Why you should play "Gone Home"

[APersonHere]

I definitely say I have mixed feelings about this game. I don't really care whether or not you can truly call this a game, doesn't matter to me. My review below probably contains spoilers, so be warned.

Spoiler

To begin with, I quite loved Dear Esther. But this game... I can't really say the same. Yes, the story is decent, the voice acting is great, and the environment is well crafted. But at the same time, it's just too focused on characters and a setting that I find cliched. It's just your basic boy-meets-girl (sort of) kind of plot, forbidden teenage love, etc. Adding the lesbian aspect to it feels a bit tacked on.

As for emotional connections: I've already seen this story played out--in real life. My brother came out as bisexual at the end of his high school career. My first girlfriend (short-lived relationship) serves in the navy and is secretly engaged to another girl, and you could pretty much copy-paste the in-denial-Christian-parents between her and the characters in this game. Then there's *her* ex-girlfriend whom I'm still friends with who has conservative Christian foster parents who try to keep her from seeing girls and... yeah, I've seen all this play out before with levels of drama that outclass this game by far.

I know this game is set in 1995 and my experiences came about a decade later, but the essence is still the same.

So for me, this game is not new, or groundbreaking, or taboo. It's just extremely *awkward*. What kind of parents wouldn't do something like leave a note on the front door explaining the circumstances? A crazy uncle who leaves a big isolated mansion to an otherwise normal stock family? Personal, heartfelt notes that are not condensed into one secret folder (like a normal person would do) but scattered all over the house and in secret rooms? (That you happen to stumble upon a mostly chronological order?) I know there are game mechanics reasons to do it this way, but it certainly could have been incorporated far better. The tense atmosphere, the Amnesia horror-like vibe dissolves quickly, a bit of a letdown after the cover art and introduction introduce the game as being such. I didn't feel much mystery once the game became hyperfocused on Sam and Lonnie--all you had to do was keep moving forward to find the next element for a rather straight forward, unambiguous snippit of backstory. Also, bit of a cheesy and random feel-good ending that kind of makes everything that leads up to it feel a bit pointless.

It just doesn't feel like a $20 game. Maybe $10. Probably better off at $5. (I do say the same for Dear Esther in terms of pricing.)

 

[Yopaz]

This game is a magnificent example of what can be done with the medium, when creative people have a story to tell and a passion for telling it.

A mediocre first person adventure that's only originality is that it has
This would be forever ignored as an arthouse flash game on newgrounds if this were ten years earlier, and legitimately so.

Even then, it feels like a complete generation gap over the Sierra, FMV, and LucasArts days when something like this is given 9s and 10s when this is barely a step above the first Myst.

You know... the part that I removed is kinda a spoiler since that's what you're supposed to find out throughout the game. That said, I got that from the trailer. I was like OK, the big reveal is going to be

Spoiler

the sister is lesbian

Then I went and looked it up. Yup that's it. Still, edit your post and put some spoiler tags. If someone is interested in it they should find out on their own.

OT: I haven't played it and I won't. While a good story is good in a game I want more than a story. I am currently reading Steelheart for a story where I don't have to do anything. I'll play Tales of Xillia for a story where I am actually included in it. Walking simulators don't interest me.

 

[yamy]

Without a doubt in my mind, the best game released this year, and a solid contender for the best game ever made,

I've played games with a an artstyle like one out of a fairy tail and with a story that's like a Victorian Era play. I've played games where you clime giants the size of mountains to bring back the life of the woman you love. I've played games that had me crying over a group of quadrilaterals as they sacrifice themselves for others. I've played games where I was bawling over a robot essentially dying in someone's arms. I've played games where, when the wife of the character I was playing as told him that she was pregnant, I was happy for the two. I've played a game that dealt with something that isn't really well known, something that involves me personally, which is Aspergers and used it in a serious and touching story.

I've played tons and tons of games with depth that comes about through effort and style. I take insult to someone saying that this game, somehow is better than those just because it has a homosexual couple in it. Gone Home at least got a bunch of media buzz, the games that do so much more usually never even sniff that much. It's something destined to generate that buzz, be hailed as amazing, and then be forgotten.

Wow. The number of game whose plot you spoiled for me was staggering, including what I assume is a central plotpoint to Go Home itself. I know you tried to be non-specific but it really didn't work. Would you mind spoiler-tagging post like that in future?

Also, did you mean 'Fairy Tail' (the anime) or 'a fairy tale' (a kind of story)? Because I've played neither and would like to know which game you meant.

