I bought Gone Home during one of Steam’s various game sales shortly after its release in 2013. As tends to happen with games in my Steam library, they get ignored, sometimes for years before I get around to playing them. I still have well over 100 games I’ve probably never even tried on my account but that’s more a testament to how good the Steam sales usually are, and not reflective on the quality of the games in my library I’ve yet to play. Gone Home is a prime example of this. I’ve heard the praises for this game for quite some time now but for one reason or another I kept putting off playing Gone Home because there was always a “bigger” game coming out, or another game from my backlog I wanted to play. Part of the reason it took me so long was because I had heard exactly how emotionally wrenching this game can be and knowing what I did about the subject matter of Gone Home, I wasn’t sure I even wanted this experience. I’ll get this right out of the way: I’m usually not moved emotionally by video games. Probably more so because few games attempt to strike those chords in comparison to other mediums, but also because I’m typically more focused on “winning” or completing game objectives while playing to stop and soak in any real emotion. This game, on the other hand, is soaked in emotion and everything you uncover during your play through is meant to help you piece together the story and help you relate to and care for these characters. I can honestly say this game is brilliant and is the only game I’ve played so far that has affected me on such an emotionally impactful level. I’ve certainly become invested in characters before in games. BioWare’s games usually have me heavily invested in their characters and story for example, but being invested in those games and wanting those characters to succeed is much different than how I feel about the characters of Gone Home.
I’m purposefully dancing around many specifics as I want to keep this somewhat spoiler free. What makes this game work is having the complete, uninterrupted and unspoiled experience of this narrative and the less you know going in the more rewarding and valuable the experience will be. That being said, it would be hard to talk about this game without revealing certain aspects that could potentially cheapen your experience with this game if you have yet to play Gone Home. I want to at this point take the time to encourage you to stop reading this and go play the game. It won’t take long; even a thorough play through can be completed in a little over two hours. With that said, let’s start by talking about the atmosphere and environment in this game, which is important to the narrative.
Gone Home opens with Kaitlin Greenbriar returning home on the night of June 7, 1995 after traveling around Europe. It’s a dark, stormy night and she appears to have come home to an empty mansion. The visual and audio queues triggered by the weather in this game create an immediately dark and foreboding atmosphere that will remain ever present and menacing throughout the entire game. The way shadows seem to jump and shift as you begin to explore your home is unnerving and you are never sure just what could be lurking around the next corner. Side note: the best way to play this game is at night, with all the lights turned off and headphones on, with a drink of your choosing by your side. I very rarely play games this way, but for Gone Home it definitely adds to the experience. Many games use lighting and audio to build ambience, but with Gone Home they are much bigger and deliberate aspects of this game. Much of Gone Home needs to be sought out, or is inferred through the environment, but the lighting and sound are constant and keep the mood in place for the whole game. Sticking with audio, much of the game’s story is delivered through voiceover and music.
While you play Kaitlin, exploring your family home in Portland, Oregon, the majority of the narrative comes as journal entries from your sister, Samantha, as she narrates aspects of her life and informs you on things that have been happening with the family since you left home. The juxtaposition of exploring new rooms in the house, with Samantha narrating a journal entry overtop, gives wonderful insight into the Greenbriar family, specifically Samantha herself. The voice acting in Gone Home is excellent throughout, and Samantha (voiced by Sarah Grayson) is the standout performance. She does a good job keeping the player emotionally invested with compelling line delivery that accompanies the great writing. It isn’t as compelling as the voice acting of something like Uncharted but it feels like the perfect match for this game, and the story being told here. It is because of how the narrative unfolds through exploration and narration that you quickly begin to realize this is more Samantha’s story than Kaitlin’s and you as the player begin to feel less important to the story than you probably assumed you would be. This was when I began to realize I was playing something completely unlike anything I had played before. I was watching (or rather listening) to this character grow and blossom as I explored the mansion, and each room was another opportunity to add a piece to the puzzle. By the end of the game you have an incredibly detailed tapestry of your family lineage in your mind and a much deeper insight into each of the characters of this game. Music plays a big part in Gone Home and is another way this game allows you to gain bits of story or insight through osmosis. I won’t be too specific, but if you’re looking to make the connection you can find ways to play music in certain rooms that add to the narrative. While audio is important in Gone Home, the visuals also play a part in keeping with the mood of the game.
Visually, the graphical quality of Gone Home is nothing special and really does not play a role in the enjoyment or effectiveness of this experience either in a positive or negative way. The color scheme and lighting is the most interesting aspect of Gone Home in terms of visuals, to me. The way this game plays with lighting and shadows leaves the player always second guessing their surroundings, and wondering if they’re alone in this house or not. Gone Home never lets you get comfortable in its environment. Lighting is a core gameplay mechanic to Gone Home, of which there are few. Turning on and off lights as you progress through the house can not only put the player as ease, but map your progress. I used this as a visual way to track which rooms I’d been in and which areas I’d explored, leaving lights on as I traversed further and further. There is even a joke made about this likely being the way most people will play the game. The colors used are all rather dull. Lots of browns and purples, and everything has a muted tone and it seems to work well for this game. The few times you encounter vibrant colors are surrounded with important bits of story or progression, and is another way the game keeps you engaged and unsettled. The audio and visuals work together to create this haunting world, and it is here where most games would turn to the gameplay to make up the bulk of the experience, and separate their experience from other games. Gone Home approaches this differently.
