Really? (Spoilers)

I just got done playing Gone Home after hearing all the praise and I've got to say, I have that "the emperor has no clothes feeling." What a great big nothing of a game.

I'm not even going to get into the whole $20 valuation thing, because that's been talked to death, but I did expect a whole lot more out of the game's short time than what I got. The game's mechanics are all very standard and there really isn't anything all that new the idea of a game placing you in a situation and making you piece together how that situation came to pass. In its own infinitely more fun way Bioshock did more or less the same thing years ago by putting you in a crazy environment and making you trace how things got that way through audiologs. All this game did was take that format and then suck out all the gameplay, all the action, all the production values, and all the fantastical elements.

As for the story itself... meh. If all you've ever done is play video games all your life, then I suppose this story might interest you, but it seemed like a pretty standard issue "coming out"/gay teen romance to me and a thin one at that. For less than half the price you can buy a ticket to Blue is the Warmest Color and get a deeper and more fully realized story about similar issues... and its about twice as long. No, this story is only good in that "for a game" type way, and yet it offers none of the added fun stuff that usually accompanies stories that are good "for a game."

So, yeah... If Gone Home actually had a real barn-burner of a story it might have worked... or if it even had the slightest bit of game play as a hook it might have worked, but it has neither. Why the hell is this getting rave notices? Are people just that enamored with the indie game spirit? Are they just this happy to see LBGT issues getting addressed in games? Are they just that nostalgic about 90s furniture? Maybe its a combination of the three. One could almost see this as an experiment to see how a single game could push all the right buttons in order get a certain breed of critics who are desperate for examples of "intellectual" storytelling in games to give plaudits to something that is, in fact, completely empty.

I really enjoyed gone home and found the story entertaining and compelling. I don't care about social agendas or making games seem smart. I've taken in plenty of other non-game fiction and seen similar stories. Sucks to know that I'm wrong though.

While some of it is definitely the LGBT stuff, that's not all that game has going for it. I can't tell from your post whether or not you fully explored everything and found all the notes lying around the house. If you did, you would realize that there is a whole lot more going on in that family than just the younger sister dealing with accepting her sexuality. People love that game because it is a near-perfect example of a fully realized world in a game. That house has so much going on in it that is portrayed so realistically that it not at all difficult to imagine that house being real. The realism is further enhanced by the amazing voice acting (by all games' standards, not just indie games') and high-res handwritten notes. That a game can build such a complex world within the confines of a house is pretty amazing.

All this being said, I have never claimed, either in this post or otherwise, that this game is worth $20. I agree, it's not. It's just incredible to see such a deep world within the confines of a single house.

I do agree it's really overrated, but that's 'cause the praise was crazy over the top. Personally, I quite enjoyed my time with the game. The whole "Bioshock minus the combat" observation is totally valid, but that's probably the exact reason I liked it. I felt a lot more immersed, and immersion in an environmentally-driven narrative can go a long way. That's pretty much all I can say though, 'cause this game is totally not for everyone, and I can absolutely understand people who don't even consider it a game. Honestly, I was surprised the game was as well-received as it was, even by those who weren't "desperate for examples of 'intellectual' storytelling," to use your words.

Anyway, I'm sorry that you got taken in by the hype, I guess.

@roadshell:

Everyone has different tastes. If you don't like it that's fine. But that doesn't mean someone else liking this game is wrong. As for why reviewers like it so much, almost unanimously, that's a problem with how similar reviewers are. In a lot of ways, a lot of the games press thinks very similarly, enjoy similar things, and so on because they have a lot of similarities culturally, socially, and so on. It's just the way it is. Take it for what that's worth I guess.

I found the mechanisms through which the story was told to be a breath of fresh air. Yes, other games tell story with things like audiologs. This was not that.

@roadshell kinda with you - i enjoyed playing it, but it was 90 minutes of kind of nothing...there was some good 90s nostalgia, and an interesting story, only in that I thought it was going one way, but didn't quite end up the way I was expecting.

