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[Jintor]

That's really what confuses me about the praise for the story (as opposed to praise for the discovery-based gameplay). The story itself has been repeated a few hundred times in young adult fiction for decades.....

Not really in games though. And... definitely not executed like this.

I find myself so utterly disconnected from the people

Spoiler

who come out having wanted some kind of really Bioshocky twist or a shock ending or something. The utter mundanity of the overall story (in today's environment, at least), but the simple drama nonetheless, is definitely a big appeal on my end.

Environmental storytelling is almost always about the shock-horror - "And then they died, here's their corpses!" or "See the impact of the devastation that hath been wrought?". It's never about the little things. Even one of my favourite environmental discovery sequences, the democracy vault in New Vegas, is essentially one big horror story. It's cool to get away from that.

 

[EatChildren]

I find myself so utterly disconnected from the people

Spoiler

who come out having wanted some kind of really Bioshocky twist or a shock ending or something. The utter mundanity of the overall story (in today's environment, at least), but the simple drama nonetheless, is definitely a big appeal on my end.

This belief (not yours, but what you're referring to) totally encompasses "missing the point", as far as I'm concerned. Like, with all due respect to those who feel this way, I really don't think it's a well argued criticism in the slightest. It's wanting something from a story that doesn't need it nor intended to have it.

Spoiler

Gone Home is really explicitly a grounded, human drama about the lives and histories of people, especially those in families, and the relationships they share. Buried, realistic secrets. There's a reason Sam never mentions her father's history of abuse, or her mother's potential infidelity. You're basically playing the role of a voyeur, digging through pasts you're not supposed to know and piecing together the realistic human fabric of what defines and shapes us as people.

 

[mattiewheels]

What's up with the thread title? Is it so subtle that it's clever, since it actually does have a place in the story in a way, or is it just confusing people who don't know shit about the game?

 

[Dusk Golem]

What's up with the thread title? Is it so subtle that it's clever, since it actually does have a place in the story in a way, or is it just confusing people who don't know shit about the game?

All of the above.

 

[border]

The success of the Humble Bundles kind of prove that for indies, strength is found in numbers. Grouping smaller projects together under one banner is a great way to get people to try things they otherwise might ignore.

Even indie games don't really get offered in Humble Bundles until months after their initial release. That is after they've already been able to command a premium price from early adopters.

Let's say a subscription service existed where you paid $10 a month to get five new indies available to you (for that month. If you want to keep it, you'll have to buy). And let's say developers split the fee equally (obviously I'm oversimplifying things here). If Gone Home was released in a package like that, I'm confident they'd see more than ten times the business they're doing selling this at $20 on Steam.

You're essentially saying that Fulbright should sell Gone Home for $2/unit, since under a subscription model few if any people are going to buy the game after their first month of play. I'd certainly like to see as many people as possible play the game, but in terms of revenue I don't think they would see ten times as many people renting it for $2, as opposed to the number of people willing to buy it for $20 (at least not in its initial launch period).

Many if not most indie titles would lose out in a subscription model, because they aren't really focused around longevity. There's no reason for me to buy a single-player indie title, or even pay for a second month's worth of rental.

It's still more value than you get for a movie, though. Not sure why they're treated as different value propositions, especially since I'd usually take 2 hours of most games over a movie that long.

I'm a little confused why a 2-3 hour game that costs $20 is so much more offensive than a 7-8 hour game that costs $60. In terms of value proposition, Gone Home isn't really that much worse than Bioshock Infinite, but it seems people are way more put off by the value that Gone Home represents.

 

[Lijik]

Played through the game this evening and read some of the discussion while letting it settle.
Not sure if Im ready to join the greater discussion or not but I will say this

Spoiler

the scare with the crucifix in the secret passage was very effective. I didn't jump but I was super uneased and refused to use the shortcut for any reason in the rest of my playthrough. A lot of effective moments in this game, but that one stood out to me because it affected how I played in a way thats kinda silly in hindsight

What's up with the thread title? Is it so subtle that it's clever, since it actually does have a place in the story in a way, or is it just confusing people who don't know shit about the game?

