Why you should play "Gone Home"

[LeoJaye]

Without a doubt in my mind, the best game released this year, and a solid contender for the best game ever made, it is a crime that Gone Home is still so widly unknown.

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. Though not exactly a "game", but an interactive storytelling experience (a bit of a douchey way to put it, but whatever), Gone Home is one of the most gripping and emotionally engaging works of fiction I have come across, and I don't believe it could have been accomplished to such a degree in any other form.

In the game you take the role of a young woman who has just spent an year abroad and return home only to find an empty house. You then start to explore the house to find out what has happened to your family while you were gone. I can't really go in to more detail about the plot without going in to spoiler territory. The game is essentially a romance story, though the narrative does explore other subjects such as social anxiety and sexuality, and does it all very intelligently and movingly. I'd put it in the same category with films like; The Breakfast Club, Juno, Say Anything or even Edward Scissorhands.

Playing the game was a beautiful experience and I was moved to tears more than once.

I usually don't feel like advertising games that I loved, but in this case I felt compelled to do so. Gone Home needs to be more well known, not only because it's a great game, but because in order for games to be considered an art form in the general public, games like Gone Home need to show more prominently.

 

[josemlopes]

From what I have seen nostalgia and dealing with the hot topic of the month arent enough reasons to convince me to play the game. I dont have a problem with the so called "walking simulators" (I somewhat enjoyed Dear Esther and The Stanley Parable is actually a very cool game although its game mechanics are hidden behind the choices the player makes, its more traditional in that sense) but Gone Home really looks like something you would pitch if you were trying to sell a game idea to a bunch of indie developers (the shitload of 90's shit and the ham fisted taboo topic).

 

[Someone Depressing]

I haven't played it yet, but I will.

And on the subject, I'm sure if you make Ebert play through Yume Nikki at gunpoint, he wouldn't change his opinions about games as art. Hell, even if you held him at cup of tea and slice of vanilla and raspberry cake point.

Games are viewed as juvenile, and childish. I guess you can blame the old Atari porn games and the plethora of totesterone fuelled shit that has oversaturated the industry. It's just something that we'll have to grow out of in time.

 

[DudeistBelieve]

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

Spoiler

Why couldn't Sam had just written on the note "I'm gay, running away with my lover. Parents will be back tomorrow! BY SIS!" instead of being a dick and making her sister play fucking Batman? It's not like her and Lonnie knew where teh fuck they were going anyway.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

The game is emotional, the map is alive in culture despite its emptiness, the voice work is really good, the side stories are adequately told, the interactive part of the game really makes a lot of the discoveries of the story really well paced and have a bit more emotional drive. When you notice a tiny detail, examine it a little closer by picking up a part of it, and then the narrative begins to tell you the significance of that scene -- well, that's what interactive stories should be like! It was a detail you could have passed if you hadn't done a little exploring in the map. It tells a really good story of the hot topic it moved into, and it is easily the best story I've ever run into that truly understood teenage activities and teenage interactions.

HOWEVER, the game isn't worth buying. Not at the original $20 that Steam wants. The game, even if you have no idea what you're doing, is going to take you two hours at most to complete, because the game is pretty much designed to play itself for you. It's one short story, one map, and it has virtually no replay value. If the game were on sale for $7.50 or $10 then go right ahead and buy it, but it's just not worth dropping $20 on. There are longer and less expensive movies you can watch (probably the worst insult you can give to a game!), there are other games that are longer in length but still have great interactive storytelling. (To The Moon and Thomas Was Alone pops into mind.)

Can I use this rest of this post to say how good To The Moon and Thomas Was Alone are? Because both games are unrivaled in storytelling. Thomas Was Alone, I have no idea how it did it, created incredibly memorable and distinctive characters using only a few lines of dialogue. To The Moon is an absolute showstopper because the situation was the right amount of make-believe and science fiction, each little subplot was interwoven in the entire story so well, the game's completely unorthodox storytelling element of telling someone's life backwards was a fresh breath of air, and the characters were great. Nothing like the characters in Thomas Was Alone, but they were fun.

The way I see it, Thomas Was Alone is $15 and To The Moon is $10. Buy both of those games together for $25, it's only slightly more expensive than buying only Gone Home, and it's going to last you a lot longer.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

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

No.

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.... Fine, I'll say more so I don't get a penalty.

it is a crime that Gone Home is still so widly unknown.

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. Though not exactly a "game", but an interactive storytelling experience (a bit of a douchey way to put it, but whatever), Gone Home is one of the most gripping and emotionally engaging works of fiction I have come across, and I don't believe it could have been accomplished to such a degree in any other form.

I've played games with a an artstyle like one out of a fairy tale 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 characters 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 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.

