Gone Home is an action-adventure game in which is a take back of the classic “point and click” style of game. It is a story of Kaitlin coming home and finding out that her sister Samantha that was supposed to pick her up was not there and the mystery of why she was not there.
General Gameplay
The gameplay is around exploration and this is where the controls are right. There is a home, a big home that you have to explore and get clues on what happen and why there is no one there. The most of the time will be going through the game and looking at interactive objects and interacting with them to get clues and hints onto what to do next. The game is mostly audio narrative of the story revolving around this empty home, and the younger sister.
Audio
This is where the game shines the most, the audio. The way Gone Home narrates the story from audio cues throughout the game is what makes this title shine. The game setting is in the 1990’s, well 1995 to be exact so you will hear non mainstream grunge music in the game in the form of “mix tapes” also there is little to no background music but ambient sound. The occasional crack of thunder but not much else, the game relies on the voice over work to tell this story. If the content that is being told through the audio is family friendly, well we will cover this in our Family Friendly section.
Visuals
The game visuals are stunning, even though the game itself is a “point and click” also that the game takes place inside a home, but it does the game visuals very well. From the rooms and detail within the rooms are done with extra attention to detail and that no two rooms in the game look the same. Also the colors in the game are well done so for family gaming members that have a hard time seeing colors on the monitor they will be able to enjoy this game. As the game is rated M for Mature that there are some items and graphics in the game that parents will want to watch out for. There is no nudity but there are some pictures and other items within the game that would suggest some situations in which caution is advice for parents that are having younger gamers play the game. As the game is rated M there is not a lot of mature content that is scattered within the game but we will cover this in our “Family Friendly” section of our review.
Controls
The controls are very basic for this type of game, with a walk, look around and interact, there is not much to say about the controls other than it works for a game like this. In our play through we did not see any issues with the controls for any family members that played the game. Also with a simple control set up, it makes it easy for anyone to play the game. We did see some times within the play test that some objects were not interacting with the player, but this was mostly due to gamer error and not the game itself.
Delivery
If you are looking for a simply pick up and play type of game with a great story, than this is the game to do it with. However keep in mind that the main game can be completed within a 2 to 2 ½ hour timeframe. You can go through the game and replay it and go after all of the audio logs or a rare feature in the game, listen to the game developer commentary (A must recommend). There are no secret endings or any other type of incentive to go back to play this game other than getting any collectables that were missed. Now most will say for the asking price for the game that it should give more gaming value, however that you are playing for the experience of the story and that this is not a typical game in itself. From our play test that everyone that we worked with on this enjoyed the game and that most even went through to replay the game itself to re-experience the game story.
Family Friendly
This is one of those reviews in which we had to do a podcast for. You can listen to it here. Our podcast goes into detail on why the game is a great game for the story but may not be for all family members. As the story does deal with falling in love, it does have a sensitive matter of a girl falling in love with another girl from her high school. We do not want to give too much away but it is a topic that most parents will feel that their child or even pre-teen may not be age appropriate for. As the game deals with a lesbian relationship, some may find it that it may not be for them or for others in their gaming family, this is why we did a podcast to explore the game and the games content in some detail. However for a second, look past the lesbian relationship and look at the game for what it is, a game that is telling a great story and doing a great job of having the gamer go through a girls memories to find out a mystery in an empty home. Again we do not want to go into the topic of what is right morally for you and your gaming family but simply that look at it for the game that it is and not the subject matter. I can honestly say from playing the game and hearing the audio commentary from the creators and people that worked on the game, you can hear that they put a lot of effort into making this game and the detail to make you feel that it is the middle of 1995. Again we are just hear to show you what the game is and want you the gamer to make the best choice for you and your gaming family.
Closing
We gave the game a 10/10 because of the level of design, audio, visuals, story and also the overall feeling of seeing a game go back to the roots of storytelling and getting the gamer immerse into the story to experience it for themselves.