Spoiler

while testing the game, Sean Vanaman like others thought there would be a supernatural element. When he asked Steve Gaynor about it, Steve was so adamant about there not being a ghost in the game Sean started to joke about it.

More people joined in on the fun afterwards

 

[TheVampire]

Whats with the performance with this game?

I get about 45-50 fps on max.

This is with a GTX TITAN,

 

[TrutaS]

I just finished the game and I loved it, although it is too expensive for it's content. Having said that I found the story very smart, amazingly conveyed and the fact that

Spoiler

the ending is not a tragic, horrible moment is a twist itself.

 

[DevelopmentArrested]

Great game.
Two questions:

Spoiler

what's in the third thing that's locked with a combo? Missed that one. And what's the jump scare? Missed that too.

Thanks!

 

[AkuMifune]

This belief (not yours, but what you're referring to) totally encompasses "missing the point", as far as I'm concerned. Like, with all due respect to those who feel this way, I really don't think it's a well argued criticism in the slightest. It's wanting something from a story that doesn't need it nor intended to have it.

Spoiler

Gone Home is really explicitly a grounded, human drama about the lives and histories of people, especially those in families, and the relationships they share. Buried, realistic secrets. There's a reason Sam never mentions her father's history of abuse, or her mother's potential infidelity. You're basically playing the role of a voyeur, digging through pasts you're not supposed to know and piecing together the realistic human fabric of what defines and shapes us as people.

If that's what they wanted to achieve, they shouldn't be presenting or foreshadowing the game as a mystery, thriller or scary experience in any way. It just clouds what is otherwise essentially some dumb confused teenager's live journal: the game.

 

[dream]

If that's what they wanted to achieve, they shouldn't be presenting or foreshadowing the game as a mystery, thriller or scary experience in any way. It just clouds what is otherwise a essentially some dumb confused teenager's live journal:the game.

This seems like a very simplistic and reductive idea of storytelling though. The idea is to subvert the player's expectations, isn't it?

I can maybe understand that someone might feel bait and switched, but even the description of the game doesn't promise anything along the lines of horror:

June 7th, 1995. 1:15 AM

You arrive home after a year abroad. You expect your family to greet you, but the house is empty. Something's not right. Where is everyone? And what's happened here? Unravel the mystery for yourself in Gone Home, a story exploration game from The Fullbright Company.

Gone Home is an interactive exploration simulator. Interrogate every detail of a seemingly normal house to discover the story of the people who live there. Open any drawer and door. Pick up objects and examine them to discover clues. Uncover the events of one family's lives by investigating what they've left behind.

The house IS empty. Something IS wrong. And you do find out what happened to everyone.

 

[Jintor]

I think teetering on that edge where it could go either way is exactly the space it should inhabit in terms of initial presentation.

 

[fallagin]

Great game.
Two questions:

Spoiler

what's in the third thing that's locked with a combo? Missed that one. And what's the jump scare? Missed that too.

Thanks!

Spoiler

The one in the basement? You find the combination in katie's room on the floor right under the secret doorway.

 

[EatChildren]

If that's what they wanted to achieve, they shouldn't be presenting or foreshadowing the game as a mystery, thriller or scary experience in any way. It just clouds what is otherwise essentially some dumb confused teenager's live journal: the game.

I'm not going to argue this with you because I think you're simply a case of someone who didn't resonate with the narrative themes and style of storytelling (which is fair), but from my perspective this is a gross and largely misguided simplification of what the narrative was trying to aiming to achieve, both in content and the way it delivers this content to the audience.

EDIT: Additionally, and I will say this to my benefit, I didn't even know the game existed until some friends mentioned it the other day. I hadn't seen a trailer, only a screenshot or two, and knew little to nothing of the premise other than the fact you were exploring an empty house, learning about the people that lived there, and finding out where they went. So I have no idea if the pre-release marketing implied the game was something it was not.

