lacking in a whole lot of variation, I still loved looking around in new areas and finding new things in the world. Even standing still would yield sweet moments, such as sharing tender embraces that heal whoever has less health to match their partner’s current HP. How cute is that?
To that point, the game’s main draw is undeniably the dialogue and general dynamic between Yu and Kay. The relationship the game revolves around is one of the most genuine and fresh depictions of romantic intimacy I’ve ever seen because it doesn’t shy away from much of anything. Sure, a lot of their interactions are almost tooth-rottingly sweet, but Haven isn’t afraid to depict the less romantic aspects of a relationship either; everything from the grosser parts of everyday domestic intimacy to arguments is fair game, and it manages not to be trite throughout any of it. Moreover, I found myself consistently surprised by how the game isn’t afraid of sex either, again unlike 99% of media out there. There’s no outright sex scenes (though plenty of fade-to-black moments) but the discussions Yu and Kay have can be very frank at times in ways that made me go “wow the writers really went for it, huh?” well after I probably should’ve learned to expect it, and I’m very glad for that.
In addition to chatter during exploration, there’s a lot of banter to be heard in The Nest, the ship that acts as Yu and Kay’s home/base. As the game progresses the player can find all sorts of knick-knacks and decorations for The Nest, many of which can be interacted with or will in some other way trigger little vignettes between the couple. I absolutely adored every minor and major look these provided into the personalities and dynamic between the two of them, and by the end of the game I had developed a real attachment and fondness for the couple, though admittedly I wouldn’t have grown so strongly attached had I been forced to play as the heterosexual pairing.
Which brings me to assessing the “couple update”. It’s a very strong addition to the game, surprisingly thorough in what it replaces though not 100% complete. Loading screens show stills of moments between Yu and Kay, and though a fair few were redone to include the alternate couples not all were. I discovered this after looking through the game’s gallery menu, and when I did, I was very disappointed because I would have loved to see some of those scenes with the lesbian couple.
There’s also the matter of the matter of voice lines to consider. In addition to re-recording each of the two main characters’ voice lines with a new VA, many voice lines were re-recorded with adjusted pronouns or forms of address. I only remember finding two instances where lines fell through the cracks (though it’s entirely possible there were more that I either don’t remember or never discovered in the first place), and one of those was in an item description that was purely textual. The other was an instance where Yu said something like “you’re the biology guy” to Kay, which… while I doubt it was the intention, I do know several lesbians including myself who play around with Gender enough that we wouldn’t mind or would even enjoy being called “The ___ guy” by certain people we’re close with.
Either way, I do have to admit that the “recalibration” thing feels a lot less uncomfortable now. Still somewhat unsettling, admittedly, but in more of a typical dystopian fiction sort of way, something you’d see in 1984 or Brave New World. It no longer comes across as offensively tone-deaf, as straight people trying to make a hypothetical version of something horrible that really happens to queer people even today.
At the end of the day, I’m very glad that The Game Bakers released the couple update. I really enjoyed playing through Yu and Kay’s story and I don’t think I would have if they hadn’t made that effort to help people like me (and people like my men-loving-men compatriots out there) feel seen. I wouldn’t begrudge anyone who still feels put-off by it, given its missteps, but I respect the developers for going the extra mile – and believe me, I do recognize how much work went into this update even if it didn’t quite get to everything. Haven is a fun game with a big heart, and to me that counts for a lot.
Haven
More like GAYven, am I right???
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1 Comment
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M'K on
Thanks for submitting your comment!It’s disappointing that some people wildly misinterpreted a narrative aspect of the game and raised ire/pitch forks over an imaginary problem. I am completely for calling out homophobia, transphobia, racism and sexism in any medium – but this is the most bizarre “issue” I’ve ever seen people discuss about a video game.
Its premise is simple: the story is about a couple (Kay & Yu) who want to be together but the society they are a part of does mandatory matchmaking. They also discuss a recalibration machine that is introduced as a way to treat people with PTSD/trauma. In the het couple arrangement, they were both matched with other het people, so their sexual orientation is not the issue. Yu has two mothers so it’s implied that varied sexual orientations are part of this society.
To address the straw grasping that the only queer representation is a villain: there are only 4 human characters in this entire game. The couple, Yu’s mother and the Yu’s assigned partner. What’s interesting is that people are critical of Yu’s mother and are claiming that because she is queer and an antagonist it means queerness is being coded as villainous? Which is bizarre. Yet no one discusses at all Yu’s assigned partner (a cis-het man) who is entitled, dangerous, violent and an “insane” person (who the couple describes as such). He’s far more villainous than Yu’s mother. Yu’s mother is a high ranking representative of the society and is complicit in that she doesn’t go against the system and she doesn’t want to; she also knows the limit of her abilities (through her connections) to help her daughter. That is the antagonism aspect – it’s a very grounded and realistic. There also isn’t much tension or conflict if the mother is on Kay & Yu’s side.
As for the issue of the narrative focusing on how two heterosexual people are not allowed to love freely – its again – disappointing that this is even brought up. This story was pitched as “Romeo & Juliet in space”. The pitch is forbidden love – which can be for any sexual orientation. People can struggle to have their partnerships accepted by family, friends or society for other aspects including classism and racism. In Haven it’s implied that the matchmaker is designed as a tool for classism.
As for the recalibration machine being compared to “conversion therapy” it’s so absurd, it’s laughable. It’s nothing like conversion therapy. There is no comparison. At no point is a characters orientation problematic nor is it part of the focal point. Their sexual orientation doesn’t change. It’s about removing the memories of a specific person from their minds. A machine erasing parts of people’s memories is SUCH a common trope its bizarre people even brought the concept of conversion therapy into it. The “recalibration” in Haven has more in common with “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and “Men In Black” than anything else.
As for why the couple was heterosexual for launch, its possibly because the writer mentioned that they wanted to write a romance and they were reflecting on their own relationships (present and past). I also read that they wanted to make sure they avoided stereotyping “gender based roles” in a romantic relationship and it could be that was their main focus and that they wanted to nail that aspect down first.
I take serious issue with the line “making stories about “forbidden love” between a man and a woman when much of the world is engaged in a culture war surrounding LGBTQ+ people is – in many cases, at least – rather tone-deaf”. No, that is extremely tone-deaf of you. If your main criticism of a single game is that it has a heterosexual couple who aren’t allowed to be together, that is not a valid criticism. But saying “loading screens show stills of moments between Yu and Kay, and though a fair few were redone to include the alternate couples not all were…. I was very disappointed because I would have loved to see some of those scenes with the lesbian couple” that IS valid criticism, they should have tweaked all the loading screen images especially given how often the player stares at them waiting for the next area to load.
What’s really disappointing about some of these critiques, is that it misses the forest for the trees. We don’t have romance, sex and relationships normalized in games as they should be fullstop. We have cheap empty dating sims, and the occasional weak underwritten romance options in AAA games. They never portray actual relationships – it’s often written as wish fulfillment for high schoolers. What is absolutely shocking is that Haven lands a “M” rating. That really should be the focal point of more reviews – what does it say about the state of age ratings when a game promoting non violence and writing about sexual relationships in realistic way earns an “M” rating?
Well, glad you liked it anyway and I am glad that there is an acknowledgement that a tremendous amount of work would have gone into the character updates and that there is a more broad narrative accessibility through queer representation. I hope people learn to give the game a chance and see it for what it actually is.