Everyone wants that non-shooter FPS that moves things forward, and maybe in a small way this did it, but think most of it's accreditation just comes from the fact that it's an indie game.

When I made my goty list, i kept trying to justify adding some indie games to it (mainly brothers and guacamelee), but end of the day, they are short experiences that I will most likely not revisit.

Are they worth the money? yes

Are they the best games out there? I have to say not quite.

It was one of the most beautiful experiences I've ever experienced in any form of storytelling medium.

I'm sorry that you had a bad time with the game. Personally, I think the story itself is the backseat of the game; the real hero of Gone Home is the gameplay - it's was the interaction, it was the exploration, it was the wildly open-ended gameplay. I also really enjoyed the soundtrack and the detailed high resolution textures. Then, of course, I enjoyed the way that the story was presented, not necessarily the story itself.

I think you're focusing on the story as if this were a book - it is not a book and it is not a movie. You may have read books or seen movies about similar issues - unless you've been doing a lot of breaking and entering, I assume you haven't experienced those issues like this.

You mention BioShock, I loved BioShock too. However, ironically, the thing that was special about Gone Home is that there was nothing special about it - no magic powers, no time travel, no dragons, etc... Fantastical elements can be great, but sometimes it's a breath of fresh air to deal with the mundane.

Basically, I just felt it was a beautiful and incredibly well-crafted experience.

The fewer games you play, the less being different matters. For gamer reveiwers, Gone Home was a breath of fresh are they desperately needed, and was perhaps oversold as a result. If you are someone who doesn't consume many games at a fast rate, then the need for something different than the standard fare is less.

Not to completely discredit the merits of the game, I just think it's a situation much like Saints Row: The Third. Right game at the right time for the critics and press.

I thought it was a brilliant game, was great to see a such a normal story so well executed. Probably the best atmosphere from any game ever.

Fucking word, brother. Fucking word.

I think it does have something to do with either LGBT or the 90's. I found the game interesting with the fully realized world with the hand-written letter and the magazines. This is impressive and cool but it was a world that was not interesting and gave me no reason to care, I guessed the sisters entire story line up to the end in the first 5 minutes(because as roadshell said its a fairly stereotypical story) and the family stories may have been there but definitely seemed to take a back seat to the sister's story. And I did explore the house thoroughly, I spent a little over 2 hours finding every little nook and cranny waiting for the story to give me something that brought me in. Then when talking to friends that liked it, I asked them why? There response included bring them back to the 90's and in general teen love(none are LGBT) and interesting to see a LGBT story. I have also read many other reviews including these details. So not saying you need these elements to enjoy the story or game but it definitely seemed to be a some what major player in these positive opinions. Also no one is wrong in their opinion this is just mine.

Look at the best games of this year (or any year). Look at how almost all of them are about saving the world or some other giant conflict. Gone Home is a human story. It's completely inconsequential to everyone else in the world. But to the characters of the game, it's the most important conflict in the world. There are NEVER games like that. That's why it's special.

I thought the story was sweet, and the gameplay was fresh even if it wasn't all new.

I really like Gone Home. I played it this weekend and had a great time with it. It was fun to follow along and piece things together and I was happy that even by the end there was no sinister plan or devious twist. Every big payoff was a memory or finding something that helped you understand your sister better. The title of the game made perfect sense by the time the credits rolled. I don't know how they did it but the entire game clicked into place as soon as it ended.

I loved the music in it too.

I'm sorry you didn't enjoy it as much as I did. I think the $20 price tag is justified for how much of an amazing experience Gone Home is. I would have even bought it for $30 since it would mean supporting an amazing creative studio.

I imagine it reviewed highly with the press because as people that play a majority of all releases each year, many of which are basically the same game in a different dressing, I can only imagine that they crave novelty to the point of being completely enamored by anything straying from the status quo.