But from the context of the way the game presents itself during play, I don't feel there is any over manipulative foreshadowing or bait-and-switching that imply the experience is anything other than what it is, but instead a lot of clever narrative drip-feeding that emphasise imagination and discovery. You're not supposed to know exactly how events will unfold or what you'll discover, but that in itself is the point, and if you make an incorrect judgement or botched prediction the fault lies with you. And that too is the point. You're not supposed to know, until you know.

 

[theowne]

How many movies or games really deal with

Spoiler

young lesbian relationships

? "A few hundred times" seems like a pretty high estimate? Even in the world of young adult novels, it seems like a relatively uncommon subject matter. It's certainly far less cliche than 99% of game premises.

Do you really consider Gone Home to a deep exploration of

Spoiler

lesbian relationships? I found most of it fairly by-the-book. Regardless, I wasn't referring to the "lesbian" relationship with my comment, but rather to the "detached teenager forming a relationship with an unruly classmate to the disapproval of her parents".

 

[mattiewheels]

I think the big problem is also the beauty of it. You don't know until you discover it, but people who play games have a set of expectations that are probably miuch different thanwhat this game's offering . You just need to know that this is a very human story without the stuff that usually comes with a game that has 'mysterious' in the description.

 

[Wingfan19]

Liked the game quite a bit. My favorite Easter Egg was the

Spoiler

Friday night TV schedule... Holy shit at the feels for that one! TGIF all up in that and it was actually correct. Even the other stations.

 

[akira28]

thanks guys. glad I didn't bite. Game looks great, but without the 'more' that I was expecting, I definitely would have been PISSED.

 

[Proc]

I hope this game reaches people who don't normally play games. I'm going to show it off to my fiancé and see if she's able to dig it. This sort or no fail state gameplay I feel could really hit a critical mass.

 

[Jintor]

thanks guys. glad I didn't bite. Game looks great, but without the 'more' that I was expecting, I definitely would have been PISSED.

I do encourage you to give it a try if it drops to like $5 or something where you can basically just skip a bottle of coke and get this instead.

 

[Neuromancer]

I just finished it. It was competently made, for sure, with a kind of cute story, but overall I didn't really care all that much about the characters and the house was kind of uninteresting (I know they were going for something like realism, but still.)

Maybe with Oculus Rift it would have been more interesting, I don't know. Can't really recommend for $20, for half that, sure. Still though I'm glad people are making somewhat experimental games like this.

 

[Inkwell]

I'll start by saying I really loved this. It was a special experience that kind of hit at the right time for me. Well worth the price.

People have already said all of the positive things that I would like to say, so I won't retread any of that. It was interesting reading some of the criticism. I don't fully agree with it all, but there are some good points.

The more I think about it, the more I'm not sure I like the audio log format. I'm speaking a bit more generally. It fit the game well enough and was a fine artistic choice. I think if I play something in the future that's similar to this, I would love to see something without those logs that just uses the environment.

I'm not saying this is a flaw, but I wish this still had some more mystery to it that made the discussion more interesting. As long as you explore thoroughly everything is kind of obvious.

Spoiler

Oscar's

role is a bit more ambiguous, but that's not really what I'm talking about. I really enjoyed Dear Esther, and I feel it accomplishes this. That's not to say I think it's a better experience. I liked Gone Home more. I feel like Dear Esther can start a more interesting discussion with it's ambiguity and mystery, where as Gone Home puts everything in the open.

There is one thing that's a bit of a mystery to me. I understand and like why it's there for the purpose of the game and story, but why does

Spoiler

Katie still have her old sex ed homework? That's just weird.

 

[Pyronite]

I can't find the words to explain how much I loved this game, but just know that I thought it was great and also I'll be listening to Sleater-Kinney albums for the rest of the night.

Yes! That is totally who I thought of every time I popped a cassette tape into place.

No idea how GAF will accept this game, but I found it really enjoyable. $20 might seem like a lot to people, but really, you pay a shit-ton for rent every month, and a pizza + delivery costs you about the same. If you ask me the worth of this game vs. a pizza, this game wins, every fucking time.