 

[Zhukov]

I liked it. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.825912-Gone-Home-Ye-gods-the-sweetness]

However, I'm certainly not about to start throwing around terms like "best ever".

Even leaving aside the "walking simulator" genre and small amount of content, the story was severely cliche at times.

 

[Festus Moonbear]

It's a good narrative... for a game. In the wider scope of art/entertainment, it's about on par with the average Young Adult novella, or episode of My So Called Life (if you're old enough to know what that is). This pretty much makes it one of the best narrative games ever, but maybe that's not saying much about narrative games. So I liked it, but it made me depressed at the same time. So I spent the next two weeks playing shooters, and now I'm happy again.

 

[Raikas]

You've hit upon the thing that sorta bugs me about a lot of the praise surrounding Gone Home. The game obviously strikes a very powerful chord with certain people. If some small stimuli (a bit of dialogue, fragment of text, musical or sound cue) reflects or references your own personal real-life journey, there's potential for tremendous emotional resonance. The closer you are to the demographics involved, the time period evoked, the family on display, etc., the more likely you are to experience such a reaction. It can be overwhelming, which means it can potentially wash away a game's shortcomings.

On the flip side, if the player can't relate to the setting and story personally, I'm not sure Gone Home does enough in terms of raw narrative structure and play mechanics to warrant the excessive merit. It's essentially a big ball of references that either matter to you or don't. If it's the former, you probably enjoyed the hell out of the experience and gave it a 9 or a 10. If it's the latter, you probably feel like you're taking crazy pills because you don't understand why the hell people are talking about this game.

Now it'd be a pretty boring and segregated world if people only ever enjoyed things they could relate to personally. Ultimately, the truly great games/stories manage to pull in the "outsiders" and make them care about what's happening. Gone Home, in my opinion, doesn't do this. If the references are alien or meaningless to you, you probably won't think overmuch of the game as a whole. This represents at least one degree of failure, which isn't to say the game is bad - because it isn't. It's just not the pinnacle of interactive storytelling so many are holding it up to be.

I think there's quite a bit of art (or entertainment products, if you prefer) that do an excellent job at something that's very narrow in scope - and if anything, I think that's a good thing. Don't people constantly complain about games that are made to appeal to as many people as possible? I can't see why a game that sets out to do something very specific can be called a failure (or even a degree of failure) for that.

Personally, I wasn't a fan - it's too short for my tastes, and the references were mostly not things that grabbed me. But I know a good number of people (mostly women 30-45) who haven't played a serious game (meaning something that's not just a phone-based time-killer) for ten years or more - and they all raved about it. And if that's not success, I don't know what is - I wish more games were made for more specific audiences and I hate the idea that if they do so that that's a degree of failure. I know you said that doesn't make it a bad game, but I'm baffled by the idea that we'd call a game a failure for not doing things that I don't think it's clearly not designed to do.

I guess that I see it the same way you do, but the reaction that bugs you is exactly what I love. I like it when people give their "best" or top 10 and don't pretend to be objective about it - and if people love this game, I'm totally okay with them thinking it's the pinnacle of modern adventure games if that's their honest reaction to it, y'know?

 

[Raikas]

Who cares about Ebert and his opinions on games? He was a hypocrite of the highest order and is now dead. Let his idiotic opinions rot.

Okay, I'm curious. Why was he a hypocrite? Obviously I disagree with his "games aren't art" belief, but he was certainly consist in his position - and I always respected the way he wrote movie reviews since I could read his comments on a movie he loved and still know that I would hate it (and vise versa).

 

[AnthrSolidSnake]

It was no doubt a nice experience, but it wasn't $20 nice. For $20, I could either play this for 4 hours tops, or I could buy Fallout: New Vegas and all of its DLC and play for well over 50+ hours. They were rather overzealous with the price of the game, especially with the content, or lack there of, that the game provided. I realize they probably put a lot of work into the game, as if looked nice, had great atmosphere, and an interesting and heart-felt story, but it's also incredibly short, and this is only a problem because there are games the same price or even less than that can offer much more of an experience over much longer. It was a good story, but not too much of a game to me, and since it was sold as a game, I am willing to compare it to other games that could potentially have more value to them.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

Wow. The number of game whose plot you spoiled for me was staggering, including what I assume is a central plotpoint to Go Home itself. I know you tried to be non-specific but it really didn't work. Would you mind spoiler-tagging post like that in future?

