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    Gone Home

    Game » consists of 11 releases. Released Aug 15, 2013

    Set in a large multi-story house during a 1995 thunderstorm, Gone Home is a first-person exploration game where a young woman finds out what happened to her family since she was away on a long overseas trip.

    Post-game thoughts (SPOILERS! ALL THE SPOILERS!)

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    Sevenout

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    I totally agree that the stories of the parents were just as compelling as Sam and Lonnie's. The letter from Terry's father regarding his book is absolutely rage inducing. You understand this is a story from your son trying to work out his sexual abuse and all you can say is "you can do better?" It makes the violently scrawled post-it notes in Terry's office all the more gut wrenching. I'd have ripped his picture up too. Overall I thought all the stories being told were done with maturity and respect.

    On a fun side note, did anyone else notice that the brand of cigarettes Sam that has in her locker with her stolen swag was Morley? Smoking Man's faves.

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    Lord_Punch

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    @zfubarz said:

    @lord_punch said:

    @xceagle:

    But at that point, the game just ends up feeling like wish fulfillment without any real conflict. Thus, all of the suspense, intrigue, and creepiness is merely contrived manipulation by the developers who aren't confident for this story to stand alone.

    Why is it ok for pretty much every Book and Movie with a romantic theme to build in tension and false dread? Why is it suddenly a bad thing when a game makes you nervous of every new room you explore and then be pleasantly surprised by love and hope winning out? Using the very medium, and the typical tropes of that medium to keep you in suspense until the last possible moment? If it was all obvious and straightforward then the whole experience would be nowhere near as engaging. Anyway you're getting ragged on enough already, sorry.

    Jesus that Oscar stuff is great/awful, when I got to the room behind the servants quarters, and saw the child's height markings and the toy horse in the dark room I had step away for a bit while all those little bits and pieces of that side story came together. I didn't get the Kennedy connection but it makes a lot of sense, Layering in so much depth and complexity in a side story is a hell of a thing. The marriage troubles, his drinking getting worse in the new home, his fall back job as a Tech Writer going downhill, his reaction to Sam's sexuality, it all fits together so damn well.

    Hell even the fact that Sam and Terrence liked the same porn was a weird funny little touch.

    The dread, tension, and suspense that I am referring to is of the thriller or horror variety. I don't think it's fair for the developers to utilize horror/thriller tropes to sell a story that has NOTHING to do with the horror or thriller genres. There can certainly be tension and suspense in romantic stories or family dramas. Even dread. Movies like Ordinary People and American Beauty utilized those wonderfully. But never in a million years would you ever place either of those films in the horror or thriller category.

    I think it's disingenuous for Fullbright to lure gamers in with a dark experience which results in a story that warrants very little of that darkness. It comes across to me as them not having the confidence to tell a romantic, dramatic story, and feeling they need to dress it up as horror or suspense for it to work or to interest gamers.

    And maybe they're right to be concerned in some way. I mean, despite the quality of the writing and the voice-acting being truly exceptional, the story of Sam and Lonnie is VERY slight. They get together, Lonnie might go into the Army, she doesn't, they run away together. And that's it. That's a very basic, uneventful story for us to be piecing together. Yes, we get interesting info about the activities of the other family members, but it's still not much. For me, personally, I did not feel like I received a full experience, if that makes sense to you. It's like I spent the whole game piecing together the first act, the storytellers forgot to create the rest of the story, and rushed to the end in the best way they thought they should.

    That's my take, at least. Looking through the reviews and at the various forums, I seem to be in the minority on this one.

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    Gregalor

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    #103  Edited By Gregalor

    @jasonr86 said:

    Real talk guys, these two girls are fucked as they age if they continue on with their plan of running away for love and life and whatnot. Not to be a downer or anything. But their lives will suck.

    It's certainly open to interpretation whether the ending is happy or cause for concern. "Bittersweet" is the word that's been bandied about, and I think it's pretty accurate.

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    MormonWarrior

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    #104  Edited By MormonWarrior

    I honestly feel kind of ripped off by this game. Brad, Vinny and Patrick all made it seem like it was something truly special and an advancement in video games...but other than the teenage curious lesbian subtext I feel like I've seen nearly everything else in this game elsewhere before (Phoenix Wright/Hotel Dusk/Digital: A Love Story, etc.) I'm glad nobody ended up dead, and it looked like things were going well for the parents since they were at marriage counseling camp and seemed to have at least started patching up whatever was going wrong there. I appreciate that there were a lot of references to ghosts, almost a wink and a nod to the ongoing Twitter trolling by the Idle Thumbs dudes.

