By Jeremy Hannaford (Contributor) – Email
Print Edition: September 4, 2013
Gone Home is an indie conceptual simulation puzzle game developed by The Fullbright Company. I haven’t played many puzzle games, so I looked over Gone Home with the eyes of a novice.
One of the most impressive attributes about the game is the world it is able to build just within a home. Since your character, Katelyn, has never seen the new house her family moved to while she was gone in Europe for a year, the mystery is enhanced by discovering it all by yourself. The décor really gives off the new creepy home feel. Furniture half laid out, moving boxes still stacked in cupboards and bedrooms, rooms still only half-furnished.
These aspects build the eerie mystery within the emptiness of the house as you begin to uncover clues related to your younger sister Samantha. These memory objects unlock pieces of her journal left for her older sister. With every piece you find, you uncover more of what happened while you were gone. The voice acting is stellar in these journals; the emotionally real delivery is the best part of the game. With each piece, this intriguing story grows and really pulls you in. Your sister’s coming-of-age confusion, your father’s failed novel series, your mother’s inability to truly address either issue – as the player, you are truly brought into this family and you feel their struggles and conflicts.
There were many moments when I thought something terrifying was going to happen. With a huge thunderstorm raging outside and the house seemingly abandoned, I kept expecting something to come out and grab me. But the true fear comes from your own imagination as you struggle to discover what happened while you were gone. The game generates a fear within you as you develop a desire to find out what happened to Samantha.
Since the game takes place in 1994 in Seattle, there are many odd objects you will find that bring back reminiscent memories of that age: grunge music posters around your sister’s room, collections of mixed audio cassette tapes and even clothing styles. A somber score accompanies Katelyn through her journey through the house. Other tracks provided by bands like Heavens to Betsy, Youngins and Bratmobile all encompass this age of music and self-discovery.
Gone Home has a great story going for it and some decent visuals to back it up. There are some repetitive textures and objects here and there, and sometimes the rain patterns on the roof start to repeat, but these don’t damage the game’s overall quality. What may be a deal breaker for some is how quickly you can beat it. I’m not good at puzzle games at all and I was able to beat it in a little over an hour! For $20, that doesn’t seem like a fair deal to me. A single episode of the Walking Dead game was only worth $5 and I could get more game time out of that.
Gone Home has an amazing story but definitely wait until this game goes on sale before you buy it.
