Developed by ‘The Fullbright Company’, “Gone Home” is a 1st person, 3D point-and-click adventure game. It initially released for PC in 2013, with console ports following as the years went on. I believe that “Gone Home” is the company’s only released title, and that’s probably for the best.
When you start this game, you are just thrown straight in. No back-story, no incentive, no motivations, nothing. What’s going on? Why should you care? Your guess is as good as mine.
The basic premise is simple. Explore a strange, seemingly abandoned house and uncover the grand mysteries it holds within. What happened there? Where is everyone? It’s up to you to make your way around the building, finding documents & clues scattered throughout, filling you in on the events that occurred there. While that all sounds intriguing enough, my problem with the game isn’t the concept, it’s the execution.
To it’s credit, “Gone Home” starts with a bit of promise. Upon entering the house, you are greeted by an eerie, intimidating, dimly-lit main hall (reminiscent of the main hall in the original Resident Evil game), and you think that this is the game setting it’s tone. Establishing tension. That Danger could be around every corner. Well unfortunately, that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Everything falls apart after only a few minutes of gameplay. You soon realise that all you’re doing is slowly walking around a very empty house (because you can’t run) wondering why you’re doing this to yourself. When I say empty, I don’t just mean that there’s nobody else there. I mean that the house itself is bare and bland. Sure, there’s plenty of things to pick up and interact with, but there’s no purpose for the vast majority of them, with only a select few items needed to actually progress. The rest just feel like padding, an illusion to make you think there’s more to do in this game than there actually is.
There’s no music, there’s no danger, and the only sense of tension is superficial, a lingering sentiment from your initial reaction to the main hall. Practically every room in the house starts off in darkness, but they all have light switches that can be flicked on to instantly illuminate them, so what’s the point? Occasionally, you’ll see flashes of lightning and hear rumbles of thunder, but it all just feels desperate and forced. A wasted opportunity.
The story isn’t any better. It’s so basic and shallow. You spend the whole game expecting something to happen, begging even, but nothing ever does. Not that you get much opportunity to immerse yourself anyway. “Gone Home” is ridiculously short. On the PS4 you can unlock a trophy, and I kid you not, by finishing the game from beginning to end in 1 minute. I wish I were joking. You’ll need to be an avid reader as well, because the wafer-thin excuse for a narrative is explained to the player entirely through text documents. Very occasionally, you’ll come across diary entries which are handled a little differently, opting to treat you with an expositional voice-over instead, but these diary entries are just as frustrating. You can’t skip them. Once they start, you have to hear them through to the end like a good little child. I wouldn’t mind, but they’re not engaging in the slightest.
To put it simply, “Gone Home” is not a video game. It’s nothing but a dull, boring, interactive C-Movie masquerading as a video game. A shame really, as the basic concept is promising and holds good potential. Play it at your own risk, but I wouldn’t recommend it. There are so many things more worthwhile you could do with your time, like watching paint dry. I give my overall score of 3/10, and I think that’s being generous.
Thank you for reading, and keep being awesome. Megabyte out.