 

[MichaelEM3]

Just finished this an hour ago.

Beautiful game. The story really resonated with me, nearly bringing me to tears by the end of it.

My hat's off to the team at The Fullbright Company + Chris Remo. Great work, guys. Loved it.

 

[megamerican]

Finished it over the course of one sitting which means the game is both riveting... and short. And while I did get a bit choked up towards the end of the story, it also made the whole game seem kind of nonsensical in retrospect.

Spoiler

And really the ending of the story, even though it's extremely effectively done, is straight up rom-com level stuff. I think they could have done something better than someone just changing their mind at the last second.

 

[Ledsen]

thanks guys. glad I didn't bite. Game looks great, but without the 'more' that I was expecting, I definitely would have been PISSED.

Why?

 

[SexyFish]

Why?

Some people would be extremely upset for paying nearly 20 bucks for about 2 hours of content. I personally thought it was well worth it and extremely entertaining, but I can see how others would be pissed.

 

[Jake]

When it come to "why is it scary if

Spoiler

there aren't ghosts or shit in it

" I thought this was an interesting writeup.

 

[akira28]

Why?

Because it looks, to me, like one game. But reading the description, it isn't that kind of game. (I was also expecting

Spoiler

low key supernatural thrills

while exploring a 3d house, alone

Spoiler

. Just rifling through other people's belongings

to piece together a narrative, to solve a mystery...it might be fun, but not if I have other options.)

edit: and yeah the 2-3 hour expectation...yowza.

I do encourage you to give it a try if it drops to like $5 or something where you can basically just skip a bottle of coke and get this instead.

That would work nicely.

 

[jamsy]

Started and finished it in one sitting here too. Very short but interesting. Wasn't blown away like some reviewers but definitely worth your time.

Yeah I agree this type of story has been done to death in other types of media but I suppose this is pretty uncharted territory as far as games.

One thing I didn't get -

Spoiler

why even have the haunted house setting/scenario? I mean, in the end, it didn't really go anywhere as far as I could tell...Was it just to have Sam be made an outcast? Seems like a new girl in a new school would potentially have that regardless....it all felt very Catfish-y to me...

 

[Ledsen]

Because it looks, to me, like one game. But reading the description, it isn't that kind of game. (I was also expecting

Spoiler

low key supernatural thrills

while exploring a 3d house, alone

Spoiler

. Just rifling through other people's belongings

to piece together a narrative, to solve a mystery...it might be fun, but not if I have other options.)

edit: and yeah the 2-3 hour expectation...yowza.


That would work nicely.

2-3 hours is pretty much the sweet spot for this kind of game.

I also can't believe so many people are disappointed by the fact that this isn't a horror game. Don't we have enough of those? This game is one of a kind, and like someone else said, the mundanity is a big part of the appeal.

 

[Deleted member 22576]

This game made me drunk text the girl I lost my virginity to that I haven't seen in six years. I got a very nice "who is this?" text in return. Oh god. Saturday beers taken too far. But seriously, I've been feeling super fuckin melancholy all day.

 

[Jintor]

This game made me drunk text the girl I lost my virginity to that I haven't seen in six years. I got a very nice "who is this?" text in return. Oh god. Saturday beers taken too far. But seriously, I've been feeling super fuckin melancholy all day.

Your proudest accomplishment, Hot Scoops!

One thing I didn't get -

Spoiler

why even have the haunted house setting/scenario? I mean, in the end, it didn't really go anywhere as far as I could tell...Was it just to have Sam be made an outcast? Seems like a new girl in a new school would potentially have that regardless....it all felt very Catfish-y to me...

Player expectation

 

[vladdamad]

Well, I finished it, and if I'm being totally honest I was pretty disappointed.

To start with the positives - this is exactly what I want video game storytelling to be like. Short, concise narrative focused on examining the environment, as opposed to a 12-hour long film with bits of game/QTEs in-between.

Unfortunately, I think that the story is full of cliches and would have seemed laughable in any other medium. So many tropes used, and it was just utterly predictable. I wish that the team would have either tried a different type of story, while using the same tools, or told this story in a more original way.

