Gone Home

When I was 9 years old I watched a play through of Gone Home. I cried so hard and thought about it for months. Unfortunately, after some time- I'd forgot it's name. For years, I asked everyone I knew if they had ever heard of this game I could only loosely recall. Then finally, 11 years later I found it again. This short, sweet, almost ominous game had impacted me so greatly and to finally play it at 20 yrs old has healed me sm. I love this game sooo deeply.

Played this game over 10 years ago with a glass of wine on a stormy night. Did it all in one sitting. It is an impossible experience to replicate, because at the time, the walking simulator genre was relatively new and I just did not know what to expect from it. The expectations that I brought to my first playthrough had me on edge, expecting something terrible to happen at any given moment.
When it was over, I realized that I'd just had a gaming experience that was unique from any other that I had ever played before, and I absolutely fell in love with this genre of narrative/story/exploration adventure games. I'm genuinely grateful to this game for that, even now, all these years later.

Little mysterious. Had me looking over my own shoulder, but it is in fact not a horror game.

A single character walking sim where you explore your own family’s house after returning home from a trip to Amsterdam.
You are stuck inside this girl’s head while walking around trying to find out where your family went. It takes place in 1995, so just calling people to ask rarely was an option.
This game felt very horror like when I first started playing and whenever I heard that horrible thunder sound that sounds a bit like someone kicked open a door, I immediately had to look over my shoulder in fear something was following me. Thankfully it is not a horror game and it is just the ambient sounds that are made to give you this eerie feeling.
The story is alright, not gonna spoil anything important, but it does require patience and attention, since you will have to read a lot and listen to what her thoughts are telling you.
I played it on the Steam Deck, runs perfectly on it.
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"I'm sorry I can't be there to see you, but it is impossible. Please, please don't go digging around trying to find out where I am. I don't want anyone to know."
Gone Home is a first-person exploration video game developed and published by The Fullbright Company.
Story
7th June, 1995. 21 year old Katie Greenbriar returns from overseas to her family's new home in fictional Boon County, Oregon. She finds place empty, with many items still in moving boxes and a note on the entrance door from her younger sister Sam to not investigate the mansion to find out what happened, leading Katie to do exactly that.
Gameplay
As simple as it can get, and easy to figure out from above section.
In Gone Home you explore the mansion to figure out what happened with...well, everything.
Move around the house, investigate and interact with objects, discover ways to progress and unlock more parts of the building until you reach the truth (or simply end of the game).
In the house you will find messages, notes, texts, plus plenty of usual daily items you can pick up, rotate, and throw around if you fancy making a mess. Some will be picked up and put into your inventory!
Additionally in your journal you will be able to re-listen any messages you discovered and it has a map in case you get lost.
Playtime, replayability, other modes
Gone Home took me a bit longer than an hour to beat. Said playtime is quite flexible, game can be beaten in less than a minute but if you will take your time exploring and reading, you might even squeeze out 2-3 hours out of it.
You can give it another go thanks to modifiers that change certain aspects of the game but most importantly due to additional "Commentary Mode", where you get behind the scenes access to hear from developers about certain aspects of how game was developed or few humourous references.
Impressions
Gone Home was a decent experience all things considered. Solid non-linear exploration and narrative blend in great, which doesn't come as surprise because same can be said about Bioshock 2 Minerva DLC that developer of this game was working on before. Search around a house for clues, information about our family, and main spearpoint of the story that is related to our sister Sam, freedom of exploration given to us, all of this was very well made and immersive all together, mashed nicely with detailed 90's mansion setting that for older players might awake some sort of nostalgia, and will allow to immerse in game a bit further. Another positive surprise is how eerie game is sometimes. This should be somewhat expected with game taking inspiration from urbex (urban exploration) so storm, squeaky doorways and occasional footsteps here and there keep you on the edge when reading and walking. Didn't mind it though, served as a nice way to keep player attention to what is going on.
Voice acting deserves a special shutout as Sarah Grayson that is voicing Sam poured out her heart and soul for this one (further evident by audio logs from Commentary Mode), doing one wonderful work.
Speaking off, extra points for said mode. What can I say, I absolutely adore that stuff. Modifiers are okay but let's be real there is just not a lot of things you can modify in such small, short game.
Now unfortunately I have to throw the story into mixed bag. As much as I appreciate game focusing on LGBT Themes and how it portrays them, as I've read comments from both pro- and anti- people to said subject who were really open and very positive or got their entire opinion/viewpoint changed thanks to this game, I'm afraid it also "tunnel vision-ed" the overall narrative. Whole mystery with family gets sidetracked into being a mere "optional" investigation as we dive into only individual problem which while being well made as I said before, does leave a bit sour taste with the rest.
Nonetheless, can recommend Gone Home. Not the most emotional or impactful walking sim that I've played but it does convey nice message in an hour so that's a pretty good achievement.
Final words and conclusion
You can purchase Soundtrack DLC to further support developers!
Short and simple yet on point with emotional, non-linear narrative it provides, Gone Home is a title you can spend your evening on and not regret it.
Feel free to check out my curator page for more reviews!