    If the "advancing the art form" stuff was that the girl was a lesbian well...a 15-year-old running off with an 18-year-old is just plain retarded, and I think Lonnie was a bad influence on Sam period. I understand all the teen angst and whatever, but regardless of the situation it's just dumb and irresponsible to run off like that. I like that Katie (main character) was grossed out at various points by Sam's burgeoning sexuality and finding a nudie mag in her locker/a detailed note about her relationship with Lonnie. It's too bad they pin the parents into the stereotypical oblivious Christian parent roles too, nailed home with the bibles and church activity notices all over.

    Felt a little too "look at us pushing a progressive agenda to seem important or edgy" rather than actually creating a neat experience, though it was generally done tactfully at least. Not at all what I expected the story to be. It had cool things about it, but I dunno...$10 would've seemed better. It was too short and too...uneventful? Also, I don't understand at all what happened with the uncle Oscar. I opened the safe and he said something about distancing himself from temptation. Um...huh?

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    MormonWarrior

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    @bjorndadwarf: You probably have the most succinct and accurate description of everything going on. Sam's being rebellious and dumb, the parents are self-absorbed and oblivious, and poor Katie has come home to an empty new house with nobody to welcome her home. Seems like the real situations that lead to weird misunderstandings and bad stuff in life.

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    zFUBARz

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    #106  Edited By zFUBARz

    @zfubarz said:

    @lord_punch said:

    @xceagle:

    But at that point, the game just ends up feeling like wish fulfillment without any real conflict. Thus, all of the suspense, intrigue, and creepiness is merely contrived manipulation by the developers who aren't confident for this story to stand alone.

    Why is it ok for pretty much every Book and Movie with a romantic theme to build in tension and false dread? Why is it suddenly a bad thing when a game makes you nervous of every new room you explore and then be pleasantly surprised by love and hope winning out? Using the very medium, and the typical tropes of that medium to keep you in suspense until the last possible moment? If it was all obvious and straightforward then the whole experience would be nowhere near as engaging. Anyway you're getting ragged on enough already, sorry.

    Jesus that Oscar stuff is great/awful, when I got to the room behind the servants quarters, and saw the child's height markings and the toy horse in the dark room I had step away for a bit while all those little bits and pieces of that side story came together. I didn't get the Kennedy connection but it makes a lot of sense, Layering in so much depth and complexity in a side story is a hell of a thing. The marriage troubles, his drinking getting worse in the new home, his fall back job as a Tech Writer going downhill, his reaction to Sam's sexuality, it all fits together so damn well.

    Hell even the fact that Sam and Terrence liked the same porn was a weird funny little touch.

    The dread, tension, and suspense that I am referring to is of the thriller or horror variety. I don't think it's fair for the developers to utilize horror/thriller tropes to sell a story that has NOTHING to do with the horror or thriller genres. There can certainly be tension and suspense in romantic stories or family dramas. Even dread. Movies like Ordinary People and American Beauty utilized those wonderfully. But never in a million years would you ever place either of those films in the horror or thriller category.

    I think it's disingenuous for Fullbright to lure gamers in with a dark experience which results in a story that warrants very little of that darkness. It comes across to me as them not having the confidence to tell a romantic, dramatic story, and feeling they need to dress it up as horror or suspense for it to work or to interest gamers.

    And maybe they're right to be concerned in some way. I mean, despite the quality of the writing and the voice-acting being truly exceptional, the story of Sam and Lonnie is VERY slight. They get together, Lonnie might go into the Army, she doesn't, they run away together. And that's it. That's a very basic, uneventful story for us to be piecing together. Yes, we get interesting info about the activities of the other family members, but it's still not much. For me, personally, I did not feel like I received a full experience, if that makes sense to you. It's like I spent the whole game piecing together the first act, the storytellers forgot to create the rest of the story, and rushed to the end in the best way they thought they should.

    That's my take, at least. Looking through the reviews and at the various forums, I seem to be in the minority on this one.

    I can respect that take on it, and you are probably right in some regards, they knew full well they wouldn't reach as many people with a straight love story but who's to say it's wrong of them to use your mind against you, they also never claimed that this was horror or thriller game, they just said "You come home from Europe and something is wrong" All of us brought that horror/thriller vibe with us.I look at it more like this, the game starts super creepy in a classical sense, dark stormy night, big, empty, strange, creaky house. Then they quickly drop hints that something is wrong (which it is). Answering machine with the terrified girl, notes about Sam's creepy old neighbour friend and the loose cables near the TV, the haunted/psycho house rumours. SOMETHING is wrong in this house, with your family.

    It plays on human nature very well by creating that sense of dread and mystery, I don't know about anyone else but I know I occasionally worry about people I care about for totally dumb reasons, somebody doesn't come home on time, isn't answering their phone and I know they left the place they were, if the weather is bad it's even worse. You call them every 15 minutes, you start browsing the local news station more and more often. Paranoia and fear are part of animalistic human nature.

