Indie game review: Gone Home (2013)

The game that I will be going over today is one that many of you may not have heard of before, it's called Gone Home. Gone Home is an indie 3rd person battle royale game where you use flaccid ducks to murder each other until only the chosen one is left standing first person exploration game with adventure elements tossed in for good measure. It was developed and published by the indie studio Fullbright, and was released for Windows and Steam in August of 2013. It later saw release in 2016 for the Xbox One and Playstation 4 platforms. 

Gone home is not your typical adventure style game. It's definitely more of an interactive/exploration experience over just being an actual adventure game. It's a game that is in a similar fashion to the Telltale series of games, though it's not quite a cinematic experience like what they put out. I honestly thought it was somewhat refreshing not having to mash buttons for quick time events, however, and the game definitely provides some quality entertainment which you can easily enjoy. I will start this review off by saying that this game is quite different in other ways still, as there are no visible characters to be found nor is there any real conflict happening throughout the game. Thankfully it has a good narrative for the driving force, and doesn't get boggled down by those missing elements. 

The game puts you into the shoes of the main character, Katie, a student who has been far away from home traveling for some time. The setting of the game takes place sometime in the year 1995, bringing you to your rural home located in Oregon. Upon coming home, you find that the house is empty, however, with your family no where to be seen or found. Without any obvious notes or clues, you'll have to try and piece together what exactly is going on via objects around the home. 

These objects are very ordinary things. Things like little memos, old homework from school, photographs, old magazines, etc. With the help of these objects, you'll uncover small pieces of your family's past. While this type of thing has been incorporated in games before, it is basically the only focus in the world of Gone Home. Something which probably sounds a bit odd if you're reading this. But, I have to say, it works in a very compelling way in this game. 

But, that might also be a detriment for some of you. The reason being is that is really the only gameplay to Gone Home. There is no blasting of caps into some random soldiers face, no quick time event button mashing to avoid having your face chewed off by a lonely, drunk homeless man who doesn't realize he has glass for teeth, and no battle royale mode to murder off your family until you're the final one left standing. All that there is to this game is to walk around your home, pick stuff up, look at it and then set it back down. Every once and awhile you'll find a recorded tape that you can listen to as well. That's literally it. 

The game doesn't give you any cutscenes or an introduction to the narrative or what's happening. You'll have to figure out all of that on your own. Your family not being home is a key essential part to making the narrative of the game work so hard, though. Outside of getting to see them through old pictures, you really have no idea who has lived here or what they're like. Taking your time and combing through the house for any and all information is important, and really makes for an entertaining experience. I mean, really it just makes the entire experience happen period. 

You can certainly run through this game pretty quickly. I think the fastest I cleared it when I was just trying to speedrun it was around 50 minutes. However, you're guaranteed to miss pretty much everything that is great about this game if you do try to go about it that way. I mean, do I even really need to say that though? It is an exploration game that relies on all the small details to bring things together and affect you on an emotional level.  Patience is going to be very important to keep in mind as you play. Otherwise, you'll miss out on a lot of interesting things as well as all the work that went into creating this little world you've stumbled into. 

Without spoiling things too much, for those of you who do take their time while they play, there is a nice little story packed in here. It's actually more centered around the main characters sister rather than Katie herself, something which I found to be a bit strange, yet interesting. While nothing is insanely realistic with how it's done, the details of where you find such things is where it does get a bit realistic. I definitely could see quite a few of the items you find and learn about being places where I would stick such items. 

As you move through the house and uncover the story, you'll start to learn about your character as well as her family. It'll make pretty much perfect sense why there's no one home after you've come back from your travels. If you decide to go for it, playing through a second time will give you a much different perspective on things. The items you've randomly combed through on your first playthrough will have much more meaning and depth to them this time around, and that there are stories buried underneath the surface of the game that tell different tales besides the main one. 

I think one of the main pulls of the game besides the interesting story is that it can feel very nostalgic for anyone who grew up in the late 80's or early-mid 90's. There are so many 90's references as well as throwbacks to that time that I couldn't help but feel some sense of nostalgia here and there. Super Nintendo games, VHS tapes, old entertainment magazines and much more work well to make you think of when you were growing up and definitely help aid the writing in making you feel immersed in your environment. I appreciate that they didn't press this nostalgia angle to be one of the main points of the game, and just let it linger in the background to help things feel natural. It was something that was handled quite well, and I'm glad they did things the right way.

Now, while I personally quite enjoyed this game I could understand that it probably will not be for everyone. I can't even say I would blame people for not really enjoying this type of game. There is very little actual gameplay to it, and it's almost to the point where it is kind of a cinematic experience over being a full fledged game. That's a big turn off for some people, and that's pretty understandable. Beyond that, the game is also pretty damn short which is something that was a bit lame for me. Even if you take your time to look at everything in the game and soak it all in, you can beat this in about 2 or so hours. If you plow through the story, it's less than an hour. For the price, I would have expected at least 4 hours worth of gameplay before hitting the end. 

Overall, I personally would recommend this game. It's a game that tells an interesting story about a family, and even with such a simple premise, there's not quite too many games out there that are anything like it. It is well designed and crafted, with details done extremely well. For the price, I think it's a bit undervalued, but you can find it for sale on Steam pretty darn often and if you can get it for under $10 then I think it's a steal. This won't be for everyone, but for those of you who'm it does work for you'll really enjoy it I would reckon. Well, that or I reckon that you're a god damn heartless cyborg/sexbot who loves to rub pepperoni's on their robo-nipples. 

Well, thanks for stopping by to check out my review! Appreciate it!