For a game that took me just under an hour and a half to beat, I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it.
It's a walking simulator so if you aren't into those you won't end up liking this game, but for those who do like walking sims, this one definitely is worth playing. Although, I'd get it on sale as $15 for under 1.5 hours of game play is kind of silly.
Gone Home does beautifully at making this seem like a real family and you get to see all the struggles each character deals with despite not actually meeting any of them. The way you start piecing together more about who these people really are is beautifully done in my opinion.
It's a lovely one-time experience.

Though the game was short, I enjoyed Gone Home.
I liked the general atmosphere: the music, the creaking wood, dimly lit hallways. It took a bit of brainpower, but I did enjoy piecing together who was who, and uncovering the family dynamic. I also enjoyed learning about Katie and her relationship with Lonnie. The progressive unfolding of the narrative was logical to me and made sense as you explored the house. By the end, it all came together nicely. I did find that taking a couple of breaks was helpful, as it was a lot of reading.
Based on some of the reviews of this game I read, it seems like some folks fixated on the LGBTQ themes. To be honest with you, I didn't personally have an issue with it. The narrative felt convincing/compelling enough to me, and I enjoyed learning about Sam's/Lonnie's relationship. I personally dislike it when stuff like identity is shoehorned into movies/games and beats you over the head with it. I much prefer when a game treats its characters as real life people, with flaws, interests, and compelling backgrounds. Their identity is only one small part of them, not the whole story. This makes them relatable. Being a lesbian is besides the point here - it's about the Ouija board, the punk zines and music, the sleepovers, ghost-hunting, and much more. I thought the game did a good job of communicating this without needing to make some grand statement. In the end, Sam pursued love, which is perhaps not compelling in some big sexy finale kind of way, but I don't think it needed some huge payoff, either. It's a nuanced ending, and I was fine with that.
Other things I enjoyed: the level of detail all over the house. There are labels, books, playing cards, all which are not really integral to the story, but it is such a pleasure to just see high texture items, and to be able to read labels on the fridge. I know it's besides the point, I just enjoyed that attention to detail. It made the story feel more real, like everything was focused and clear instead of inaccessible and blurry. Most games shy away from too much detail, but this game is all about it.
My only criticism of the game is that it sets up a pretty spooky atmosphere, which is fundamentally misaligned with the ending of the game. You arrive in a house, on a rainy day, and the first thing you see is a note from Sam saying, "don't look for me." I fully expected a suicide story, that Sam offed herself due to heartbreak. Without going into detail, that is not what happened, but I did have to save and quit, and look up whether this was a horror game.
All in all, Gone Home is a neat little narrative experience. It's not perfect, but it has heart and it's clear the developers are human beings with emotions and feelings.