I do wish Fullbright all the best, though, as this is an important game, the likes of which I want to see more of. I just really hope the team are as ambitious with the story as they are with the form of storytelling next time.

 

[Sloane]

Just finished playing and I'm having really mixed feelings about the game, partly probably because it wasn't quite what I was expecting. Let's start with what I liked:

- Especially in the beginning, the game really manages to tell its story (or parts of its story) without a lot of words. The

Spoiler

book about better parenting

, for example, is probably something many people own but it is still a huge clue for where the story is going without actually having to spell it out.
- Nostalgia is an important factor but it never feels "in your face" but like a realistic depiction of what the 90s looked like, and it comes together perfectly in Sam's room.
- In the first twenty minutes, the game does a good job keeping you guessing what happened (although it becomes clear way too quickly).
- People have already commented a lot on the atmosphere and it really is great. I don't feel like I have anything meaningful to add but it's little touches like the newspaper clip with the mother's name in it that make the house seem more real than it should from a technical standpoint.

Things I didn't like that much:
- Gone Home overall feels a lot more "gamey" than I expected. It suffers pretty heavily from Slumdog Millionaire syndrom where everything just happens to be in chronological order, the door to the "east wing" is locked for no good reason and the placement of the letters often felt artificial. I'm not a fan of the audio logs either although I don't know a better way of telling the story.
- There's very little information about Kaitlin other than the occasional postcard here and there and the sex ed thing unless I've missed anything. Maybe that's done intentionally, so it's easier to identify with her but she never felt like an actual part of the family to me but like an observer who's only purpose is to experience the story and act as a stand-in for the player. If I was in her situation, I don't think the first thing I would do is explore the whole house (which is and looks a lot larger than it should, in my opinion) for an hour and a half.

Speaking of which, things that disappointed me:
- The lack of interaction. I didn't expect actual puzzles but I hoped that there was at least some point to being able to open all drawers and picking stuff up but it is really a hundred percent about the story...
- ... which just didn't do much for me. It's decently told, no question about it, but there's nothing in it that hasn't been said a hundred times before, the ending feels like a cliché, and it is a bit weird to create a game that relies at least on a certain level on nostalgia and then make it pretty much all about

Spoiler

teen angst

. As for the ending, I wasn't really expecting a twist but at least some kind of payoff to everything I had seen in the 90 minutes before but it never came.

I don't know. I really like the idea of the game, the setting, and the exploration, but it never comes quite together as either a story one has to hear or a game one has to play. I hope that doesn't sound too harsh; I don't regret playing Gone Home but it wasn't nearly an as memorable experience as I had hoped.

 

[probune]

The house is creepy and dark because it would be creepy if you went to a dark house in a thunderstorm and your whole family's missing.

I think the article that Jake posted earlier codifies it pretty well, and calls it ludonarrative harmony. I found my thoughts or emotions mirroring what the situation is, down to being afraid to go into the dark basement or jumping whenever there was a crash of thunder. I went into every room and fumbled for the light switch because I was afraid of the dark in that game. I do the same thing in my house at night in real life.

I think one of the things that being a gamer brings you is the expectation for everything to be a little one note, since most games are essentially genre pieces. Gone Home has elements borrowed from horror in it only because it serves to get you into the mindset of a 20-year-old woman who comes home to this unfamiliar house to unsettling letters from her younger sister and a completely dark and empty house. It would be creepy if that happened in real life, and Gone Home goes to great pains to try to make the atmosphere realistic and the player's emotion in harmony with the player character's.

It's entirely unsurprising that some people didn't like the story. It's not really for everyone, especially the gamer crowd. I don't say that to be condescending or anything, I just mean that the fairly mundane story in Gone Home is destined not to resonate with people who want something different than it provides, which is what almost every other game does. Some people went into it expecting something groundbreaking and can't stand tropes or cliches, which is also understandable. It would be difficult for a story that seems so personal to those people who made it to be a very generally accessible thing that the massive community that plays games would like.

