The only reason I own this is because it was part of an indie bundle that contained some good games I liked the look of. £15 for what amounts to a short novella is a ridiculous price really so even though I am the sort of person who wants to give everything a fair go that initial price barrier is what stopped me.

So I finally got around to seeing what the fuss was about and while I wouldn't call it terrible at all, it's certainly not GOTY material. I started off looking at everything I could (highly recommended to lower mouse sensitivity). Even though I had known about the hidden room with the key to the attic I left it til last since I felt I was going to explore this as intended. Interaction isn't heavy, you can pick up things like cups and specifically placed books but not everything else. There was a letter that lampshaded the whole "spooky flickering lights" trope that could lead you into thinking this is a horror game. It is not. It is much like exploring the ruins of a building in Fallout as you read old notes, follow along the corridors and come across the remains of the people and what happened to them. However since there is no combat, travelling outside the house or interacting with other people they had to ramp up the effort they put into the story and "level design".

The game is teenage lesbian love story with a heavy dose of rebelion. Girl meets girl, girl ends up becoming punk and rebelious like other girl, parents don't like what is going on, other girl has to leave, ect. While the summary may make it seem rather tripe, it's not that bad, it's just not that amazing either. The short story format probably hinders the kind of story they are trying to tell here since you don't get to know the characters long enough for what you find out about them to have much of an impact. While there are a few members of the family the story doesn't touch much on anyone else besides the youngest daughter. In fact you may forget you are playing as the eldest due to how little use of this character is taken. Despite this I actually was disappointed that I heard so little about the mother and father compared to the daughter. Pretty much everything in Gone Hom revolves around the youngest daughter and her girlfriend.

Set design is pretty good for the most part. There are places where thought is put into why certain objects are where they are, you can tell what happened there as a result. There's the rejection letter close to the alchohol, the pillow fort in the TV room, the opened clothes drawers in the parents room and the bottle of hair dye in the bathroom.

The last of which brings me to my next point, the journal entries. As you explore the house you will come across various letters and items. When you pick up certain ones a narrated journal entry of the star of the game is played. I assume that these are all from the book you pick up at the end. Of course the problem with telling the meat of the story through this journal is if you don't tear the pages out and spread them across the house then you have to leave them intact and the player spends most of their time wandering around not knowing much until the end where they spend 5 minutes reading up on a large percentage of the story.

So instead you get this story fed to you though intangible "audiologs" that are attached to what appear to be normal items at first glance until you put them down and cue the narrator. This isn't bad per se but it's clear that the developers had more focus on this being a story told through traditional means than they would have liked. They wanted the story to be told through exploring the house and picking up bits and pieces but they ended up relying a bit too heavily on the audio logs.

I smiled a bit at some points where nostalgia was used for audience hooks. There's a bunch of nostalgia spread around which seems to be one of the things that got critics hooked. The other is the lesbian romance.

Had the star of the show been a boy or the girlfriend switched with a boy then I'm sure people wouldn't have given this anywhere as much praise as it has gotten. While the VA for the star of the story delivered her lines brilliantly and with emotion, she was still voicing an average short story. The story was too short for the characters to properly hook you at all and the plot of it was rather standard life. I wouldn't be surprised if critics praised this because anything less would have possibly risked them being labeled as homophobes.

A book I read, The Lovely Bones, is somewhat similar to this in ways. Besides dealing with mature subjects it essentially features an outsider viewing their family unseen and how they live their lives. However the differences are plentiful. Besides being a written novel it benefits from it's medium and allows you to connect to the characters in the way that Gone Home didn't manage to do. The Lovely Bones also focuses on various family members including that of the outsider rather than mostly on a single one. You get a better sense of relationships as a result too.

Had Gone Home instead had the main character be a ghost viewing their family it could have really told a far more immersive story. You could have the family members actually be in the house interacting with each other rather than reading letters in an empty house. The story could have gone on a lot longer as a result allowing you to connect with the characters more. Why you could even affect at least the progression of the story by interacting with objects to influence the family members to do certain things. Though this would require far more writing, modeling and even animation to do this.

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Gone Home is an average story where the focus is clearly on one character and the others just serve support roles. Exploration is looking around a room, finding objects and letters that trigger story points and finding hidden rooms and passages because spooky inherited house reasons. There is a little thinking at some points to find and uncover certain points of the story but not much else.

All in all it's a risky buy even at 75% off. Not at all deserving of it's praise but it tries some interesting things that will hopefully inspire better people to have a crack at something great. Ask yourself, "Am I the kind of person that is drawn to cheap pandering that it can make me like an average story more than I ever would rather than feel somewhat insulted at the attempt". If Yes you might like Gone Home, if no then think about it before trying this because that teenage lesbian romance and rebellion story is the selling point here, not the exploration aspect.