    Then the game starts to fill in some blanks, you learn more and more about each potentially bad situation, The general fear becomes more specific, more directed, and also more personal, you start to care and empathize with the family. While all this is happening though the game has been shifting your fear, you're less and less scared of the standard horror tropes and more of what's gone wrong with the family while you were off galavanting around the world. Did your parents get divorced? Has your dad become an alcoholic? Is your mom having an affair? Was your dad abused as a child? Are you going to find one of their bodies around the next corner?

    All of this happens super subtly as well, and you get out what you put in, if you dig into every nook and cranny you'll get more to support your fears, and more to resolve others, until right up to the end and you don't know for certain what you're gonna find in that attic, hell maybe you don't even want to look. I think that fear is much more intense and personal than any jump scare or gross out, I think the thought of losing a loved one, or losing every stable thing in your life is a lot more terrifying than somebody cutting out their own eyeball, or some fictional machete wielding maniac.

    Over the course of 3 or so hours you learn everything about this family, the family dynamics, the importance of each person, things that even they don't know about each other, most importantly you see how close to the brink they are, How wrapped up in their own problems and lives they are and how that is hurting each and everyone one of them. You learn how any little nudge against any one thing could have led to disaster, divorce, death, abduction, suicide, bankruptcy, you name it. That initial dread was misplaced, but totally valid. So much could have gone wrong and some things have gone wrong. In the end though, love and hope prevail, everyone is happy, or fighting against the odds to be happy. Sure it's no happily ever after, but it might be, and usually in life that's all any of us can hope for.

    That's my take on it anyway. I won't say it's any more valid, or that it was perfect but I will say to my life experiences the game definitely felt relevant, honest, heartfelt and refreshing. Sorry you felt mislead, but like I said from the get go we all brought that on ourselves, personally I'm glad I did.

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    Raethen

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    @lord_punch: I don't think it was The Fullbright Company's intention to fool or mislead anyone. The atmosphere is accentuated by our preconceived notions as gamers, and from growing up with local tales of old houses that are haunted. When the fact that this is Katie's first time in this house is taken into account, I feel that the creepiness is there for a reason. This environment is foreign to her. She gets to her Family's new home and no one greets her, she hears an unknown voice on the answering machine crying for her sister to answer, then the notes about the "Psycho House." The designers are using my past experiences with the horror genre to help me more fully fill the shoes of Katie. My expectations of what is going on helps me empathize with the her in a way that I find brilliant. Is it manipulative? You're god damned right it is, but this is in no way a bad thing. That's is what all media strives for, to manipulate us, to change our emotions in a way that we feel what the characters we are supposed to empathize with are experiencing. I feel as though Gone Home is our first step in this medium discovering just how well it can manipulate its audience, and I look forward to it. Of course I am not trying to invalidate your opinion of the game in any way, I'm just explaining why I felt the use of the horror elements in the beginning are justified to me personally, but also, maybe, how they may not actually be there, but we are just reading a bit too much into it.

    I loved the whole experience. I went in nearly blind, other than hearing the Idle Thumbs crew joke around about a ghost. I was anxious from the start, hearing the answering machine, and then getting creeped out as local urban legends about the house were hinted at. I walked through the house, wishing I could run through the dark bits to get to a light switch (especially in the basement). I dreaded walking up into the attic, as many other have stated as well. I really feared I would find a far different letter than I did. After the ending, I saw the house in a whole new light. After the credits I jumped back in and went through the entire house shutting off all of the lights and closing all of the doors. It is stupid, but it felt like the right thing for me to do. Retracing my steps and reflecting on what I had learned about this family, and laughed about how scared I was at times.

    As @jasonr86 pointed out, life very well may suck for Sam and Lonnie, but I would add that the same could be said for the parents as well. It is very pessimistic, but I see how you would feel that way being a therapist and probably seeing many cases like this. It takes a lot of work for someone to get past the type of abuse it is implied the father went through, if he can at all. And in a lot of infidelity cases, the person is likely to look outside the relationship for comfort again, even if they are trying to fix it. But I would rather be hopeful, and the title of the game I think shows that the creators intended for the ending to be so.

    This is a home, my home. This is where my family, despite everything they had going against them, put their lives back together. My father faced his past, and worked through it with his writing, reinvigorating his career and dream. My mother was able to work past her stint with infidelity, and salvage the marriage she feared lost. And my sister found herself, and made her first real friend. Despite the stigma, and our parents brushing it off as a phase, that friendship blossomed into her first love. Under that roof, in the hidden passages and rooms, my sister became the person she was meant to be. I have to take this interpretation of the ending. If it turned out differently then this mansion would just be a house, but it's not. It's a home.