When I played the game, I was affected deeply by it even though there's little profundity to be found in Sam's story. Instead, I attribute my emotional reaction to the way in which Fullbright introduces us to these characters and their personalities - finding all their stuff, reading it, finding out about them in turn. The collage of stuff is synthesized into a view of that person's life, and because I found my own conclusions, it seems more personal, like I actually got to know them.

To me, it didn't matter if the story was wrote or cliche, because it was Sam's character that I really loved, and the fact that her experiences were important to her lent them enough gravitas to really affect me. I consider that a pretty great achievement in storytelling whenever it happens.

 

[theowne]

It's entirely unsurprising that some people didn't like the story. It's not really for everyone, especially the gamer crowd. I don't say that to be condescending or anything, I just mean that the fairly mundane story in Gone Home is destined not to resonate with people who want something different than it provides, which is what almost every other game does. Some people went into it expecting something groundbreaking and can't stand tropes or cliches, which is also understandable. It would be difficult for a story that seems so personal to those people who made it to be a very generally accessible thing that the massive community that plays games would like.

There's no need to search for excuses like "it's not for the gamer crowd" and "expecting something groundbreaking" and "it wasn't accessible enough". You are making a bunch of assumptions to justify the fact that other people didn't like something that you did (they-didn't-get-it syndrome). The people who didn't find the story compelling can (and did) speak for themselves.

 

[Inkwell]

When it come to "why is it scary if

Spoiler

there aren't ghosts or shit in it

" I thought this was an interesting writeup.

That writeup aligns with my own thoughts.

Spoiler

I loved the creepiness of this game. The way it kind of played with my expectations was just amazing. When that light went out after I picked up the crucifix, I booked it out of there still holding the thing in front of me as if I could use it to ward off whatever evil spirit was in that secret passage with me.

The basement along with its connecting secret passage was kind of scary too. It took me a while, but after I had explored everything that feeling of dread and fear dissipated. The only time it returned was when I had to go to the attic. I seriously thought I would find Sam there having committed suicide.

I think I know another way to explain how I felt playing this. I consider myself a man of science, though I was raised catholic and used to love all those ghost shows they had in the 90s. Even though I try to remain rational, I feel like these things will always have some influence over me. Sometimes after I have watched a scary movie at night (it doesn't even have to be that scary), I get this uneasy feeling when I'm walking around my dark house and constantly look over my shoulder. I have the impulse to turn on the lights in whatever room I'm in the instant I get there. I even feel a little nervous walking past dark rooms, and throw a little nervous glance in their direction as I walk past. I know it is completely ridiculous and I feel foolish. It's the exact same way I felt playing Gone Home.

I guess another way to describe it would be if you happen to hear a strange noise in your house, especially at night. If the noise is especially odd, I feel a little scared when I investigate. After I've slowly crept through my house and have determined the cause or have found nothing, I get that moment of relief. Again, this is pretty similar to how i felt playing this game. I wasn't disappointed when there wasn't a ghost. I felt relieved.

 

[Pacbois]

Played it in one sitting last night, loved it. By the far the most beautiful game I've ever played.

 

[Empty]

i really loved how grounded and low key the story was. i know it's not cool to complain about people's reactions as it's fine not to be hooked by it and prefer something different, but i think it'd be a real shame if the fullbright company feel like they need to go in a more high stakes, inventive, fantastical direction for their next game as nearly every game is like that in its story, whereas there's so little trying what gone home does.

 

[Deleted member 10571]

Game got me hard.

Spoiler

At the time I had to go up the attic, I was absolutely, 100% sure that this will be one of those tragic death endings and I would discover Sams body, or a final last message or something along those lines. Then, feels.

Great game!

 

[Sloane]

i really loved how grounded and low key the story was. i know it's not cool to complain about people's reactions as it's fine not to be hooked by it and prefer something different, but i think it'd be a real shame if the fullbright company feel like they need to go in a more high stakes, inventive, fantastical direction for their next game as nearly every game is like that in its story, whereas there's so little trying what gone home does.

