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Hello, Ladies, Gentlemen and Everyone In Between. Today, we, and when I say "we", I mean "I",
am going to take a look at a game called "Gone Home".
Gone Home is a first person toucher allowing you to fulfill your secret dream of going
through other people’s stuff in an empty house. Although it sounds simple, the game
offers you a variety of interesting mechanics such as: walking, crouching, looking around,
picking up stuff, looking at stuff and putting it back.
But seriously... this game can be described with one word - disappointment.
The graphics in Gone Home are good. The entire house is made with a lot of attention to detail,
the items you analyze are detailed and most importantly authentic. You can really immerse
yourself in this game and feel like you’re in 1995 again, or for some of you - for the
first time.
From the hand-written notes, through VHS tapes, to some... rather personal items, you will
find them all detailed enough to make them look believable, but of course don’t expect
advanced physics when you pick them up.
That said, I will give it a 9 out of 10 for the graphics and won’t mention the strange
lack of any shadows that your character should cast..
The sound in this game is really really good. During your exploration you will hear strange
sounds coming from the apparently empty house. The storm outside will increase the spooky
atmosphere. All sound effects are great, the background music during the story monologue
perfectly fits the mood just as the music you can listen to on the cassette tapes which
you can find in the house.
But the icing on the cake (even though, as we all know, the cake is a lie) is the voice
acting. It is absolutely perfect. If there were some kind of Grammy awards for best voice
acting in a video game, Sarah Grayson, who portrayed the main narrative character Sam,
would have won it without any competition. They wouldn’t even have to nominate anyone
else for the prize.
There’s only one score I could give for this game’s audio and it’s of course a
10 out of 10.
As for the probably most important part - the gameplay - this is where it gets interesting
as it’s not a bad game, but it does something that may leave you very disappointed when
you finish it.
Gone Home takes place in 1995. You play as a college girl returning home after travelling
abroad only to find out that no one’s there. Now you have to analyze items and notes which
you find around the quite sizable house to learn about the people who live there. The
main “goal”, if one can call it a goal, is to progress through the story of your sister
Sam. Analyzing some items will trigger a part of the storyline and some key items will allow
you to progress further.
Now, aside from the amazing voice acting, there’s one more thing that this game does
perfectly - the mood. The mix of familiarity triggered by the nostalgia and the suspense
caused by the constant hints that you may not really be alone in this house create an
amazing atmosphere. It’s as good as in the old Resident Evil games and you will be so
immersed that you may actually be scared while exploring all rooms and basements in this
house.
However, it’s the same atmosphere that will cause a problem. Because this game is so story-driven,
I can’t really explain what I mean without spoiling something. Therefore, even though
it will not be a spoiler of the actual main story, I will initiate the spoiler alert and
if you haven’t played this game, I recommend to turn off the sound, the captions (if you
use them) or cover your ears for as long as the spoiler alert will be active. Here we
go…
As I’ve said, the game lets you believe that the house is haunted. It’s no secret,
you’ll find the clear clues in the first few minutes of the game. The sound effects
imply that someone is there, probably a ghost, you will find a lot of hints that there is
something supernatural happening there. When I played this game, at some point I was opening
doors, turning the lights on as fast as I can and then look inside. If this was the
developer’s intention - they succeeded. But here’s the problem - there is no ghost.
Or at least, nothing will jump at you. As you progress you’ll think you’ll see something
any moment, but you never do so when I finished the game, I felt the biggest disappointment
any game has even caused me.
This is interesting because technically, I might have liked the story. The game could
leave me with a completely different feeling if it wouldn’t constantly remind me of some
supernatural aspect which isn’t really there. Before I reached the final room, I’ve had
multiple different conclusions in my head - all of them better than the actual ending.
I thought that maybe I, as the player, am a ghost and haunt the house as I move objects
around. Which would also explain the lack of the player’s shadow. Then I thought that
maybe Sam is dead and she is haunting the house and maybe the game will turn out to
be a dark story about suicide. No, it’s not. There is absolutely nothing supernatural,
but the constant reminders that there may be a ghost can ruin the story as you will
wait for some explanation which never comes and your first thought after completing the
game will be: “That’s it? The end? So that was the main story? No ghosts?”
I almost feel sorry for the game as without this unnecessary ghost story, it could have
a completely different mood which I think would actually benefit it.
That said, I will give it a 9 out of 10 for the gameplay itself because there’s nothing
really wrong with the gameplay or how the developers managed to create a nostalgic atmosphere
of the 90s, but the final score will be lower.
Speaking of which, regardless of how well the story is portrayed and how well the game
manages to create the scary mood, for better or worse, I cannot give any more than 4 out
10 for the game as a whole experience because it does what no game should ever do - it disappoints.
In my first playthrough, not knowing what to expect, I expected more than there really
was to it, but for a good reason - I was lead by the developers to such expectation which
ended with a huge disappointment. In my second playthrough, knowing what I should NOT expect
I could no longer fully concentrate on the main story as I should have because I already
knew it. It almost looks like the cause of the disappointment, which I’ve mentioned
in the spoiler part, was added in order to compensate for the completely unspectacular
main story artificially trying to enrich it, but diminishing its potential impact in the
process.
If you build up the tension so much and so well as this game does, you have to deliver
on the promise and provide a worthy conclusion. Unfortunately, Gone Home doesn’t deliver.
Nonetheless, this game is special and if you find it on a sale, I do recommend to buy it
just to experience the great storytelling, especially if you were a teenager during the
90s. However, its full price of 18,99 Euro on Steam, seems a bit too much for this 2
hour experience that you may not remember as good as you could have if it didn’t try
too hard to do something it shouldn’t.
This was my journalistic review of Gone Home. If you have any comments, record them and
create a mix tape.