    Sorry if that got overly emotional towards the end. I'm a real sucker for this kind of stuff.

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    newmoneytrash

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    #108  Edited By newmoneytrash

    Having to walk such a long distance to the attic at the end was nerve wracking. I thought half way through the game that it was going to end with some kind of suicide, and seeing the way that sleeping bag was positioned when the light was off had my heart in my throat.

    What an amazing game.

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    Cloudenvy

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    #109  Edited By Cloudenvy

    I don't really want to say I was disappointed since I didn't pay anything for the game, but I still found it to be a largely mediocre experience. The writing and voiceacting is alright, but the story that is told is super barebones and ultimately pretty boring to me. I feel like I'm missing something others aren't and it's annoying the hell out of me. It's like The Walking Dead all over again where people praised it to high heavens and I found the experience ranging from bad to mediocre.

    I like human drama, and this is kind of a shitty thing to say, but I've seen a lot of these concepts in other mediums done far better. It doesn't help that the horror-ish atmosphere of the game mostly gets in the way of me enjoying what there is to enjoy about this story, and tries so hard to be spooky that it's more distracting than it needs to be.

    Or maybe I have a shitty taste in games and I just don't get "it", who knows?

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    Kevin_Cogneto

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    #110  Edited By Kevin_Cogneto

    @raethen said:

    My expectations of what is going on helps me empathize with the her in a way that I find brilliant. Is it manipulative? You're god damned right it is, but this is in no way a bad thing. That's is what all media strives for, to manipulate us, to change our emotions in a way that we feel what the characters we are supposed to empathize with are experiencing. I feel as though Gone Home is our first step in this medium discovering just how well it can manipulate its audience, and I look forward to it.

    I couldn't disagree more strongly with this. If you basically have to trick me into feeling an emotion, then you haven't done your job as a writer. And this is why it being manipulative is a bad thing -- much of the emotion in this game is unearned. Everyone talks about the fear they felt when they went into the attic, worried as we all were that Sam had killed herself. But not only did she not kill herself, she never had any intention of killing herself. The relief we feel is completely unearned, brought about by complete sleight of hand, manufactured out of nothing.

    In my opinion it cheapens the story in a fundamental way, the baldfaced way this game tries to play the player's emotions like a harp. A good writer just tells the story he or she wants to tell, and lets the audience's emotions fall where they may. It's unfortunate when you consider that the story that's told in the journals and found objects is actually compelling. And yet they insist on the blood-in-the-tub horror bullshit as a crutch that, in the end, they didn't need at all. If this game had taken place on a bright sunny day without all the doom and gloom and dread, I think it would have been vastly improved.

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    Raethen

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    #111  Edited By Raethen

    @kevin_cogneto: But every piece of media that makes you feel some kind of emotion is manipulating you, or as you put it, tricking you. You didn't go through any of the events in the movies or novels you read, but in a lot of cases, you are empathizing and becoming in sync emotionally with a character. This is the intention of the author, they want you to feel the same way as a character, or at the very least care about what happens to them. You may not notice it as much as you do with Gone Home, which I agree can be very heavy handed at times, yet it is still there in everything you watch, read, or play in some way.

    What you are calling out as flaws or not conducive to the story being, I feel are genius ways for us to fully get into the mind of Katie. Specifically in regards to entering a house we have never been to before, and the trip up to the attic. I even feel the bath tub scene works. You are walking into your sister's bathroom, you have no idea where she is and see red stains all over the tub. "Oh, fuck," you think, but then find the bottle of hair dye. It is great environmental story telling, but yes, this is a point that is heavy handed in playing on our expectations as consumers of horror media, but that is the point. The trip to the attic is, I feel, the most earned part of Sam and Lonnie's arch. The last thing you hear from Sam is how devastated she is with Lonnie leaving. As we head up to unlock that hatch, we fear the worst based on what we know of the story so far. Sam has lost her only friend, her first love, and her parents have dismissed her problems, and her new identity, because they have their own issues they need to work out. This is all Katie knows as well, Sam may have had no intention of killing herself (which I disagree with, because before the events that are revealed in the attic, Sam was in a very bad place, one that could have easily ended with her suicide), but we, as Katie make this assumption based on what we know, and nothing more. Looking back on those assumptions and the relief that many have stated they felt, then saying it isn't earned is wrong, the entire fact that we have those feelings means that it is earned. We allowed these feeling to come up willingly.

    It seems, to me, that you are not so much angry about the game manipulating you, but more so that they were able to do so as well as they did, in such an obvious manner when looking back. And that is why I enjoy the game so much, because I can think back, a see how they played on my expectations, on how they fed me the stories of my family, and see how they brought those feelings out. They are not just forcing the feeling onto us, we are coerced into them, and then shown how it is done. I love that. But again, this is just how I feel about the game, and what it did for and to me. I am no more right or wrong than you are, I just am not as bothered about being misled by a story, especially when I can find reason for that misdirection.

