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Giant Bomb Review

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Gone Home Review

5
  • PC

This house has a story to tell, and players patient enough to listen will be rewarded with a touching story that won't soon leave you.

Have you ever walked by an empty house, and thought about going inside? A house is just a pile of bricks until someone lives inside, and then it becomes a home. Houses have stories to tell, so long as we’re willing to listen. Gone Home, the debut game from The Fullbright Company, is about one very specific house with one very specific story, and it’s asking you to listen closely.

Lights turn off and on, drawers open and shut--Gone Home's house is full of unbelievable details of the mundane variety.
Lights turn off and on, drawers open and shut--Gone Home's house is full of unbelievable details of the mundane variety.

It’s difficult to talk about Gone Home without saying more than should be said for anyone already sold on it. Do know that Gone Home has lived up to sky-high expectations for the next project from the creative team that delivered the exceptional Minerva's Den add-on for BioShock 2. For anyone that’s curious to know more about what makes Gone Home work so darn well, keep on reading.

Gone Home is set in 1995, and opens with the arrival of Kaitlin Greenbriar. That’s you. Returning from a whirlwind trip through Europe in the dead of night, Kaitlin approaches the front steps of her house during the height of a crackling thunderstorm, greeted by a hastily hand-written note from her younger sister, Sam. The note instructs Kaitlin that she’s gone and not to worry, which, of course, is every reason to worry. What happened here? Gone Home is played from a first-person-perspective, and there is no combat. This is a game about exploration, though one not without its share of tension. But you will never pick up a gun, and your primary means of interacting with the world is opening doors, shuffling papers, and closely examining nooks and crannies of your family's house. If you think you can touch it and interact with it, chances are The Fullbright Company will give you the option to.

Though Kaitlin’s family lives in this house, everything is unfamiliar. There’s a map that fills in as you progress through the house, appropriately labeled as it becomes clear what each room’s function is. The Fullbright Company has meticulous hidden letters, books, notes, magazines, manuscripts, inscriptions, cassette tapes, labeled recordings of X-Files episodes, and countless other objects throughout the house. Hidden is the wrong word, though. If someone was tasked with combing through your home and building a narrative from what was inside, it might feel like some of your stuff was hidden, too. Instead, this place feels incredibly natural. It looks...like a home. It’s messy, there are boxes everywhere, and Kaitlin’s mom was probably upset about the lack of help. There are no objects fluttering with gold dazzles to signify their importance. It is absolutely possible to miss key bits of information, but if you never knew they existed, how important were they? The story you tell in your head is only as real as the the information in front of you. Do missing pieces matter, then?

By god, though, is it fun to look at the pieces. They are everywhere, and each colored with immaculate detail. Fans of the high-resolution image genre will fall over themselves looking through the meticulously detailed pieces of history The Fullbright Company has constructed. The few times where images aren't detailed enough to read the tiniest bits of text are disappointing, but only because nearly every other spot in the house has been given such close attention. Heck, there are even physics associated with some of the objects. Cassette tape holders open, flip around, and reveal secret messages to those clever enough to manipulate them in the right way. And for those who are worried about causing a mess, the game even includes the ability to place things exactly as they were. It's the kind of touch that speaks volumes about the game's design values.

There is a path through the game, but how long you spend on that path is mostly up to you. There is very little preventing the player from barreling through the main storyline, though you’ll have to slow down to discover triggers that signal how to access locked parts of the house. These bits are deliberately easy to find, and are often closely connected to a series of voice overs by Sam, talking as though she is right next to you. (Sam is voiced by Portland voice actor Sarah Grayson, and she does excellent work here.) If anything, what’s difficult is convincing yourself to move to the next room. Patience is rewarded in Gone Home, as patience will help you discover the answers to all of your questions. Everything you want to know can be found within the house, though the game will not connect the dots for you. There is no plot summary, and material is sometimes presented out of order. This makes exploring the house, even after the story ends, continually satisfying.

Without spoiling, this all makes Gone Home sounds much more mysterious than it actually is. Still, it’s impossible to explore the house without cringing as a door creaks opens, or you start walking into the basement. Thunder and lightning strike without notice, making their appearance all the more startling, but it’s not timed to the flickering of lights or an eerie noise down the hall. There are no jump scares in Gone Home, and there are no ghosts hiding in a closet. But all the same, Gone Home feels exceedingly creepy, and the game thoughtfully plays with the differences between its dramatic presentation and the actions actually playing out on the screen. I mean, when you’re alone at home and it’s time to turn off the lights, it’s easy to tell yourself there’s nothing following you around the house, but once that idea pops into your head, it’s hard to let go.

