Gone Home is an interactive and revolutionary video game that begins with the return of Katie Greenbriar from her year long travels in Europe to the mansion her family recently inherited. All Katie finds on the stormy night she returns is a deserted house and a note from her sister Sam, directing her not to come looking. This sets the stage for the interactive journey that is seen through the eyes of Kaitlin as she explores the house, finding clues regarding her family’s whereabouts and lives over the past year.
The unique and spontaneous narrative of the game as well as the freedom of exploration throughout the house set the game apart as a revolutionary creation. The sole character in the house throughout the game is Katie, which posed several problems to the game developers concerning the medium for narration in the game, as typical scenes of dialogue between characters could not be used. The game successfully overcomes this challenge by using significant objects around the house to trigger journal entries left by Sam, Katie’s sister. This effectively advances the central storyline of the game in an interesting and interactive way. This narration technique makes Gone Home a unique game and gives the gameplay a novel-like feeling, something that most games fail to incorporate. Another positive point of the game is the freedom players have when navigating the world of the Greenbriar household. It is possible to interact with the majority of the objects found in the house and the player is free to play at his/her own pace and navigate areas of their choosing. The careful examination of objects gives clues to the lives of Katie’s family and enriches the story of the game on top of the interactive narrative.
The minimal budget that the game developers had to work with took away from the final product, as the graphics and supporting audio/visual elements of the game were sub-par. The graphics of Gone Home simply did not live up to the high standards set by high budget big name games that are on the market today. This could certainly take away from the gameplay depending on the preferences and standards of the one playing it. The world outside of the house was non-existent up to the point where nothing could be seen outside of the house. This was obviously done as a measure to conserve money but makes the game appear less realistic. The audio elements of the game were also lacking. When freely exploring the house the only thing that can be heard is the repetitive sounds of the stormy weather outside. The audio that was triggered during the journal entries did not provoke any emotion or stimulate a connection to the game. The lacking audio and visual elements in Gone Home impacted the game negatively and held it back from reaching its full potential.
Gone Home is truly unlike any other video game I have played before. The novel-like feel the game has to it creates an interesting and captivating atmosphere from one end of the story to the other. I approached this game without any expectations and was pleasantly surprised as soon as I started playing. The positive aspects of this game certainly outweigh the negatives and I would defiantly recommend it to anyone reading this review.