Gone Home review

[chopemon]

Gone Home is a first person exploring game set in Portland in 1995. You play Kaitlin who returns home from a year long trip to Europe to discover that the house is empty. You must explore the house and find out what has happened to your family. There is no combat and there are no puzzles. You just wander round the house examining objects to learn about your family. The main story focuses on your younger sister and what has happened to her.

The game is beautiful. Not visually but with the sincerity and subtlety it tells the stories. There is no exposition, the game is a master class in environmental story telling. It tells you everything you need to know about the secrets of every family member without ever resorting to a cutscene or long exposition. You discover everything by yourself. The game celebrates being a teenager but is also touchingly tender about the trials of life for a kid that is a bit of a loner and outcast by her peers. I didn't fit in with a lot of people at school and can relate to the life the girl leads.

I don't want to talk about anything that happens in the story as it will spoil it for you. The game is truly special and maybe I'm just a bit high on emotion after playing a lot of it but I'm happy to call this a masterpiece. It is a world away from my Demon's Souls playthrough and proves just how wonderfully diverse games are.

It is made by the Fullbright Company who formed after they all worked together on the brilliant Minerva's Den DLC for Bioshock 2.

[nakamura]

So there is nothing at all to do in this game at all? It's just a vaguely interactive story, like one you could get on a dvd player.

The premise sounds great, pity it doesn't have puzzles.

[chopemon]

You have to search out the objects so there is a lot of opening drawers, lifting up objects to find other objects etc. You certainly don't just walk, you do a load of object manipulation.

This is nothing like an interactive DVD as it is about discovery rather than working your way through a plot that is playing out. This is about investigation and piecing together the story yourself rather than making choices like in The Walking Dead.

[Briareos]

Which format is this released on?

[chopemon]

PC and Mac but given Sony's trend I'd be amazed if this hasn't been snapped up for PS4.

[nakamura]

I must admit I do want to know what happens.

[VR46]

Same here.

Chopemon does it gives hints at all? sounds like it could frustrating otherwise if you get stuck.

Is ?13.50 on Steam at the moment for anyone interested.

[nakamura]

?13.50 is way too much for an interactive book.
That said I have been sat at work mulling over the basis of the plot after watching the Gamespot review.

[kingmobster]

I played this yesterday. It's definitely not an interactive book. ?13.50 is a low price for what you get. It shows, in the same way that Brothers & Journey does, that conflict in games doesn't have to be solved with any type of violence, and that you don't need an overt threat to you character to create tension in a game.

@DavidH: I wouldn't worry about getting stuck. It's not that kind of game.

I agree with chopemon. It's absolutely a masterpiece.

[nakamura]

How long is it?

[kingmobster]

It took me about three hours to reach the end, but I?m sure that there is more to explore if you want to.

[SuperBeatBoy]

Enjoyed the interaction, the house feels lived in. However i was slightly disappointed with the story and its resolution.

[Brad]

I really, really enjoyed this. It's not a game in any sense really but I do wonder what other way this story could possibly have been told. I think this was the perfect medium for it. Got it for a few quid. I would have enjoyed it much less if I'd paid ?14 for it though I reckon. Took about 3 hours I think.

[Lebowski]

Had a bit of a indie game love in last night and picked this and the Stanley parable up via a steam sale that is currently on, id not read much or anything about this game but id heard it was interesting, and it is that, i really enjoyed exploring this creepy house and finding out where everyone had gone, if I had to compare it to any game id say Dear Esther is the closets and i say if you didn't get on with that you wont find much to like here, this has more exploration and interactivity to it though.

For those wanting to take the plunge but think ?14 for an hour and half to two hours of gaming is to much it just went on sale at ?6 for the next few days as part of a Bafta game promotion steam is running, i also got this running pretty well on my aging dell i3 so was pretty pleased i could pay this.

[fuse]

Adding this to a pretty damn short list of games that have made me cry.