Not everything in Gone Home is there for a reason. Much of it is there to color the world, and provide a sense of time and place.
Not everything in Gone Home is there for a reason. Much of it is there to color the world, and provide a sense of time and place.

The experience of playing Gone Home becomes more impressive upon reflection. We’re used to games hitting us over the head with big plot twists and character moments. Games are often the opposite of subtle out of fear the audience will not understand the magnitude of the moment. “We wrote this story, and this big thing happened, you see, and you better get it!.” As the layers are removed from Gone Home’s story, there is no suite of violins to underscore the revelations, and no characters to remind us what we just read or heard. (Chris Remo's soundtrack is, however, hauntingly beautiful.) Gone Home places an impressive amount of faith into the player to discover what The Fullbright Company has laid out before them, and seems willing to lose players who aren’t going to put in the effort to come along. There is, for lack of a better phrase, a “holy shit” moment early on in the game, and it acts as though nothing's happened. The house is still there, you’re still alone, and it's time to move on.

Prepare for a nostalgia hit, too, and not just '90s references. Gone Home will remind you what it’s like to be young, naive, and full of passion. Everything mattered and nothing mattered. No one understands you and no one ever will. The world is both infinite and unfathomably small. As the story unfolds, what’s remarkable is just how unremarkable it really is. Gone Home is an epic story, but its definition of epic is far removed from how we usually talk about scope and drama in games. It’s epic, personal and revelatory to the people involved, and that’s why it’s so special. The moments in my life that I cherish the most--my first love, realizing my brother was my best friend, moving to San Francisco, getting married--would not register against saving the universe from an alien threat, but these are the epic moments in my life. Gone Home grounds itself by reveling in life’s quiet, defining moments, the ones you might write down in a diary, underneath a set of books, only to find years later.

What a crazy kid you were.

Patrick Klepek on Google+

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planetfunksquad

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"There are no jump scares in Gone Home,"

Someone didn't pick up the crucifix.

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Ooame

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I bought this on steam and i have to say it was absolutely fantastic. As a guy who grew up in the 90s this hit me so hard.

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Edited By Turhaya

Fantastically written review Patrick! Really enjoyed reading your thoughts. Sounds like the game exceeds expectations for the "quiet moments" exploration scratch I was hoping it'd itch. I also remember getting weirdly creeped out by the trailer a long time ago and wondering if it was just me. Just really seems to sell being in that space... being home alone.

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jarowdowsky

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Tesla

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Steam sales are perfect for games like this. Can't wait to play it for 2 bucks during the Christmas holiday.

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Turhaya

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Fantastically written review Patrick! Really enjoyed reading your thoughts. Sounds like the game exceeds expectations for the "quiet moments" exploration scratch I was hoping it'd itch. I also remember getting weirdly creeped out by the trailer a long time ago and wondering if it was just me. Just really seems to sell being in that space... being home alone.

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GrandHarrier

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How long is the game? It seems expensive for what I am guessing is a very short story?

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Brad

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Edited By Brad

So how does this work, someone sets up a spoiler thread so people who have finished can talk about the game? Sorry, not sure of the spoiler-process on GB?

Yeah, that sounds like a great idea. Just don't forget the spoiler tags. :D

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BearPawB

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Thanks for the review patrick. Bought it immediately. Loved it. Not sure if i think it was necessarily worth the asking price, given how quickly it is all over. But the experience will stay with me. So I don't have much to complain about.

If you enjoyed gone home/the stanley parable then you will enjoy this game. Story matters people

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frankfartmouth

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I AM GOING TO PLAY THIS. Really, I am.

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@fartgod666: It'd need to be sprite based to really compare to what Citizen Kane did ;)

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Rsvaret

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Edited By Rsvaret

Thanks for this review Patrick. Bought and played through the game in one sitting based on your recommendation. Really enjoyed it.

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amlabella

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Edited By amlabella

Alright Scoops, ya sold me on this one. Gonna go ahead and purchase it tonight.

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Edited By emem

Very nice review.

I just finished the game myself and absolutely loved it. So much nostalgia and such a heart warming story... I'm actually really glad nothing bad happened at the end (which was kind of surprising to me).

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Edited By Humanity

@patrickklepek: I just think people expect games to be games. We can both elaborate on the topic and muse on theories how the possibilities of games are endless - but you must admit that there is a certain golden standard people instantly recognize, and this is the reason why sometimes titles like Gone Home cause people to take pause when describing them to friends as "games" and often times choosing to label them as "interactive stories" or whatnot instead.