As to the price issue I understand where the press is coming from as well. They even experience the same dissonance without knowing it. As someone that got to watch all new movie releases for free before they were official released over several years I too completely lost all perspective on movie pricing. Many times over the Bombcast the crew would mention how there are some movies they wouldn't go to see but would rather wait for on Netflix or something because it's "not worth it." It's the same with Gone Home - as the press, that get download codes and literally have the ability to cherry pick which upcoming titles they want to test drive without any entry fee, I'm sure they've lost some perspective on the cost-to-gameplay ratio.

One of the reasons why reviewers "love" this game is because they want to seem progressive or are afraid of looking like bigots. It was an ok game. Way too short, but good. It definitely wasn't 'PC GAME OF THE YEAR'.

Certainly one of the biggest let downs once you reach the end WOW ITS FUCKING NOTHING.

Kinda funny that a game with a similar first-impression premise(Outlast) didn't even get mentioned in the VGXs. 2spooky and not progressive enough/art I guess.

Well, aren't you cynical.

@legion_:

@roadshell: You seem to be operating under the impression that Gone Home was supposed to be better than all the things you listed. No one said it was on par with Blue is the Warmest Color, let alone better, which you seem to be upset about finding the opposite of. Its universal praise stems from it offering an askewed take on how to tell stories, with its handling of all the objects in the environment and no superfluous, cognitive dissonance-inspiring combat or unneeded supernatural elements. Not everything has to be "the best story of its kind;" it can just be a good story, which it is, assuming you didn't accidentally just run to the exit like some people did (a huge fault of the game that I'm happy to complain about; should have been gated better).

Keep in mind the developers didn't intend on getting all the praise they got, though of course they aren't going to shy away from it, either. They're just a few people who made a game, and it was the public that raised the awareness and got your expectations up. It's still just a small game by a small team telling their own story, not hoping to shatter any barriers or break new ground, at least not in the way the zeitgeist would have you believe.

I'll also say, though, that harping on the "doesn't satisfy the 'game' aspect for me" issue doesn't help you sound too rational in your reasoning. It makes it sound like that's the crux of your disappointment, like you are one of the people who get personally offended when games aren't "games." It's an utterly irrelevant point to bring up. The thing you sit down to play doesn't have to utilize some mechanism you deem best-fitted to the medium. I realize this likely isn't a huge part of your argument, but I'm just saying it's probably going to be a useless point to make in most cases.

I agree completely. Do not get this game.

I also don't get the game, therefore I didn't get the game.

I'm just not into the whole Dear Esther experience games. Bore me to tears. I don't mind watching slow movies, but in games I wanna keep moving.

I enjoyed the game. I am fairly sensitive to people pushing agendas, and I did not take Gone Home that way. They were honest enough ( that seemed the intent) to showing the younger sister shitting all over her almost-former guy friend, much less love interest. Maturity can lack with anyone, and she was young. It was very good story telling combined with exploration. Leaving the supernatural out of it was true grasp.

My criticism is that the younger sister's story got so center stage, the other stories seemed muted. That caused me some discord. It was balance.

I'm glad you found something to like about it, but I just found nothing about walking around a house, opening drawers and reading notes to be inherently fun. I feel like the basic "walk around a touch things" mechanic is something you can do in tons of other games that also offer a bunch of additional things to do once that gets old.

The game may indeed be unique in that way, but if anything I feel like it proves that there's a good reason why things like this don't usually get made. There's a certain point where, if they aren't actually going to be having the player really do anything that's fun and special they might as well just be writing a book of making a movie, and by the storytelling standards of those mediums this story would not be interesting or special.

I am annoyed by the price, but really it didn't play into my response too much. I still wouldn't have liked it if it were $10 or even $5, if it were free I might have been less bothered by it but I still probably would have just seen it as a sort of odd curiosity and quickly forgotten about it.

Now you're just nitpicking.

I think the reason why reviewers love the game is because they actually love the game and aren't too picky about length given the quality of the time spent.

