Game Review: Gone Home

This is not my usual type of game. Not by a long shot. Most of the games I play pumped full of action, and constantly have shooting, or punching, or racing, or platforming. Gone Home is instead of a much slower sort, built not on complicated mechanics but on tone and story. This is a game where if you let yourself be immersed in it, you will be rewarded, especially by how much emotional weight it brings to a short two-hour play time (the length of my first play through).

You play as Kaitlin Greenbriar, who is just arriving home after some time away travelling Europe. But, this isn’t the home she knows. While she was gone, her father inherited a house from their recluse uncle. She doesn’t know this place any more than the player does, nor does she know why no one is there to greet her when she arrives. With this simple set up, the player starts off on near equal ground with the character, creating a connection right from the start.

The game has a simple set of mechanics. Basically, you walk through the house and pick up objects. Many of these objects will be notes, helping shed light on what the Greenbriar family has gone through. Some of these objects also act as an audio cue, setting in motion a recording of Sam, Kaitlin’s sister, reading out journal entries in hopes of catching Kaitlin up on everything she missed while away.

When the player first enters the house there is a closet with only one interactable object inside. It is a board game with the tagline “a novel travelling game”. This feels like the game telling the player what to expect. Gone Home is a novel, revealing itself as the player slowly travels through this mysterious home. Though, given its length, “short story” might be more accurate.

Within the first 10 minutes the game sucked me in and I was hooked. I thought the story was one of the most beautiful I have ever played through. I loved it. But, it is a game that should be played with as little information as possible. So much is built upon the discomfort of not knowing what has happened to Kaitlin’s family, and slowly having it unveiled. So, if you haven’t played yet, and plan to, stop reading here.

SPOILERS BELOW THIS PICTURE

The first message the player finds, already building a dark and mysterious ambiance.

As mentioned above, Gone Home achieves the perfect pairing of tone and story. The horror aesthetic, though proving to be built on red herrings, is an amazing representation of the feelings of the player’s character. To arrive home to a house you have never seen before, and all your family missing, it fits that the worst would be assumed.

This game developers calling me out for exactly how I played it…

The Greenbriar family is one that has been keeping secrets from one another. As Kaitlin, and the player, learn these secrets, darker truths are revealed about the people she thought she knew. Terry (her father) is struggling so much in his writing career that he is slipping into alcoholism, and Jan (her mother) is considering adultery as their relationship grows distant.

But the true story of the game is that of Sam. Through the journal entries Sam has left behind, we learn that she has come to a point where she is realizing and coming to terms with her own sexuality. After starting at a new school and meeting Lonnie, the cool punk chick, she instantly decides she needs to get to know her. As they grow closer, Sam realizes that she wants more.

Before moving, Sam was close to a boy named Daniel. In one journal entry, she refers to him as a “default friend”, based entirely on the fact that they used to be neighbors. She considers her friendship with him something that stemmed only from ease and accessibility. This sort of idea comes up again when she uses the phrase “stick with the group” in reference to hiding her relationship with Lonnie. She feels like it is safer if no one knows. When Sam is confronted by her parents, she tells them the truth. But, they dismiss her coming out as “just a phase”, completely devastating her.

Throughout the house there are excerpts from a story that can be found. This is a story Sam has been writing since she was a little kid, about Captain Allegra and her First Mate. Much like the comic within a comic in Watchmen (which was also about pirates), the story of Captain Allegra parallels that of Sam. To take it in chronological order (rather than the order it is found in), it begins on a very explicit telling of her being Captain Allegra, and Daniel being the First Mate. The two grew closer as they went on adventures together. One day, the First Mate is held captive and dropped into some sort of potion, with Captain Allegra being too slow to save him from it. But the First Mate survives, the only effect the potion had was that it changed him into a woman. It is only after this transformation the Captain Allegra admits her love. The last excerpt that can be found has Captain Allegra and the First Mate splitting up. But, Captain Allegra doesn’t want to be away from her First Mate, to risk anything happening. She turns back and runs in hopes of being together.

It is in this same way that the real story of Sam ends. Lonnie is about to leave to join the army but calls Sam instead. They don’t want to be apart, and so they run away together. Even the parents’ story turns out happy by the end.

The player is asked to see the story of Sam through the eyes of her sister. And, I think, it nails it. Information is revealed in such a way that player is worried about what has happened to Sam, fearing the worst with each passing journal entry. As the story comes to an end, it brings with it the feeling of relief, of happiness for the choice Sam has made. At least, that was how I felt. And it was in part this uplifting feeling it left me with that kept it on my mind since playing, giving me no choice but to write about it.