    Yes, the game could have been done in a brightly lit house, but that is not what the creators wanted. They wanted to play off of our notions of haunted houses. I feel it was to help us better inhabit the character we control. So it could have been done differently, but, for me at least, it wouldn't have been as effective.

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    Kevin_Cogneto

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    #112  Edited By Kevin_Cogneto
    @raethen said:

    @kevin_cogneto: It seems, to me, that you are not so much angry about the game manipulating you, but more so that they were able to do so as well as they did, in such an obvious manner when looking back. And that is why I enjoy the game so much, because I can think back, a see how they played on my expectations, on how they fed me the stories of my family, and see how they brought those feelings out. They are not just forcing the feeling onto us, we are coerced into them, and then shown how it is done. I love that. But again, this is just how I feel about the game, and what it did for and to me. I am no more right or wrong than you are, I just am not as bothered about being mislead by a story, especially when I can find reason for that misdirection.

    I'm not sure how it can simultaneously be true that the game is masterfully manipulating our emotions while also revealing how the manipulation is done. If Gone Home was a magician it would have feathers falling out of its sleeves.

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    cikame

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    It uh, i don't know, at the start of the game you are set up with a couple of mysteries to solve, then it turns into the plot of a movie i saw one time years ago, then ends how that movie ended and that's it.
    The story was fine but it's a shame the mysteries at the beginning are not mysteries, they just get answered and discarded.
    I'm used to having the ability to pick up and look at unimportant things in games like Shenmue, so being able to here doesn't suprise me as much as some reviewers have been.

    I'm glad i played the game, it just kinda paced itself out half way through.

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    Raethen

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    @kevin_cogneto: Because, at least for me, I accepted why they were manipulating me, and I went for the ride, following the conclusions they wanted me to come to. So everything leading up to that reveal didn't take me out of the experience. But then again, I knew this wasn't a horror game coming in, so when they used the tropes of the genre, I accepted it as a way to get into this character's state of mind from the get go. I could see how I was being manipulated for the most part in that regard so I just went for the ride, taking on that role. I really did expect the ending to be different. I expected the final note to be one that none of us would never want to read. And that sense of relief that I felt was amazing, it was the first time that a game has made me tear up because of joy. It was only then that I was able to see how they had directed me into the conclusions I had made walking up the the attic, and it started from the very beginning with the answering machine. So while there was some aspects that I felt were telegraphed from the start, it was misdirection for how they were actually manipulating me, and at the very end, I was able to reflect on in, and see what it was they were actually doing.

    It seems you might have noticed this stuff before I did, but I was so entrenched in being Katie discovering these stories, that the logical part of me that would be looking for this fell away. I allowed for the experience to have its way with me if you will. But again, its a difference of opinion, and I am not trying to say that you are wrong, or that I am right, just giving my perspective on how I fell the manipulation of the player was used effectively.

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    King_Simsay

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    #115  Edited By King_Simsay

    Did they performe the exocrism right before they ran away? And why was the Lights in outside the Attic still on?

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    MrWiggles

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    I love the game. I felt so much dread going through it, I could see that it was setting me up though, And the longer It went on the more confident I was that nothing scary was going to happen. That being said, the story definitely took you to a place of thinking the ending would be bad for Sam. I think its a very brave game that treats the player like they actually have a brain.

    One question I was left with though, Why did Katie leave on a long trip? Was there any big indications that she left because she was unhappy? Maybe she found out about her parents marital issues.

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    Raethen

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    @mrwiggles: I think it was just a post graduation trip. She got out of school and wanted to see the world. Not all that uncommon back then, or now really. It seems like most of the family's troubles started after moving into the house, which is after Katie left for Europe.

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    MrWiggles

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    #118  Edited By MrWiggles

    @raethen: Yea that makes sense. The postcards she sends back seem oblivious to any issues.

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    planetfunksquad

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    #119  Edited By planetfunksquad

    The story wouldn't have been what it was without the sense of dread. Walking around an unfamiliar place, alone and in the dark, is fucking creepy. Your mind wanders and things can seem scarier than they actually are. Without that sense of foreboding they'd have to change the entire premise, because it wouldn't work. It hits the way it does because of the story the atmosphere leads you to create in your head as much as the story that was actually there.