^

I ended up feeling rather mixed once the game ended. I thought the main thread about your sister and her crush felt sort of Oscar bait-ish. But at the same time is felt very genuine, they had their little school magazines they were making and the comic with the sort of dumb fan fiction plot. It was cute. Also did you pick up on the other family members, the fathers failed an reinvigorated book career, the parents weakening marriage, the moms affair, the uncles suicide by morphine due to guilt. A lot is going on if you look.

The game is very realistic, you are getting all this information out of things that would actually exist as opposed to audiologs in a Bioshock game that seem a little too convenient. Also the piecing the events together is satisfying. Realizing that the sister is a lesbian was sort of a surprise. The weird hidden passage with all the picture clippings and the cross was also very memorable, very atmospheric. Though the occult stuff (Ouija board, pentagram under the stairs, and the cross) to me either seems out of place or a good red herring. I kept feeling that I was going to find a corpse at some point.

Regardless atmosphere and environmental story telling has been a thing since the game cube with Metroid Prime, and even before that with Resident Evil. They made a pretty focused and subtler version of that. I personally believe $5 is a good price for the game. I really don't think they should have gotten nominated for studio of the year, a studio like Platinum Games should have, I could argue their games are more innovative because mechanically they do things that few other games do, games like Left 4 Dead, Fallout, and Bioshock had this type of storytelling, but were also all better games.

For how much shit audio logs have gotten recently I was floored at how good of a reception Audio Logs: The Game (also known as Gone Home) got.

@nottle said:

No it's not. There are notes detailing secrets like affairs and sexual preferences sitting out in the open. That's not realistic in the slightest, it's extremely gamey.

While it's cool and all people dislike Gone Home, I think the assertion that the game's fans say they like it because "it makes them seem intellectual" is a bit silly. There's a load of reasons why ~i~ really liked it, but because I was pressured into liking it because it's about gay stuff isn't one of them. I'm currently going through the entire coming out to parents thing and I can't tell you how meaningful it was to me to see not only that issue, but also people like me simply present in a video game.

So, like, when people say that this game is only so well-reviewed because it made the critics feel intellectual, I get a feeling that the people who claim this only feel that the topic of gender and sexuality/storytelling driven mechanics only exist for the purpose of feeding the egos of critics and creators, which I really hope none of you actually think.

I dunno, I enjoyed the time spent in the game. Maybe I'm a "pseudo intellectual" because I liked the threads presented and the ways you tie them up, but whatever.

I agree that the game is overrated, but I still love it. The fact that the whole time I'm expecting some horror story to unfold, and the tension continues to build in such a strong way, only to find out you were totally off.... Masterful. I will admit that I don't care much for the actual story that is revealed, but the way it is told.... Awesome.

Am I the only one that thought this was a horror game up until the credits rolled? I was terrified the whole time I played that game. The atmosphere and hints of supernatural elements had me on edge the whole time, to the point that I had to hype myself up into going into the attic. I'd avoided all discussion of the game so I went in unsure of what the game was going in. But I couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed after pushing through the whole game, terrified, only to find it end the way it did.

I thought it was a sweet little game. It felt like I was reading a short story and finished it in two sittings. I think the market is big enough to include little indie projects with stories like Gone Home's. Different people have different tastes and this is no exception. There is little to no "gameplay", and it's fairly short. Both these aspects don't bother me at all. In between the zombie explosions and space fights, a little intimate story like Gone Home's was a fine break away for me.

I like the game, but not because I'm trying to impress anybody with all of my progressiveness. I don't have gamer friends or family. The only person that knew I liked the game when it came out was me.

As far as the price, I can sort of sympathize with the complaint of it being a little too expensive at 20 bucks, but in that case I would just wait for one of the many steam sales to get it. I ended up getting the game for free because of the money I made off of steam trading cards.

I thought following the bread crumbs of your sister as she found all the secret passageways and such in this old house was pretty awesome. I really liked her story too, and I didn't pick up on the direction it was going until maybe halfway through. It didn't really change the way I felt about the it. I really enjoyed the story, the way it unfolded felt...I dunno, genuine? I don't feel there was some 'agenda' at work there at all.

