Gone Home by the Fulbright Company provides the player with a heart pounding 3-hour game full of emotion. Every room that you enter provides a new idea of what could be happening in this family’s life. Gone Home never has a dull moment, and whether in fear or joy, it will keep you entertained.
I would like to start with the good that this game provides with the sound, graphics and overall gameplay. From the second that the game starts, the player is faced with a challenge. This draws you into the game and makes you want to solve more mysteries. Walking into the foyer, I got my first real taste of the Greenbriar house and the eerie and strange feeling that something is not right. Immediately, I wanted to move onto better rooms in the house, but I knew that there are clues everywhere, so I began digging. Finding letters from nosey college roommates, angst ridden notes from teenagers, and a creepy message on the answering machine is just the start of a great adventure. I was faced with two options on where to move from the foyer. I chose to go on the main floor, moving from room to room picking up new clues. The first room I entered was the dad’s office and library. Here I faced the second challenge in this game - finding the code to enter the filing cabinet. After finding the code fairly quickly, I found the first fact about the father; he’s a struggling author who is close to being fired. Every room has interesting clues about other people in the family. However, the most prevalent person in the family is Sam. After discovering random pieces of her life, I start to realize that Sam is hiding a big secret and I started to worry about what it could possibly be. Although this seems like more of an overview of the game, is demonstrates how much mystery solving is part of this game, which I loved. The graphics and sound of the game are also very powerful. I loved being able to feel as though I was the one searching through this house and actual feel as though it was real because of the graphics. A small but significant example of this is being able to read labels on anything that you wanted to. This also speaks to the amount of time and detail put into the game. The sound really made this game for me. It always chimed in at the right time. For example, when you are about to enter a dark room, thunder strikes making your palms sweat and your heart beat a little faster. These features, along with the first person play of this game, make this a great mystery game.
However, there are some limitations to this game. The first problem with this game is the lights. I often found myself lost in the house due to going into a room and not being able to find the light switch. I understand that this was created on purpose, but I just found it frustrating not being able to see. Another problem I had with the game was the length. I found myself so deep into the game that I beat it in one night. I would have loved to be able to play this game for days and slowly find new pieces of material because they were harder to find. I found the game too easy, I mean that there is no challenge for someone who is playing this for fun. If they wanted to make this better the notes could have been in code form so it forced you to decipher a note rather than just disregard it. My final concern with the game was the ending. I liked the ending, but I just found that it was not quite what I was expecting. I wanted a murder or a jump scare, so this less dramatic ending left me feeling a little cheated. I felt that the ending did not build up to the suspense that the game provided with flickering lights and scribbled notes about ghosts.
For me the good outweighs the bad in this game, I would recommend this game to anyone and suggest that you take your time and study the game. I would love for the Fullbright Company to release a follow up to this game explaining what happened to Katie after this and how her parents reacted to the situation.