As to your comment about the #1 and #2: I wouldn't necessarily agree that adding combat is done with the sole purpose of increasing profitability - but then I'm pretty sure that is not exactly what you meant. I agree with you that too much combat is definitely a bad thing where it's not needed. The Last of Us told a great story, and that story didn't need as much sneaking or shooting as it ended up having, especially since those weren't really the strengths of that game to begin with. At the same time I thought the combat in Tomb Raider was enjoyable enough where I didn't mind the amount that was present. From your articles I know we wildly disagree on how the gameplay in that game was dissonant with it's story-telling so I won't even open that bag of worms - but at least the combat in of itself was really well done so that when you were presented with hostile encounters it wasn't a complete slog (at least for me).

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deactivated-613abe3bc7be1

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@patrickklepek said:

@grantheaslip said:

Another little nitpick: "It’s epic, personal and revelatory to the people involved, and that’s why it’s so special". Why does it being personal make it special? Most fiction -- especially novels -- is quite personal by its very nature. Like it or not, Final Fantasy XIII was (to my understanding) quite personal to Motomu Toriyama -- does that make it special? I bet Twilight was personal to Stephenie Meyer -- does that make it special?

To be clear, I wasn't talking about it being "special" to the developers. I meant the characters in the story.

Okay, got it, that makes a lot more sense, and I should have picked up on that context. I think the topic of its personalness to the developers came up in the Quick Look and I assumed you were hitting on the same point.

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fartGOD666

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Edited By fartGOD666

@patrickklepek Curious how this compares to Citizen Kane. Not sure why that wasn't included in the review.

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jarowdowsky

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@fjornsvavne: For the moments where it feels a bit too spooky I found the Riot Grrl music was the perfect antidote. Just whack on a tape, turn up the volume and the storm soon goes away :)

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karatetron

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Can't stop playing this game.

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patrickklepek

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Edited By patrickklepek
@humanity said:

The issue I have with praising a game like this for being an evolutionary step in game making while bemoaning other titles for having drawn out combat sequences, is that simply removing an entire element of gameplay from your title isn't a solution to the problem and shouldn't be praised.

While other games get too heavy with combat, ultimately breaking immersion through mindless slaughter, titles like Gone Home are just as guilty of not supplying enough relevant and modern gameplay mechanics. There is a certain expectation of a videogame and simply picking up scraps and examining clues is not anything new. Patrick and the Bombcrew might approach this with wide eyed wonder but Myst has basically been doing everything this game does only 20 years prior.

Don't get me wrong, I think if the story is executed well and you had a fun experience then that is all that matters. I just don't like the notion that we should put "experiences" like this on a pedestal because despite their quirky nature they do nothing to evolve the gaming medium.

I do think that's a slightly strange criticism, at least my take on it. I'm tired of games including combat simply because it's an easy way to communicate broadly to an audience in hopes of selling more copies of the game. Shooting dudes in the face is something a lot of people know, a lot of people like, and so it makes sense games would try to wrap their larger ambition around that in order to pull off two things at once-- 1) building an ambitious game 2) building an ambitious game that can be profitable. In BioShock Infinite, it often came across that including so much combat was a concession to #2. It might be a business reality, but that doesn't mean we (I) have to like it.

I'm not sure what the phrase "there is a certain expectation of a videogame" even means. People expect every game to have a wide variety of mechanics? I don't think that's true.

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patrickklepek

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Another little nitpick: "It’s epic, personal and revelatory to the people involved, and that’s why it’s so special". Why does it being personal make it special? Most fiction -- especially novels -- is quite personal by its very nature. Like it or not, Final Fantasy XIII was (to my understanding) quite personal to Motomu Toriyama -- does that make it special? I bet Twilight was personal to Stephenie Meyer -- does that make it special?

To be clear, I wasn't talking about it being "special" to the developers. I meant the characters in the story.

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"There are no jump scares in Gone Home, and there are no ghosts hiding in a closet." I was looking around about this game just to find that sentence. Thank you, Patrick, now I might be able to continue beyond my kind of early NOPE!-moment.

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Humanity

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The issue I have with praising a game like this for being an evolutionary step in game making while bemoaning other titles for having drawn out combat sequences, is that simply removing an entire element of gameplay from your title isn't a solution to the problem and shouldn't be praised.

While other games get too heavy with combat, ultimately breaking immersion through mindless slaughter, titles like Gone Home are just as guilty of not supplying enough relevant and modern gameplay mechanics. There is a certain expectation of a videogame and simply picking up scraps and examining clues is not anything new. Patrick and the Bombcrew might approach this with wide eyed wonder but Myst has basically been doing everything this game does only 20 years prior.