There's nothing wrong with a story being low-key as long as it rings true, is imaginative, or has something to say, but at least to me that wasn't the case with Gone Home. The stakes are there (my whole family seems missing!) but resolution and payoff are lacking, and it's a story that has been told many times before. Maybe there's some personal history in there but that doesn't change its issues.

 

[Zornack]

I don't understand the "this story has never been told in a game before" sentiment. It's pretty much just

Spoiler

star crossed lovers

, right? Is it the

Spoiler

lesbian

aspect that is setting it apart for people?

I didn't find the story original or interesting in any regard, personally.

 

[megalowho]

Great game, enjoyed it thoroughly. The atmosphere, pacing, writing, piecing together a family's story via household clues, everything just worked for me. Surprisingly hilarious as well,

Spoiler

from all the straight faced product copy to Rick's slick invitation to the EWF show. What a dreamboat!

It's funny that the thing Gone Home reminded me the most of during moment to moment gameplay was the Tex Murphy series. Rifling through every drawer, reading notes, newspaper clippings, mundane objects, hilarious photography, examining 3D models up close - detective stuff. Taking place in the mid-90's might have something to do with that connection in my brain as well. If Gone Home being heralded as a shining example of interactive narrative means more games play like Under A Killing Moon, then I am 100% on board.

 

[zhorkat]

I liked this game a lot and a bunch of people already posted reasons I agree with about how the game is good, so I'll post some of the things I disliked about the game.

I understand why they chose audio logs to present Sam's story, as the deliberate placing and method of presentation certainly have a strong impact. I also found Terry's story to be very emotional, despite it being told through discovery of things in the environment. This made me kind of disappointed that the game has such a strong narrative focus on Sam, not because that story is bad, but because I feel that with a little fleshing out of the side stories, of which I felt Jan's part was somewhat thin, that it could be a great game about not only Sam, but about the entire family and how each of their individual stories and problems tied together.

I also disliked the linear way the game played out, and as it progressed, I played it more and more like a game instead of as if I were a real person exploring a real place. At the beginning, I was very meticulous about putting things back in their place, turning off lights and closing doors to rooms I had already explored, because I felt like after violating the privacy of my family members I should at least not leave their rooms a mess. All that caused me to feel like I was playing the game differently from the intentions of the creators when I found the note that referenced how Sam was just like her sister in always leaving lights on.

The introduction of the

Spoiler

secret compartments

caused me to repeatedly check my map, which, combined with the linear way in which the areas of the house unlock, made it more apparent that I was just moving a floating camera to specific positions in the house to unlock pieces of story. Also, the

Spoiler

secret passages

made me feel much more like I was going forward on some set path instead of simply peeking into different rooms, examining them, and then moving on to the next room like I had at the very beginning. By luck, I had chosen to immediately head left into the unlocked father's area at the start instead of trying and being turned away by the locked door to the right, and my exploration of those first few rooms had allowed me to settle into a style of exploration that, as I got further into the house and found new elements, I could feel changing into a more gamey form of exploration to adapt to the game's structure.

Ultimately, I loved it, but I also want to see a sequel or expansion where you play as Sam, returning to the same house that you already know, with the horror elements and gating stripped out.

 

[rexor0717]

I liked this game a lot and a bunch of people already posted reasons I agree with about how the game is good, so I'll post some of the things I disliked about the game.

I understand why they chose audio logs to present Sam's story, as the deliberate placing and method of presentation certainly have a strong impact. I also found Terry's story to be very emotional, despite it being told through discovery of things in the environment. This made me kind of disappointed that the game has such a strong narrative focus on Sam, not because that story is bad, but because I feel that with a little fleshing out of the side stories, of which I felt Jan's part was somewhat thin, that it could be a great game about not only Sam, but about the entire family and how each of their individual stories and problems tied together.

I also disliked the linear way the game played out, and as it progressed, I played it more and more like a game instead of as if I were a real person exploring a real place. At the beginning, I was very meticulous about putting things back in their place, turning off lights and closing doors to rooms I had already explored, because I felt like after violating the privacy of my family members I should at least not leave their rooms a mess. All that caused me to feel like I was playing the game differently from the intentions of the creators when I found the note that referenced how Sam was just like her sister in always leaving lights on.