In the game you take the role of a young woman who has just spent an year abroad and return home only to find an empty house. You then start to explore the house to find out what has happened to your family while you were gone. I can't really go in to more detail about the plot without going in to spoiler territory. The game is essentially a romance story, though the narrative does explore other subjects such as social anxiety and sexuality, and does it all very intelligently and movingly. I'd put it in the same category with films like; The Breakfast Club, Juno, Say Anything or even Edward Scissorhands.

Playing the game was a beautiful experience and I was moved to tears more than once.

I usually don't feel like advertising games that I loved, but in this case I felt compelled to do so. Gone Home needs to be more well known, not only because it's a great game, but because in order for games to be considered an art form in the general public, games like Gone Home need to show more prominently.

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.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

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

Spoiler

Why couldn't Sam had just written on the note "I'm gay, running away with my lover. Parents will be back tomorrow! BY SIS!" instead of being a dick and making her sister play fucking Batman? It's not like her and Lonnie knew where teh fuck they were going anyway.

It may as well have been a short downloadable Ebook on Amazon then. Four pages long, the book begins and ends in eight minutes.

I'm not going to defend the story, I'm not going to tell you why a note on the dinner table would have been out of the question. It happened that way because there wouldn't have been a story if everything worked out right away, there wouldn't have been any character development, and there would have been no mystery.

That applies to any story, really.

 

[FieryTrainwreck]

"Why you should play Gone Home" - they were all out of The Stanley Parable?

Plenty of people have rained on this particular parade already, so I'll keep it short: I think the critical acclaim, the endless string of 9s and 10s, piece after piece droning on and on about how brave and wonderful this game is... way overblown. It's a high quality recreation of a house used to tell a "slice of life" story while leaning almost exclusively on a combination of referential material and (what some perceive to be) a "controversial subject". Is it different? Somewhat. Is it good? Meh. No one can dispute the quality of execution here, but I think plenty have (rightfully) disputed its validity as a game.

People are obviously entitled to their opinions, and I don't fault anyone for enjoying and/or loving Gone Home. But I do think holding it up as some pinnacle of interactive storytelling is a stretch. Other games have done a far better job of marrying narrative to game mechanics, including Portal, The Stanley Parable, Shadow of the Colossus, Journey, Prince of Persia, and others. These games leave you with agency and an actual role in the proceedings while more effectively subverting classical mechanics and player expectations.

 

[Thoughtful_Salt]

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

Spoiler

Why couldn't Sam had just written on the note "I'm gay, running away with my lover. Parents will be back tomorrow! BY SIS!" instead of being a dick and making her sister play fucking Batman? It's not like her and Lonnie knew where teh fuck they were going anyway.

kind of missing the point there. If things were only that simple then there wouldn't be any need for games like this. Still, the plot works best if you actually play through it, figuring things out on your own and exploring every facet of the greenbriar home.

 

[Bostur]

I'm a little torn on the matter. I did enjoy it while it lasted, but it left me with a feeling of incompleteness. The story doesn't have any major developments, and the characters doesn't seem to grow. It's off to a good start and then suddenly it goes "And they lived happily ever after, The End". It feels immature in its writing, which one could say matches the character who writes the diaries, but even then it does need to have an audience.

The 3D environment is expertly done, but I think it lacks enough of a reason to be there. The 'player' and the character controlled by the player doesn't get involved much. I'm not saying it needs traditional gameplay mechanics, but the player should be part of the experience in some interactive way.

It is a decent attempt at interactive storytelling, but a little pricey for what it is - a quaint experiment.

 

[norashepard]

I loved the game, like, a lot. But I do understand why a ton of people don't like it nearly as much. It's all heart and heart is a very hit and miss thing. Some people will hit this game at just the right angle, play it at just the right moment, or just be the right person, and be amazed. Others will be cynical for no fucking reason and hate it because they think it's trying to shove some issue or another down their throats, instead of just giving it any kind of chance. But just because YOU don't get it, it isn't a bad game. I think that the Stanly Parable was a piece of shit, but a ton of people love it, so clearly it went right somewhere that I don't get. Gone Home does everything right that it needed to do right for me, and evidently OP too. It's awesome.

 

[Stainlesssteele4]

When I have trouble explaining what makes something a 'game', then I have a good reason to not call it one. Gone Home is just story telling wrapped up in pretty set dressing, and while I have no problem with it existing, I have a major problem with calling it a video game. I've been told multiple times that it is the crowning example of video game story telling, and I can't help but be bothered by that idea; a game, stripped of everything that makes it a game, can be the pinnacle game narrative.

