Gone Home

Over the weekend, I noticed that a computer game called Gone Home was on special on Steam. I looked up a description - a first-person interactive story adventure video game, set in the year 1995, the plot focuses on exploration of a mansion in Portland, Oregon, and examining common household objects within the home - and decided to give it a try.

The result? I enjoyed the experience (barring needing to stop every now and then because it gave me motion sickness). After I had finished I read a bit more about it and discovered that it's won various awards. It's also had some mixed reviews.

The people who like it praise its story and themes. The ones that don't criticise its lack of gameplay. I'll risk a very mild spoiler and say that it's entirely a game about exploration. There's no combat and no action puzzles.

I liked it, not least because I knew what I was getting. It's a nice piece of work as it has the right setting and the final answers do fit with the set-up. Also, the game mechanics work well as you uncover it all a piece at a time in a fairly specific order. The atmosphere is a bit contrived in places (like the thunderstorm) but not in a particularly bad way. It's a couple of hours long (or rather more if you stop for motion sickness). I liked the story of Sam unfolding, even though it was fairly obvious where it was going for a while. I also liked the other stories - of the parents, the great uncle and, to some degree, Caitlin herself. Plus the obvious contrasts between Caitlin and Sam from finding things like Caitlin's trophies. I found that the state of many of the rooms seemed very natural given who was living in the house at the time and I was also a big fan of all the little hidey-holes.

Overall I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who knew that was the sort of game they wanted - although I think at sale price rather than full price because of the length.