The introduction of the

Spoiler

secret compartments

caused me to repeatedly check my map, which, combined with the linear way in which the areas of the house unlock, made it more apparent that I was just moving a floating camera to specific positions in the house to unlock pieces of story. Also, the

Spoiler

secret passages

made me feel much more like I was going forward on some set path instead of simply peeking into different rooms, examining them, and then moving on to the next room like I had at the very beginning. By luck, I had chosen to immediately head left into the unlocked father's area at the start instead of trying and being turned away by the locked door to the right, and my exploration of those first few rooms had allowed me to settle into a style of exploration that, as I got further into the house and found new elements, I could feel changing into a more gamey form of exploration to adapt to the game's structure.

Ultimately, I loved it, but I also want to see a sequel or expansion where you play as Sam, returning to the same house that you already know, with the horror elements and gating stripped out.

I don't really know how a sequel would fit in, seeing as there isn't too much left to discover about the family. Certainly, another grounded environmental exploration game would be great though.

 

[lunch]

There's nothing wrong with a story being low-key as long as it rings true, is imaginative, or has something to say, but at least to me that wasn't the case with Gone Home. The stakes are there (my whole family seems missing!) but resolution and payoff are lacking, and it's a story that has been told many times before. Maybe there's some personal history in there but that doesn't change its issues.

The criticism that the story has been told many times before strikes me as strange, as I can't think of a story that hasn't been told many times before, and Gone Home's story is certainly different from the rather homogeneous narrative themes of most large-scale games. Nobody in the thread is claiming that the story conceit hasn't been done before, but it hasn't been done in an interactive space. To the point about the payoff being lacking, if Gone Home built to an incredibly dramatic resolution, there would be a large number of people (myself included) criticizing the narrative's need to unnecessarily up the stakes in a plot in which doing so feels unnatural, and I felt that the narrative's anticlimax of sorts made sense given the game's story.

I agree that the fact that the family's missing felt a bit unnecessary and ultimately unrealistic--

Spoiler

why would the parents not be home to welcome their daughter back after she's been abroad for over a year?

), but it does assist in setting up the expectation of a horror game, and while it makes little plot sense, I do think it's successful in setting up the game's atmosphere.

I'm curious as to why you think the narrative isn't true though.

 

[IMACOMPUTA]

Also, I think stuff like this and Dear Esther (which shares a lot of similarities) are properly on the fringe, if not beyond, of the classical interpretation of a "video game". I don't necessarily think they're ground breaking or revolutionary, but they eloquently drive home that point that the "interactive medium" casts a wide net. Much in the same way that I think Dear Esther is very much true, proper "virtual poetry", I think this is a virtual story that really doesn't warrant the criticisms and analysis associated with most work of this medium we're familiar with.

It's really very far removed from what 99% of this forum discusses, and is hard to even rank or put on the same page as anything else. It's a different beast in the same way not film follows a strict set of rules beyond simply being a motion picture.

But it does warrant the criticism in that the story really went nowhere and was far from interesting. I really liked the lead up to release and opening hour or so. I mean, the ending was make/break it for me. And I was really unsatisfied. I feel like i got involved and read all of the notes, etc. for nothing because there was no payoff at all.

 

[NervousXtian]

So slightly longer than Dear Esther, with a lot more interactivity.

Sweet. Enjoyed DE immensely.. exploring in games is something I really enjoy.

$20 seems steep, but I'll probably cave.

 

[zhorkat]

I don't really know how a sequel would fit in, seeing as there isn't too much left to discover about the family. Certainly, another grounded environmental exploration game would be great though.

Yeah, that's true. I just want them to use the same house, as I think it would be interesting for the game's exploration if it involved an environment that you are already familiar with and part of the exploration and discovery process involved learning how the house had changed relative to when you had last seen it.

EDIT: I guess Katie could always go on another trip.