I would have rather read it as a book. And as a book, it would have sucked. I didn't like Gone Home. I don't mind indie experiences, but Gone Home wasn't an experience worth 20 bucks. I would have seen this as a 2$ phone game. /opinion.

Yep. That's what killed it for me. Finding detailed secrets written all over the house? Sorry, but I couldn't buy it. It felt forced and fake to me. I had plenty of things to hide in my youth, especially porn magazines, and trust me, it didn't sit in the open for people to find out.

Seriously. Makes me think OP's main gripe is, in fact, that it isn't a "game," and therefore needs to be one of the greatest stories they've ever experienced to justify eschewing typical gaming conventions. Nowhere did OP even attempt to bring up any of my other points.

I understand why a lot of people feel that way about this game, it feels more like an interactive story than anything else. I'm not into romance stories (although I have exceptions in movies if it's done well) but I'm on the same boat where once you realize the story is about love I lose interest. What I loved about this game was the attention to detail and unraveling the history of the characters, plus the nostalgia trip from the 90s was fun.

I think it's more of an experience than anything about the game-play. If you're like me and enjoy exploring more about a world and learning it's history then this game can be fun for you. But if you don't like romance stories and you're looking for something innovative game-play wise then this game isn't for you.

Modern life has broken my attention span to the point that I cannot enjoy a movie at home because I get bored after 20 minutes and need something for my hands to do. This is the main reason I like narrative-driven video games -- they're like movies I get to walk around in. I enjoyed Gone Home because it provided exactly that, a story set in a world I can walk around in and explore at my own pace.

(I got it in a steam sale, I agree the regular asking price is about twice what it should be).

@roadshell:

Also, you can (and people have) found the passage under the stairs or the secret passage from the 2nd floor to the basement ahead of time. You might not know those things are there without the "gating", but it's entirely possible to go out of order.

I loved Gone Home. I was glad that it wasn't concerned with telling a "game" story. It was fine telling an unremarkable one about a flawed family and a house, with no supernatural elements. How often do we see that in this medium?

I enjoyed it but not the degree that some did I see, I dont think anyone can ignore the low value of the game, I got it in a Steam sale and still felt slightly ripped off and that isnt something I get from games hardly ever at all. Much in the way that people dont like microtransactions because (1 of many reasons) it makes you think about money while playing well this game did that for me and didnt even know there was a big hoo haa about it already. This is coming from a guy who plays through full price games that last 5 hours and doesnt ever really think about if I got value for money.

I enjoyed it but agreed its not worth the 20 bones to me. I think at the time when the game came nothing new was really out there and it was just refreshing to play something like this.

That's what is important in my opinion. But I also, don't understand the praise it gets from the social agenda crap. It certainly isn't GOTY, except on Polygon. Ugh.

Gone Home was an interesting game and I'm glad I played it, less so that I spent $20 on it. My big problem is that the story is basically just about coming out, aside from the much more compelling tidbits about the parents' marriage. It's a great concept and played on 90s nostalgia well, but I just wish they did more with it.

Maybe I liked it so much because I play Visual Novels regularly?

Instead of Portland game took place on Jurassic Park's Isla Nublar. I'd pay 20 bucks for that game.

It's an interesting game and certain parts of it are certainly impressive, but all the praise it's getting is terribly regressive for the industry.

I mean, regardless of if you enjoy the story the game has to tell or not, it doesn't exactly push the medium forward. The entire narrative is told through text or voice over, and while it's certainly neat that they scattered all these varying pieces of story around a pretty well realized environment for you to explore, at the end of the day you're still just collecting pages of a book. There isn't much here that wasn't done better in Bioshock all the way back in 2007, and everyone openly admits that game's story was littered with flaws.

It's great that it's exploring a topic that doesn't get a lot of attention in games, but the way in which it does so isn't very remarkable or innovative.