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    Raethen

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    @mrwiggles: Yeah, everything between the mother and father starts up because the father is reminded about the abuses he survived at the house. He becomes more distant, and the mother seeks love elsewhere. With Sam, its all centered around being the new girl that lives in the scary house at the start, and then that leads to a new relationship. Though she knew about her orientation before then, it wasn't until Lonnie that she was comfortable admitting it even to herself it seems. So its all something that is there before she leaves, but it wasn't on the surface in a meaningful way it seems, and it is because of the house that it all boils over.

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    LackingSaint

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    #121  Edited By LackingSaint

    Overall I really enjoyed myself, though I must agree with a comment made by a few other people; this game should be praised as an excellent go of slice-of-life storytelling in a game, but it's unearned to call it particularly "revolutionary". As a video-game, it plays like every other adventure game, complete with scrawled combinations to lockers and secret paths leading to the other side of locked doors. There are audiologs and text logs, and interesting background elements that tell a little story. A good few games have done this before, and while that doesn't at all devalue the experience to me, it does make it irk a little to see comments acting like this is a game-changer. It's a step in a cool direction, not a glowing beacon in the darkness.

    Out of interest, what did the code 0451 written on the folder in the library reveal? I tried it both on Sam's locker and Oscar's safe and it didn't work.

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    deactivated-5cc8838532af0

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    Raethen

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    #123  Edited By Raethen

    @lackingsaint: Its for the locked filing cabinet in the father's office. Oscar's Will is in there.

    And yeah, the game trappings of it aren't great, but they are good enough for the story to be told with out them really getting in the way. The focus of the game was telling stories through the environment, and allowing the player to find those stories naturally. Which I feel it did extremely well, definitely the best I can think of in recent memory. I don't think the game is revolutionary in any sense, but as you said, it is a step in the right direction. It seems that developers are taking notice as well, and thinking of what lessons they can take from the game, and how to incorporate them into their own. Hell, Gearbox had a meeting about it according to Anthony Burch. So there is hope that this will be built upon by games, and companies of all sizes and hopefully more varied better games will come out because of it. A revolution, no, but I can see many games being influenced by it in the future. And don't let comments get you down too much man, we all are hyperbolic about things we like at times, especially things that are as effecting as this game is for many.

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    Gregalor

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    I like that Katie (main character) was grossed out at various points by Sam's burgeoning sexuality and finding a nudie mag in her locker/a detailed note about her relationship with Lonnie.

    You think Katie was grossed out by Sam's sexuality? I don't feel that way at all.

    "Gosh, Sam." as a reaction to finding a men's magazine is hardly a negative reaction. And putting the steamy letter down is out of respect for not wanting to pry into something that's too private.

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    JasonR86

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    @gregalor said:

    @mormonwarrior said:
    I like that Katie (main character) was grossed out at various points by Sam's burgeoning sexuality and finding a nudie mag in her locker/a detailed note about her relationship with Lonnie.

    You think Katie was grossed out by Sam's sexuality? I don't feel that way at all.

    "Gosh, Sam." as a reaction to finding a men's magazine is hardly a negative reaction. And putting the steamy letter down is out of respect for not wanting to pry into something that's too private.

    Plus it's a letter about her sister's sex life. I wouldn't want to read about my brother's sex life. Holy shit I wouldn't want to read that.

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    OllyOxenFree

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    #126  Edited By OllyOxenFree

    Yo, real talk:

    I want to built some secret passageways in my future house. That shit's legit!

    And yeah, I dunno, the game was OK. Definitely not a 5/5 for me but it's just Patrick's opinion. Nothing wrong with that. The whole story of Katie's sister just seemed like something off of a Lifetime original movie. The atmosphere built from not knowing what is fully going on is brilliant though. I was seriously expecting to see some dead bodies due to suicide but it all just wrapped in a somewhat happy ending.

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    Hunter5024

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    #127  Edited By Hunter5024

    @cloudenvy said:

    I don't really want to say I was disappointed since I didn't pay anything for the game, but I still found it to be a largely mediocre experience. The writing and voiceacting is alright, but the story that is told is super barebones and ultimately pretty boring to me. I feel like I'm missing something others aren't and it's annoying the hell out of me. It's like The Walking Dead all over again where people praised it to high heavens and I found the experience ranging from bad to mediocre.

    I like human drama, and this is kind of a shitty thing to say, but I've seen a lot of these concepts in other mediums done far better. It doesn't help that the horror-ish atmosphere of the game mostly gets in the way of me enjoying what there is to enjoy about this story, and tries so hard to be spooky that it's more distracting than it needs to be.

    Or maybe I have a shitty taste in games and I just don't get "it", who knows?

    I totally agree that the story is super barebones, there really isn't very much to it, and in the end that does hurt it a bit. I think the praise is coming from the fact that it's just refreshing to see a game tackle this subject matter, even if it has been done better elsewhere. It was a unique experience in this medium though, for sure. Baby steps.

