JavaScript is required to use Bungie.net

#Gaming

Edited by The_New_Bradley: 6/8/2016 5:13:00 AM
1

Gone Home Review

So I finally picked up and played this game since it came up as one of this month's free PSPlus titles. Fantastic game, easily one of my favorites. There may be some spoilers here so read at your own discretion. I don't review games very much. This would actually be my first time doing so on a forum rather than just discussing one with a friend so bare with me here. I've always been a fan of story driven games. From Kingdom Hearts on the PS2 to the astounding The Last of Us on PS3/PS4, the narrative has always been at the forefront in my own personal scale of the quality of a video game. Gone Home reiterated to me how smaller, less known companies can produce amazing works of art that blow most of today's AAA titles out of the water. You don't need fancy engines or fast paced gameplay to make a quality title. No, what you need is strong character development and the delivery of varying emotions to your players. If they leave remembering the story and taking a message with them, then the game was successful in impacting the player, and Gone Home delivered one hell of a message. You start the story returning to a "home" you have never been to before because your character was away traveling when your family moved there. From the creepy storm outside to the crying teenager on the voice mailbox, Gone Home plants seeds of dread into you, despite having full knowledge this isn't a horror game. They carry this theme throughout your exploration of this mansion, one example being when you stumble upon a bathtub caked in a dried, red liquid only to find a bottle of red hair die nearby which triggers a very important, yet happy plot point. You are constantly reminded how this game is not a horror story, yet you can't help but have this gut wrenching feeling as you progress. That being said, there are some points I found that, while explained, seem to be implemented solely to screw with the player. The characters consist of the player, Katie, her sister Sam, their parents, Terry and Jan, and Sam's friend Lonnie. While Sam is the central figure, they all have their own problems going on in the background. Gone Home respects your intelligence as a gamer and leaves it up to you to find all the information and piece everything together yourself, however I feel they made some of the clues to the story a little to hard to figure out. There was an implication between the father and his deceased uncle that can go completely under the rug if you take everything at face value, and the conclusion to the mothers story arc I thought was left completely open ended until I found a discussion forum in which people had pointed out specific notes and their locations that you wouldn't even think about while playing, but make complete sense in retrospect. All in all I feel Gone Home was an astounding game and definitely worth your time. I would not recommend you divert any attention from it until its completion as too long of a break would take away so many emotions you would experience at the end that make this game so unique. One final point I wish to make: [spoiler]Throughout my rigorous google searches I was unable to find a and answer to a question I have and I hoped another player might enlighten me. While in the basement near Oscar's safe you find a pitch black room with a busted light which has seemingly no importance to the story. I decided to play with the settings while I was there and noticed that one portion of a wall has different bricks from the rest of it. It seemed to be bricked off at a separate point from the other walls, as if there is something behind it. As I said, I searched everywhere online and it seemed like no other person thought to turn their brightness up to look around, so I could find nothing related to the wall in my searches. I didn't find any notes in the game either alluding to what happened and there was no director's commentary for that area. Game developers don't just throw something like that in for no reason, so what happened? Has anybody else seen this, and if so do you know what it means?[/spoiler]

Posting in language:

 

Play nice. Take a minute to review our Code of Conduct before submitting your post. Cancel Edit Create Fireteam Post

You are not allowed to view this content.
;
preload icon
preload icon
preload icon