Also, did you mean 'Fairy Tail' (the anime) or 'a fairy tale' (a kind of story)? Because I've played neither and would like to know which game you meant.

Actually, I only ended up spoiling the plot of one game and unfortunately, it's rather specific in how I describe it, so for that I'm sorry. As for fairy tail, it was a typo on my part, the game I was talking about though is Odin Sphere.

And as for Gone Home's "secret", if you find out something within the first five minutes of playing the game then I fail to see how it's much of a secret. It's like how I said what the plot of Shadow of the Colossus is and don't think it matters at all because you find that out at the very beginning of the game. I think it would be a spoiler to talk about what the final result of Gone Home's "secret" is since you need to get to the end of the game for that.

But I will fix what I typed so other people won't be spoiled and I apologize for my carelessness.

 

[MysticSlayer]

I've read summaries of the plot and, unfortunately, I don't have enough faith in video game writers to trust that they can tackle its subject matter in any compelling way possible. Sorry, but every time the subject comes up in games it ranges from offhanded comments that mean nothing (which Gone Home isn't like) to being nothing more than reducing characters to eye-rolling pathetic, in-your-face, "living" political/cultural arguments, which Gone Home seems to be making itself out to be. I understand that it likely has a very touching story that I wish were told more often, but when characters only exist to make an argument, I tend to lose interest in them very quickly, making any touching aspect of the story lose impact. It's why I don't like reading religious fiction.

 

[LAGG]

Without a doubt in my mind, the best game released this year, and a solid contender for the best game ever made.

I contend, A Serbian Film is the best game ever made.

Who cares about Ebert and his opinions on games? He was a hypocrite of the highest order and is now dead. Let his idiotic opinions rot.

Agreed.

 

[LeoJaye]

Okay, wow.
I'm sorry for saying that the game could be one finest games ever made, claiming absolutes apprently doesn't turn out that well, heh. It was (and is) my opinion, and I honestly thought people would see eye to eye with me, but a lot of good points have been raised about the game, and I'd like to elaborate.

I don't think so. I just read the entire plot of the game on the Wikipedia article. sooo....

Ok, well you just missed the entire point.

HOWEVER, the game isn't worth buying. Not at the original $20 that Steam wants.

I agree with this. I only picked it up on steam when it was on discount. I was aware of the game before, but didn't feel like coughing up 20? for it. They should definitely cut the price in half.

I've played tons and tons of games with depth that comes about through effort and style. I take insult to someone saying that this game, somehow is better than those just because it deals with a hot topic issue in it. Gone Home at least got a bunch of media buzz, the games that do so much more usually never even sniff that much. It's something destined to generate that buzz, be hailed as amazing, and then be forgotten.

"I take insult to someone saying that this game, somehow is better than those just because it it deals with a hot topic issue in it." Because no great work of fiction ever did that.

I take insult in you taking insult in my taste of stories. Okay, I might have been a bit quick on the gun decalring it one of the best games ever made, though it is how I honestly feel.

Did you play the game? It's in no way trying to be "cheap attention getting game" or a preachy story on how [SPOILERS] "there's nothing wrong with being gay". It's a love stroy that just happens to be about two young women, there's nothing ham-handed or forced about it. I actually feel it's more about teenage insecurity, confusion and naiveté than it is about homosexuality. [SPOILERS]

And I say no to that. Games are already in many ways seen as an artform by some people, but in order for even more to do so, it doesn't need cheap attention getting games like Gone Home. I prefer games that are like The Beatles or Queen, ones that are seen as classics. Gone Home is the equivalent of a boy band.

I in no way meant that every game from now on should be like Gone Home. What I'm trying to say is: There are a lot of people who would greatly enjoy games like gone home, but are drawn away from games by the current image that video games have in the general public. Games are mostly known for war and murder and not for intricate storytelling.

On the flip side, if the player can't relate to the setting and story personally, I'm not sure Gone Home does enough in terms of raw narrative structure and play mechanics to warrant the excessive merit. It's essentially a big ball of references that either matter to you or don't. If it's the former, you probably enjoyed the hell out of the experience and gave it a 9 or a 10. If it's the latter, you probably feel like you're taking crazy pills because you don't understand why the hell people are talking about this game.

Well, I'm a 20 year old straight male from Finland and don't listen to Punk. I didn't grow up in America in the 90's, so there's absolutely nothing nostalgic to me about the game. The only thing I could relate to was that I've also been in love, and I believe alot of other people have been too. Of course I could be just a small minority of "outsiders" being drawn to a story that doesn't really concern me, but I honestly feel like Gone Home is a universal tale of love.