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    SparkleMotion

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    In the secret passage leading to the Guest Room, I found a note in the door with 4 numbers on it. I assumed it was a combination, but I never wound up finding anything to input it.

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    Raethen

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    @cloudenvy said:

    I don't really want to say I was disappointed since I didn't pay anything for the game, but I still found it to be a largely mediocre experience. The writing and voiceacting is alright, but the story that is told is super barebones and ultimately pretty boring to me. I feel like I'm missing something others aren't and it's annoying the hell out of me. It's like The Walking Dead all over again where people praised it to high heavens and I found the experience ranging from bad to mediocre.

    I like human drama, and this is kind of a shitty thing to say, but I've seen a lot of these concepts in other mediums done far better. It doesn't help that the horror-ish atmosphere of the game mostly gets in the way of me enjoying what there is to enjoy about this story, and tries so hard to be spooky that it's more distracting than it needs to be.

    Or maybe I have a shitty taste in games and I just don't get "it", who knows?

    I totally agree that the story is super barebones, there really isn't very much to it, and in the end that does hurt it a bit. I think the praise is coming from the fact that it's just refreshing to see a game tackle this subject matter, even if it has been done better elsewhere. It was a unique experience in this medium though, for sure. Baby steps.

    That's exactly why this, and The Walking Dead, had such an effect on me personally. There are very few games that tackle the subjects and emotions as well as this. The stories had been done better in other mediums, but the interactive nature made them more effective to me. It also excites me to think of how the industry may change because of this. I'm not advocating all games become like this, because I love fun action games, "dumb" shooters, and just most games in general. But if I could get a choice of games each year that will have an emotional effect on me like Gone Home has, I'll be ecstatic. Even if it has been done better in other mediums.

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    deactivated-630479c20dfaa

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    I am a little disappointed in the fact that I figured out the plot half way through. Put I got to question myself when another thought hit me as I was approaching the attic, like I got a real unsettling feeling that Sam had killed herself, but a part of me thought "naah, they don't have the balls to do that" and in a way I was right. A good and moving story though, a little pricey, but well executed.

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    Coafi

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    In the secret passage leading to the Guest Room, I found a note in the door with 4 numbers on it. I assumed it was a combination, but I never wound up finding anything to input it.

    That's for the safe in the basement. It's Oscar's safe.

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    Hunter5024

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    SparkleMotion

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    @coafi said:

    @sparklemotion said:

    In the secret passage leading to the Guest Room, I found a note in the door with 4 numbers on it. I assumed it was a combination, but I never wound up finding anything to input it.

    That's for the safe in the basement. It's Oscar's safe.

    I thought the safe combination was found on the wall right next to the safe. That's where I figured it out, anyway.

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    SparkleMotion

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    One question that has been lingering with me since the end of the game. If Oscar's "trangression" was a family matter and kept personal, why was the house referred to as the "Psycho House" by others?

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    bwmcmaste

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    #135  Edited By bwmcmaste

    @hunter5024 said:

    Indeed. Gone Home should be put beside Dear Esther, Miasmata, and Heavy Rain as a good, though esoteric, adventure game. The story was decent, the gameplay passable, and the theme nuanced. I honestly don't know what people were expecting. A horror game? A mind-blowing unique story with an unpredictable ending? Ludicrous expectations beget disappointment.

    As you said, baby steps.

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    zFUBARz

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    @sparklemotion: Well he also seemingly abandoned his prosperous business and became a recluse and apparently an addict.

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    TheCowman

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    Loved this game.

    The house really felt lived in and the atmosphere was first rate. I went in thinking that the supernatural undertones were PROBABLY just for flavor, but the game had me second-guessing myself a couple times. (mostly in that first secret passage with the papers all over the walls, the crucifix, and the popping lightbulb)

    I also appreciated that the characters never seemed to fall TOO far into the stereotypical roles that they represented. I felt even the parents didn't slip into the "oh no my child's a homosexual" cliche completely. The note you find from them after they find out about Sam and Lonnie says that Sam can't lock her door when Lonnie is over, but they never forbid Sam from seeing her or anything like that.

    I spent the last half of the game praying that I wouldn't find Sam dead in the attic since it's just the type of ending games like this seem to go for. So I was pleasantly surprised and immensely relieved when it ended on a note that gave you hope for the family's future.

    Was it revolutionary?

    Eh, I wouldn't be the one to ask. I just know that I loved this game.

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    JasonR86

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    #138  Edited By JasonR86

    @zfubarz said:

    @sparklemotion: Well he also seemingly abandoned his prosperous business and became a recluse and apparently an addict.

    I got the impression that his employee had heard about his transgressions (pedophilia) which is why he sold the pharmacy to that employee for a $1. Also, in Oscar's safe, he has all those drugs and looks like he writing a suicide note to his sister (Terrence's Mother).