Let me explain my line of thought here. If a movie were to introduce another element, would it still be able to identify as a movie? If the audience was given remote controls, and had a part to play in the movie, we'd have to come up with a new moniker. Take 'Choose your own adventure' books for example: they were given a descriptor to warn or advise readers that it was no ordinary book, and it required reader input. If they had just been sold, without this branding, it would be slightly confusing to readers at first, and a small few who aren't interested in this subgenre would be upset. This is why I have a problem with Gone Home being called a game. It is not a game, and it being marketed and sold as one is misleading, and thus needs a new branding. I'd guess 'interactive narrative', but the interactivity is even questionable, since input is no more impactful than turning a page.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

I honestly don't see these "games" as true games, they're more like interactive cinema than a game... Its just my view but I really think its time to place these IC's in their own category because while "immersive" they're more visual novels than anything. You don't really affect the world, you don't really do much of anything except see things. Its just difficult for me to call these games because there's a lot of show and little actual substance. Plot, yes. Narrative, yes. Atmosphere, yes. But these are qualties of storytelling, not gaming. Gaming requires more than a little bit of interaction and free-roam.
I never thought of The Hobbit as a game, but I did experience it through a great imagination. I'd love to see more of these interactive-cinematics/novels/whatever (I just wont' call them games). And I sure as shit am not paying $20 for less time it takes me to solo all the older raids in World of Warcraft.

 

[RedDeadFred]

It's a subpar faimly drama story. I'm not knocking the interactive story/walking and exploring games but those games have to have a good story (The Walking Dead -ya it's a bit more but you get my point) or a cool gameplay mechanic (Stanely Parable). Gone Home is mediocre at best and ludicrously overpriced. It is honestly my most regretted purchase.

 

[FieryTrainwreck]

I loved the game, like, a lot. But I do understand why a ton of people don't like it nearly as much. It's all heart and heart is a very hit and miss thing. Some people will hit this game at just the right angle, play it at just the right moment, or just be the right person, and be amazed. Others will be cynical for no fucking reason and hate it because they think it's trying to shove some issue or another down their throats, instead of just giving it any kind of chance. But just because YOU don't get it, it isn't a bad game. I think that the Stanly Parable was a piece of shit, but a ton of people love it, so clearly it went right somewhere that I don't get. Gone Home does everything right that it needed to do right for me, and evidently OP too. It's awesome.

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.

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.

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

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well except for the game part it's great, what you are really buying is an audio book of family drama.
If you expect to be doing any playing you will be disappointed, and if you expect anything of consequence to happen you will be disappointed as well.

 

[Fox12]

I haven't played it yet, but I will.

And on the subject, I'm sure if you make Ebert play through Yume Nikki at gunpoint, he wouldn't change his opinions about games as art. Hell, even if you held him at cup of tea and slice of vanilla and raspberry cake point.

Games are viewed as juvenile, and childish. I guess you can blame the old Atari porn games and the plethora of totesterone fuelled shit that has oversaturated the industry. It's just something that we'll have to grow out of in time.

Well, Ebert gave Prometheus a better review than Lord of the Rings, so I don't think he's qualified to review films, much less video games.

In any case, I liked it. It did a surprisingly good job of developing all the characters, despite the fact that you never meet them. The environments were nice too. It seemed very heart felt and sincere, and anything drowning in 90's paraphernalia is an instant winner in my book. I wouldn't call it mind blowing, but that's just personal taste. A nice little indi-game.

Incidentally it was pitched to me as the best survivor horror game of the year, so it wasn't exactly what I expected

 

[MoeMints]

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 LGBT issues as a factor?
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.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

I loved the game, like, a lot. But I do understand why a ton of people don't like it nearly as much. It's all heart and heart is a very hit and miss thing. Some people will hit this game at just the right angle, play it at just the right moment, or just be the right person, and be amazed. Others will be cynical for no fucking reason and hate it because they think it's trying to shove some issue or another down their throats, instead of just giving it any kind of chance. But just because YOU don't get it, it isn't a bad game. I think that the Stanly Parable was a piece of shit, but a ton of people love it, so clearly it went right somewhere that I don't get. Gone Home does everything right that it needed to do right for me, and evidently OP too. It's awesome.

And that's perfectly fine. I'm all for feeling emotional over a game. I have a game on my Wii that I felt emotionally engaging to myself. Fragile Dreams. I imagine a lot of people would be off put by the gameplay (At least in terms of combat) as it's no where near the quality you'd want in a fighting game (Not that it's the main draw). I also imagine some might think the voice acting isn't good in some areas or think the overall story is melodramatic or balk at a man walking around wearing a mascot chicken head that sells you items. But for me I enjoyed the heck out of its sombre atmosphere and one of the side stories, Seven Colored Bells, really struck me and had me crying my eyes out. But I understand that it's not for everyone, and I'd only recommend it to people I think would enjoy that kind of game or that wouldn't mind its shortcomings. I'm not going to hail it as a masterpiece of gaming and the gold standard that everyone should look to as an example of games as art.