Edit: just realized OP invoked Edward Scissorhands in a Gone Home thread. We are now sworn enemies.

But I love you... D:

 

[Atlys]

I really enjoyed Gone Home, which surprised me because I think of Dear Esther as the worst thing I have probably ever had the misfortune of buying, even for 2 bucks. But Gone Home had something that Dear Esther never offered me: Interaction. Gone Home immersed you in the story by putting you in a house and setting you free to discover everything on your own. Dear Esther was a short movie in which "W" was your play button, and you had to keep it pressed the whole time or it would pause the movie.

As much as I liked Gone Home, it was probably not worth $20 bucks. It's too short, and while I enjoyed the experience, it had pretty much no replayability for me. I can see it as $5 dollars, maybe pushing $10. It's a cool story and experience, but I can get a longer, replayable game for the same price or cheaper.

 

[DarthSka]

Watched a full walkthrough, and boy does the word 'walk' really ring true for it. Didn't really enjoy what I saw. After the initial entry into the house, I kept having the phrase, "Is something actually going to happen?" ring in my head. The atmosphere was wasted considering what actually occurs, and the story was just another angsty teenage forbidden love tale. I was literally able to guess the main plot points, including the ending, just from the first diary entries. I don't particularly mind these types of games, but when the story is the main meat of the game, it has to be a good story. This story was just a snooze fest.

 

[Strelok]

anything drowning in 90's paraphernalia is an instant winner in my book

This, from Fox12, kind of cements what I'm talking about. If the references to the era do nothing for you, or if you require more than references to be impressed by a piece of media, Gone Home feels massively overrated.

I loved Gone Home, and I feel that if it came from the 90s, it is probably garbage (and I am not talking about the band, actually one of the few, no ever so few good ones from the 90s).

On Topic: Gone Home was great and wonderful story, music was awful, but didn't really effect the experience for me. Best ever and game of the year? Sorry no.

 

[Racecarlock]

There is no best game ever made. Just one's opinion of the best game ever made.

Gone Home, from the footage I've seen, just doesn't look very good to me. People throw around "Interactive storytelling", but is it? I mean, you just go around and pick up pieces of the story. Is that interactive?

I know I'm going to get hate for this, but FUCK THA POLICE. I think Skyrim is actually a very good example of interactive storytelling.

Think about it. Yes, there is a main story that you complete and it's pretty cliche. But along the way you encounter countless travellers, citizens, guards, bandits, thieves, witches, and creatures, all of which you can fight and talk to. The fights themselves are even a part of the story. "The giant winged beast snarled as dovahkiin used a bit more mana on his healing spell. Then, the great dragonborn swung mightily and repeatedly at the beast until it finally fell beneath his mighty axe."

And then there's the side quests and favors you can do for people. You get fame for them. You can go kill an evil vampire or clear a tomb of living skeletons. And the thing is that people notice this and thank you for it. You are a living legend, you help solve a lot of problems, you do come off as this legendary hero who helps the little man. Or you can kill civilians and guards and just rampage.

But the point is that everything you do has an effect on the people and the history of this huge land. You are, in essence, a writer. An unusually constrained writer for sure, but you still have an effect on the narrative by choosing who to help and what to do.

With gone home, it appears through the footage I watched that all you do is walk around and pick up pieces of a narrative that is already there. You can't change it, you can't interact with it, all you can do is look. That really doesn't seem like a big step forward for the medium to me. It just doesn't.

I also don't like "Best game ever" things, as they claim that everyone will like the game even if it's not their preferred genre. And judging by the comments above me, that doesn't seem to be true.

 

[DarkRawen]

Personally, it didn't do much for me. There was no real: "exploration" to be done, especially since you couldn't access a lot of the house in the start, making it seem like you were walking through some random mansion looking for keys to open doors. There was no "hidden" little details that gave you small hints, everything seemed too planned, and all together, it felt like I was walking through some stranger's house, looking at the stuff they laid out for me on a path where really, what you needed to do to proceed was to find the right item. The story was interesting, although I wish it had been something that you would uncover slowly, rather than something that was painfully obvious from the start.

I also feel like adding the MC's thoughts to what she uncovers, or at least give her a personality, would give us a more personal perspective of the story.

Of course, that's how I experienced it, and I can see how others would enjoy it more than I did. I was just rather disappointed.