Gone home... not the most catchy title on the market, but still, there is something about the way it presents itself, with the mysterious old house and the ominous purple sky, something... intriguing.
Honestly, before playing it, I had no idea what to expect at all. Was this a horror game much like
White Night or more like a detective game, like
Blues and Bullets? Or even more like a shortstory-game like
Three Fourths Home?
I shall give my verdict at the end of the review, on which of these games came closest to
Gone home, but first... a little bit of backstory.
The Story...So, you are playing Katie Greenbriar, a young woman who has been travelling all over Europe for a while, but who is finally coming home. While she has been gone, the family has moved into the home of their late uncle, a change that Katie's younger sister, Sam (Samantha) is finding hard to cope with.
When you return from your trip, you find yourself in an empty house during a nasty storm. The only hint of your family is a letter that Sam has left for you, a rather disturbing letter. Apparently she is gone and doesn't want you, or anyone, to come looking for her. The big question is... where is she and what has happened to her?
GameplayNow it is up to you to search the house for clues to your sister's whereabouts, and while you do so, you will also discover more about your own story and your family's. The entire game takes place in this new house and you find yourself exploring all the rooms, picking up things to look for clues.
Every now and then, there will be certain clues that trigger a connection between you and your sister, and you will hear Samantha telling you about events in her life.
There isn't really much gameplay other than that. You can access your inventory, but you can't really pick up much stuff and it isn't really necessary for you to do so. You can also access a map and the journal entries from Sam, and these are quite nice and handy.
So really... just kick back... move through the house, pick things up, enjoy the level of detail and immerse yourself in the story. It has a few twists and turns that I won't tell you about here. I mean... you wouldn't want me to ruin the experience... would you?!
Sound and graphicsThe sounds are nice, subtle, but they feel real and therefore add to the story. The graphics are decent, meaning that they won't overwhelm you or anything, but they also wont disturb your engagement into the game. The designers have left a lot of small clues around the house for you to find, clues that, if like me you were around Sam's age in 1996, will feel cool to discover. I am talking about stuff like a ticket to Pulp Fiction or the titles of the old vhs tapes, boardgames etc.. Cool details.
The Extras...Since this game is rather short, it is nice to see that they have invented sort of a new feature (that I know of...): the Commentary. If you are like me, someone who loves listening to the commentaries of dvds, you are going to love this feature. You'll learn some details that you might not have found otherwise and get a lot of interesting stories from behind the scenes. Not all of them are equally interesting though. Personally, I loved the unscripted talks between the designers more than the scripted speak of the composer. But hey, thats just me!
My final thoughts...Gone home is not groundbreaking or anything, and you probably won't find yourself returning to it a month from now, but as a small exploration game... that will take you away from your own life for a few hours... it works rather well. I enjoyed myself, but I also know that this sort of game is not for everyone. It is slow-paced, like... really slow-paced, and you need to pay attention to ALL the details to get the full experience.
However, if you are just looking for an easy 1k... this is the game for you. You can use the videos on TA to move through the game quite fast. I did this myself to get some of the easter egg achievements that I had missed.
Now, I promised I would tell you if this game was closer to White Night, Blues and Bullets or Three Fourths Home... and my verdict is that... it is actually equal parts all three. 3.0