Don't get me wrong, I think if the story is executed well and you had a fun experience then that is all that matters. I just don't like the notion that we should put "experiences" like this on a pedestal because despite their quirky nature they do nothing to evolve the gaming medium.

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Humanity

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Edited By Humanity

The issue I have with praising a game like this for being an evolutionary step in game making while bemoaning other titles for having drawn out combat sequences, is that simply removing an entire element of gameplay from your title isn't a solution to the problem and shouldn't be praised.

While other games get too heavy with combat, ultimately breaking immersion through mindless slaughter, titles like Gone Home are just as guilty of not supplying enough relevant and modern gameplay mechanics. There is a certain expectation of a videogame and simply picking up scraps and examining clues is not anything new. Patrick and the Bombcrew might approach this with wide eyed wonder but Myst has basically been doing everything this game does only 20 years prior.

Don't get me wrong, I think if the story is executed well and you had a fun experience then that is all that matters. I just don't like the notion that we should put "experiences" like this on a pedestal because despite their quirky nature they do nothing to evolve the gaming medium.

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Seikenfreak

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Edited By Seikenfreak

Saw this on Quick Look myself and then bought and beat it.

My simple opinion is that I loved the gameplay, environment and atmosphere. I just wish there had been more scope to the story with some added length.

$18-20 for a game of this length feels a bit steep having finished it. Quality of the work and experience was great but I got through it in 2-3 hours and, as others have said, this isn't a game with replay value.

Regardless, give me a 14 hour adventure/mystery/puzzle game like this and I'll be happy to pay $40-60. Need more material like this.

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spartica

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@seanfoster said:

I'm racing home after work to play this one.

Are you saying that you haven't already......gone home?

Nice.

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Seikenfreak

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Saw this on Quick Look myself and then bought and beat it.

My simple opinion is that I loved the gameplay, environment and atmosphere. I just wish there had been more scope to the story with some added length.

$18-20 for a game of this length feels a bit steep having finished it. Quality of the work and experience was great but I got through it in 2-3 hours and, as others have said, this isn't a game with replay value.

Regardless, give me a 14 hour adventure/mystery/puzzle game like this and I'll be happy to pay $40-60. Need more material like this.

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deactivated-613abe3bc7be1

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This looks good, and my interest is piqued enough that I might play this if shows up on the PS3 or PS4, but I'm starting to just not trust reviewers who want to tell me that a game is "important", "personal", or narratively groundbreaking. I'm developing a "boy who cried wolf" cynicism with the games press -- I've been fed too much hyperbole about the narratives of games I've ended up being nonplussed by.

Put it this way: if this game is as "important" as The Walking Dead -- a game that I did enjoy, but found emotionally pandering and narratively simple -- I'll take a pass. Or to put it another way: I'll trust criticism of narrative-heavy darlings a lot more when there's a high-profile failure that gets panned by critics. This is not meant as a dig at Patrick -- more of game criticism at large -- and I'll be the first to say this stuff can still be good without being for me.

Another little nitpick: "It’s epic, personal and revelatory to the people involved, and that’s why it’s so special". Why does it being personal make it special? Most fiction -- especially novels -- is quite personal by its very nature. Like it or not, Final Fantasy XIII was (to my understanding) quite personal to Motomu Toriyama -- does that make it special? I bet Twilight was personal to Stephenie Meyer -- does that make it special?

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ArbitraryWater

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Edited By ArbitraryWater

I guess my problem with "games" like this is that I can get an almost identical experience watching a let's play as I would actually playing it. But of course, none of these indie games with seemingly profound observations on the human condition actually say anything that I can relate to or isn't super obvious already, so I'm clearly not the audience regardless.

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"There are no jump scares in Gone Home, and there are no ghosts hiding in a closet."

Good to know, that's what I was worried about when I saw the quick look. I'm alright with psychological horror games, but jump scares I really have a dislike for.

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Rick_Fingers

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Edited By Rick_Fingers

It never ceases to amaze me how people can't accept that others might have different taste.

Game doesn't play like Call of Duty and yet you like it? Well, you must be pretentious and/or a hipster! Come on people, you're better than this.

Anyway, good review. I've been hanging out for this one for a long time now. I suspect I know what it is about, but guessing the plot never matters very much to me anyway.

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BaneFireLord

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I just want to say that while I have absolutely no interest in playing this game ever, I am happy as a clam that the gaming medium allows such titles to coexist and thrive alongside the multimillion dollar "AAA" franchises. It really speaks to the diversity endemic to the industry.