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    Gregalor

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    One question that has been lingering with me since the end of the game. If Oscar's "trangression" was a family matter and kept personal, why was the house referred to as the "Psycho House" by others?

    Doesn't every neighborhood have a recluse house that becomes legendary with the local children?

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    spunkrake

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    #140  Edited By spunkrake

    I love the fact that this game exists. The actual game itself, I just kind of liked.

    I want games to try this more often. I want them to use the medium to tell more personal stories. I want games to feel like glimpses into real worlds, where the fact that I'm exploring an unfamiliar house is exactly what my avatar would be doing, not like I'm running Commander Shepard through people's offices looking for credits because *video game*! I want experiments, ideas and failures if it comes to it. And for that reason I paid my $20 and am pleased to do so.

    The reason I only liked the game, though, was because of all the horror tropes. I don't play horror games. I play games to relax, unwind, and see interesting art. I kept having to pop out to the internet to figure out if I was playing a secret horror game. That was one of the most annoying things for me. If at any point the developers wanted to put a jump scare in, they could have, and they would have totally gotten me. The fact that it was so much about exploration and figuring out things on your own just meant that I didn't know if I was playing a game I would like until the very end.

    And now that I'm done, the thing I liked the most about this game was the feeling of *craft*. The story itself isn't anything revolutionary, but it was put together so well. I just wish I didn't have to constantly worry that upon opening any given door that I would be confronted with a jump scare and a realization that I was playing the wrong kind of game for me. I was playing a game for me, I just didn't know it. And the story wouldn't have been as...maybe not good, but not as *effective* without all the horror trappings, ramping up our emotions, making us run to the attic at the end. I just wish they didn't have to crib from a genre that I don't like playing in order to do it. Maybe next time they could use action game tropes and play our emotions off of our desire to go shoot things or jump on a goomba. At least that way I wouldn't have to worry that I'm playing a game I might hate the whole time.

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    planetary

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    Fantastic game, and cool thread. I'll be gifting this on Steam to a couple people, I think.

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    RadixNegative2

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    It's incredible how this game transitioned the fear of ghosts into fearing for the well being of Sam. How you come home to an empty house on a rainy day and feel the way you would in reality. First you're scared of supernatural things and fear the dark. As you search the house and learn about your family, primitive fears turn into real fears and you realize how unimportant or even stupid those primitive fears are in comparison.

    And man, running to the attic and up those stairs, fulling expecting to see Sam having committed suicide. Then finding out that she ran away and the sense of relief that brings. Fucking brilliant.

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    endoworks

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    I just finished this, it was a farm fuzzy feeling kind of game, when it was done it was a nice finish and I just very much enjoyed it. Well done!

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    Zella

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    #144  Edited By Zella

    Just finished playing through and man it did not live up to the hype for me. The house was interesting, not realistic I'd say but interesting, and the side stories of the parents were kind of interesting to uncover. The main story though just felt bland and boring to me, the "twist" at the end was kind of neat but the whole story of Sam and Lonnie just felt like generic lesbian love story #5. Also go ahead and make them the most stereotypical lesbians as possible, it just made the story seem even more forced to me.

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    Gregalor

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    Sam's story is handed to you on a silver platter. The real fun of the game is trying to figure out Oscar, the dad, and the mom.

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    MildMolasses

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    Did they performe the exocrism right before they ran away? And why was the Lights in outside the Attic still on?

    There's note somewhere about Sam using the attic as a darkroom for developing her pictures. The lights being on indicated that she was up there developing the pictures of her and Lonnie from the day before when Lonnie called. She ran out of the house before she could turn everything off

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    SparkleMotion

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    The thing that sapped a little of my enjoyment is how unrealistic some of the note placement felt. I mean, would the mom really leave notes from her friend about a possible affair lying around the house, especially right at the top of a drawer in a commonly used room of the house?

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    SparkleMotion

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    The close up examination of the morphine syrette box in Oscar's safe made me feel like I was back in LA Noire.

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    RadixNegative2

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    #149  Edited By RadixNegative2

    The thing that sapped a little of my enjoyment is how unrealistic some of the note placement felt. I mean, would the mom really leave notes from her friend about a possible affair lying around the house, especially right at the top of a drawer in a commonly used room of the house?

    I imagined that Sam and/or Lonnie went through the house looking for those stuff and didn't bother putting them back or didn't have time. Their notes to each other explained how they wanted to explore the house and whatnot while Sam's parents were away. That and the relatively recent move in explains the messy house in general.

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    MrWiggles

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    @sparklemotion: I think the unnatural note placement is the only way to guide you through the storyline at a good pace, And they can't be hidden too well for that reason.

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