The only reason I own this is because it was part of an indie bundle that contained some good games I liked the look of. £15 for what amounts to a short novella is a ridiculous price really so even though I am the sort of person who wants to give everything a fair go that initial price barrier is what stopped me. So I finally got around to seeing what the fuss was about and while I wouldn't call it terrible at all, it's certainly not GOTY material. I started off looking at everything I could (highly recommended to lower mouse sensitivity). Even though I had known about the hidden room with the key to the attic I left it til last since I felt I was going to explore this as intended. Interaction isn't heavy, you can pick up things like cups and specifically placed books but not everything else. There was a letter that lampshaded the whole "spooky flickering lights" trope that could lead you into thinking this is a horror game. It is not. It is much like exploring the ruins of a building in Fallout as you read old notes, follow along the corridors and come across the remains of the people and what happened to them. However since there is no combat, travelling outside the house or interacting with other people they had to ramp up the effort they put into the story and "level design". The game is teenage lesbian love story with a heavy dose of rebelion. Girl meets girl, girl ends up becoming punk and rebelious like other girl, parents don't like what is going on, other girl has to leave, ect. While the summary may make it seem rather tripe, it's not that bad, it's just not that amazing either. The short story format probably hinders the kind of story they are trying to tell here since you don't get to know the characters long enough for what you find out about them to have much of an impact. While there are a few members of the family the story doesn't touch much on anyone else besides the youngest daughter. In fact you may forget you are playing as the eldest due to how little use of this character is taken. Despite this I actually was disappointed that I heard so little about the mother and father compared to the daughter. Pretty much everything in Gone Hom revolves around the youngest daughter and her girlfriend. Set design is pretty good for the most part. There are places where thought is put into why certain objects are where they are, you can tell what happened there as a result. There's the rejection letter close to the alchohol, the pillow fort in the TV room, the opened clothes drawers in the parents room and the bottle of hair dye in the bathroom. The last of which brings me to my next point, the journal entries. As you explore the house you will come across various letters and items. When you pick up certain ones a narrated journal entry of the star of the game is played. I assume that these are all from the book you pick up at the end. Of course the problem with telling the meat of the story through this journal is if you don't tear the pages out and spread them across the house then you have to leave them intact and the player spends most of their time wandering around not knowing much until the end where they spend 5 minutes reading up on a large percentage of the story. So instead you get this story fed to you though intangible "audiologs" that are attached to what appear to be normal items at first glance until you put them down and cue the narrator. This isn't bad per se but it's clear that the developers had more focus on this being a story told through traditional means than they would have liked. They wanted the story to be told through exploring the house and picking up bits and pieces but they ended up relying a bit too heavily on the audio logs. I smiled a bit at some points where nostalgia was used for audience hooks. There's a bunch of nostalgia spread around which seems to be one of the things that got critics hooked. The other is the lesbian romance. Had the star of the show been a boy or the girlfriend switched with a boy then I'm sure people wouldn't have given this anywhere as much praise as it has gotten. While the VA for the star of the story delivered her lines brilliantly and with emotion, she was still voicing an average short story. The story was too short for the characters to properly hook you at all and the plot of it was rather standard life. I wouldn't be surprised if critics praised this because anything less would have possibly risked them being labeled as homophobes. A book I read, The Lovely Bones, is somewhat similar to this in ways. Besides dealing with mature subjects it essentially features an outsider viewing their family unseen and how they live their lives. However the differences are plentiful. Besides being a written novel it benefits from it's medium and allows you to connect to the characters in the way that Gone Home didn't manage to do. The Lovely Bones also focuses on various family members including that of the outsider rather than mostly on a single one. You get a better sense of relationships as a result too. Had Gone Home instead had the main character be a ghost viewing their family it could have really told a far more immersive story. You could have the family members actually be in the house interacting with each other rather than reading letters in an empty house. The story could have gone on a lot longer as a result allowing you to connect with the characters more. Why you could even affect at least the progression of the story by interacting with objects to influence the family members to do certain things. Though this would require far more writing, modeling and even animation to do this. ----- Gone Home is an average story where the focus is clearly on one character and the others just serve support roles. Exploration is looking around a room, finding objects and letters that trigger story points and finding hidden rooms and passages because spooky inherited house reasons. There is a little thinking at some points to find and uncover certain points of the story but not much else. All in all it's a risky buy even at 75% off. Not at all deserving of it's praise but it tries some interesting things that will hopefully inspire better people to have a crack at something great. Ask yourself, "Am I the kind of person that is drawn to cheap pandering that it can make me like an average story more than I ever would rather than feel somewhat insulted at the attempt". If Yes you might like Gone Home, if no then think about it before trying this because that teenage lesbian romance and rebellion story is the selling point here, not the exploration aspect.