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Andtheworld

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As much as I am interested in a story, it ain't worth $20. If it was $10, then it would be a fair price for that you're getting.

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jarowdowsky

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That was an absolutely beautiful experience. Can't think of much in games that touched me so much. Maybe 'A Mind Forever Voyaging'?

@patrickklepek Interesting to hear you talk about the epic and the personal in the game. For me it felt the same as some of Tarkovsky's great sci-fi works. All heart and personal feeling no matter the genre trappings. Maybe even Bresson's simple presentation of complex layers. Or maybe Ang Lee's American family tales?

Either way I'm struggling to imagine how to discuss the experience in the context of games alone. In a lot of ways it recalls the kind of films that are just too rarely made these days. A universal story with a small theme.

Worth every penny, ten times over.

So how does this work, someone sets up a spoiler thread so people who have finished can talk about the game? Sorry, not sure of the spoiler-process on GB?

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geekbot

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This sounds amazing. Thanks for the review, Patrick :)

Ditto. I can't wait to play this. And this review was a really good read. :)

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Edited By Oni

@flindip: I came to the same conclusion in the quicklook thread. I'm hoping it won't be something so blatantly obvious, but my indie-game sense is tingling pretty hard.

It's a shame to not go in completely cold, as the nature of the story is revealed very well in and of itself, but what's wrong with a simple, ordinary story about simple, ordinary people? Just know that it's written and handled extremely well.

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avantegardener

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Definitely seems entriguing, and the high rez texture interactions look great, would really like to see this in world narrative sleuthing explored in more games.

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kerse

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Sounds cool.

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droop

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Edited By droop

Played an finished this. Not really feeling it. The story itself did not really seem that interesting to me. Just teenage-angst and a not particularly unique love story. I liked just walking around and exploring, but the writing did not resonance with me. And 20 bucks is way expensive for a 3 hours game with no replay value. Glad to see people are enjoying it and finding meaning in the story, though. And I would love to see more games like this.

Lovely sense of nostalgia looking at old cassette tapes and VHS tapes. I wish they soundtrack had been more exposed, because it's really beautiful.

Good on you, Ther Fullbright Company. Hope it does really well for you.

-- Oh and remember to buy your indie games from the developers Humble Store! You get a Steam key + DRM free version and devs gets a 90%.

http://www.gonehomegame.com/

Edit:

"But you can't escape the sense that Gaynor, Zimonja and Nordhagen started on this project with grand designs for games as a storytelling medium, yet without a story they desperately wanted to tell." [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-08-15-gone-home-review]

That quote pretty much sums it up perfectly for me.

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Dessan

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Wow, I've just finished it, thought it was really really good. It is so mundane yet interesting. Just a regular day at another home(not "that" regular but still). It was really satisfaying to discover a strangers house which is really creepy actually. Great review as always !

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deactivated-61356eb4a76c8

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@soulstoner: I have been paying attention, but it seems that this game is entirely about wandering a around your house for 3 hours. But surely a game with such a stupid premise wouldn't be getting this crazy amount of praise.

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bushlemon

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Is this that ghost game?

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Edited By Corey1984

Just bought it, first saw it on the quick look.

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mowgers

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Edited By mowgers

Couldn't agree more Patrick. Game is genuinely amazing.

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deactivated-5e49e9175da37

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As much as I appreciate devs attempting to go an original direction with story (or at least, story within games), lately what I've been craving is an original direction with gameplay. The idea of just taking out all the mechanics except for walking around and opening things is maybe not what I'm looking for.

I'll say this though; if the plot ends up being 'a girl died and that is sad' then I'm going to be pissed. Because this would be the third such game in this style to have that same reveal.

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Zornack

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Edited By Zornack

I'm usually on board with the indie experimental story stuff but there's just too little going on in this game for how much they're charging. I bought it, I played it, I beat it and I regret it.

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gerrid

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I really enjoyed Gone Home. Thoughtful and atmospheric and memorable in the best way.

Video gams offer a chance to immerse yourself into another world and sometimes that experience ends up really staying with you. Gone Home is one of those, I think.

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claudius

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I bought the game solely based on the fact that Steve Gaynor worked on it, and I liked him on Idle Thumbs. I just beat it in about 3 hours and holy shit, what a game. I actually teared up a bit at one point midway through the game, which is super rare for me.

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gamer_152

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gamer_152  Moderator

The game sounds like something really special, but I still can't bring myself to get it with the price tag they've slapped onto it.