There really isn’t a whole lot of emphasis on traditional gameplay to be had in Gone Home. You move around the environment, and click to interact with objects and inspect them. Pretty simple and straightforward. This mindset of simplicity and elegance carries through with the entire experience, and while some have criticized Gone Home for not having a lot of variety or depth in terms of gameplay, it was a pleasant, palate-cleansing experience for me. What this games lacks for depth in gameplay it makes up for in rich narrative that is tied into the gameplay. The more thoroughly you explore the Greenbriar family mansion the more narrative you will uncover and it is in this way that I found the gameplay simple, yet rewarding. By not having to focus on complicated gameplay mechanics or struggle with controls, the player is free to soak in as much of the narrative and environment as they wish. This is where the depth of Gone Home is found. In an industry traditionally made up of set piece after set piece, strung along loosely, if at all, by usually underwhelming narrative, this game encourages you to stop, take a breath, and reflect. It is because so many games do concern themselves with keeping situations escalated and fast paced that it is so enjoyable to come back down with Gone Home and take comfort in its subtleties. You’re never once beat over the head with mission objectives or skill-based challenges. You are truly free to progress and explore at your own pace and this results in a wonderful flow of narrative and discovery.
While I enjoy the heart-pounding experience of modern action games, where I’m constantly propelled forward through monster closets, Gone Home handles pacing in a very different way. Gone Home is just as effective and important, because it is trying to accomplish a very different goal. You never feel rushed but you never feel like you’re dragging your heels either. The way to play this game is methodically. Take your time, explore each room thoroughly and immerse yourself in the story and history of the Greenbriar family. Gone Home will give you exactly what you put into it in terms of rich story and character development, and for a tight, short experience like this that is perfectly reasonable and refreshing. So many games require split-second decision making and lightning fast reflexes. While I certainly enjoy a lot of games that operate this way, I can’t stress enough how much I enjoyed being able to take my time in this world and think about everything I was doing as I was doing it, without being pushed forward in the level by some scripted event like many games do. This ties back into the emotional power of Gone Home; because the player has time to reflect on his or her actions and is encouraged to freely explore and seek out content within the game world, it creates a much more profound bond with these characters. You’re only learning as much as you choose to learn. If you want to run through and trigger all the required sequences to “complete” the game you can, but the longer you dwell in this house the more rewarding it will be when you finally reach the conclusion.
I think I can sum up why I love this game so much in two words: It’s quiet. In this quiet is a methodical and deeply personal story that is allowed to breathe and resonate with the player in a way that most games don’t allow, due to distractions and the white noise of most game narratives. Most games get caught up in being games but Gone Home is a much simpler, more pure narrative. You may not be a girl, you may not have a sister or live in a house with a haunted past, but I feel everyone can find something to relate to in this game. The Greenbriar’s story is completely different from my own but I could not help but project parts of my own life onto Gone Home as I played through. Listening to Samantha’s journal, and forming a connection with her, I couldn’t help but think of my own sister and our relationship. While there was nothing particularly similar about Samantha and my own sister, I couldn’t help but feel that familiarity well up of wanting her to be happy and find her passion in life. By the end of Gone Home, during that final narration, I came close to tears. Closer than I ever have before from a video game. It was in that final story beat that I felt the release of emotions and tension that had been building for the past two hours, and in the end I was left feeling relieved, but also incredibly sad. It’s a response I was not prepared for. Gone Home is a game I’ll always remember and an experience I’m glad I had but it’s also one I will most likely never want again. I will never re-create the same emotional response as my first playthrough, but I am completely okay with that. I generally seek enjoyment and fun from my entertainment, especially games, but Gone Home is one of the exceptions to the rule that make me truly appreciate the medium. Gone Home is further proof that games can in fact be art because this is an experience I would be hesitant to say I enjoyed, yet it’s an experience I’m glad I had and would recommend others seek out. I think that’s one of the markings of great art. I feel everyone can pick out different aspects of this game and it will trigger memories or emotions from their own lives, either as children or adults, and that’s what makes this game such a unique and special experience. It doesn’t care how good you are at video games, or how quickly you can speed run through this entire game (*around 60 second, it would seem). That’s not the point. For once there are no trophies, no achievements or difficulty settings; just a house for you to explore and a narrative for you to uncover.
*There are videos of people racing through to the final section of the game in under 60 seconds. That’s interesting that it can be done, but clearly is not the point.
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