Gone Home

 PC
User Score
5.5

Mixed or average reviews- based on 2245 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 939 out of 2245
  2. Mixed: 433 out of 2245
  3. Negative: 873 out of 2245

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  1. Skurttish
    Jan 12, 2022
    7
    An okay, short game. It was basically a movie, both in how long it was and in how little gameplay there is. I played it curled up on the couch and it was good for a quiet evening.
  2. Aloof
    Sep 30, 2021
    5
    I didn't like it at all, and to be honest, thank goodness I played it for free via Epic Games. It didn't involve me, I found it flat, banal, with a gameplay absent to the nth degree. The ratings it got from the critics were incredible so maybe I'm the wrong one.
  3. Eniusza
    Apr 13, 2021
    7
    It's a very interesting story, with a cool atmosphere. There are some gameplay stuff that are bothering me, I don't see any point in picking up toilet paper billion times etc, and sometimes looking at objects wasn't working properly, or the fact that there was no actual model of character I'm playing (shame), but other than that I had fun playing.
  4. Dco326
    Apr 10, 2021
    5
    I wouldnt ever never play this again. Bukvalno nikad vise ne bih pipnuo ovu igru.
  5. DJKrimson
    Nov 9, 2020
    6
    An okay slowpaced walking telltale game. I like the story told about Sam, and it's a good voice actor that are nice to listen to. But it feels a bit hollow, they could've done more with the story and they could've included some puzzling or something.
  6. Alexb1096
    Jul 24, 2020
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. ITALIAN:
    Gioco carino perchè molto breve (dura circa 3 ore) però poteva essere gestito meglio.

    Nel gioco impersoni una ragazza che torna a casa negli USA dopo un lungo viaggio in Europa e non trova nessuno ad aspettarla.
    L'obiettivo del gioco è capire cosa sia successo, visto che sembra che i tuoi genitori e tua sorella siano scappati.

    Grafica carina ma non personale, audio invece molto bello con un'ottima colonna sonora e stupendi monologhi.
    Il gameplay è molto semplice dato che bisogna solo girare per casa ed interagire con gli oggetti.

    Un aspetto positivo ma gestito male è la possibilità di interagire con quasi tutti gli oggetti presenti. Trovata interessante che però non ha quasi utilità pratica. Inoltre alcuni oggetti sono presenti ripetuti in gran quantità all'interno della casa e quindi dopo aver trovato il primo di questi capisci che anche gli altri non servono a niente.

    La storia invece è carina ed empatica, ma lascia alcune cose in sospeso.
    Aggiungo qualche dettaglio nella sezione spoiler.

    Voto: 6.5/10

    SPOILER: Viene spiegata bene la storia della sorella, che lentamente si riesce anche ad intuire ed è molto carina, però l'assenza dei genitori è giustificata solo dal calendario presente in cucina e se non lo si dovesse trovare non si capirebbe più di tanto (si capisce che i genitori sono in crisi ma non viene mai citato il viaggio).    … Expand
  7. Muyrka
    Apr 26, 2020
    5
    Got this game for free, so I would be more lax.
    OK immersive mansion walking simulator. Story in my view is weak, a bit cliche and not thrilling enough. Somewhere at the middle of a game you understand what is happening and it becomes boring.
    If you want something like this one but better - try "What happened to Edith Finch". It is much much better.
  8. Almas_kz
    Apr 24, 2020
    7
    Плохая оптимизация, неудобное управление и сложный сюжет хотя в конце я начал вникать в него, но все же полностью понять не смог, даже в конце я узнал что главная героиня и ее подружка являются лесбиянками, но тайны и замки, закрытые кейсы чуть развеселили меня + презервативы в родительской комнате тоже, вообщем игра не совсем стоит своих денег и я бы не советовал бы покупать.Плохая оптимизация, неудобное управление и сложный сюжет хотя в конце я начал вникать в него, но все же полностью понять не смог, даже в конце я узнал что главная героиня и ее подружка являются лесбиянками, но тайны и замки, закрытые кейсы чуть развеселили меня + презервативы в родительской комнате тоже, вообщем игра не совсем стоит своих денег и я бы не советовал бы покупать.
  9. michaelb1928
    Apr 17, 2020
    7
    There is a lot of love put into this game. Sure its short , theres no gameplay and no puzzles which is a missed opportunity but its still really immersive to lose yourself in the house. The story is decent and theres a nice twist at the end. Overall i enjoyed my experience, it still holds up in 2020.
  10. ourendlesseason
    Dec 15, 2019
    6
    GH è una fusione fra una mostra in un museo dove ci fermiamo, nella maggior parte dei casi, a lanciare più di una semplice occhiata a tutto quello che ci circonda, ed un gioco investigativo. Non vediamo mai la protagonista in volto, la prospettiva è in prima persona: questa scelta non è così cattiva in quanto aiuta chi gioca a concentrarsi di più su quello che lo circonda e a sentirsiGH è una fusione fra una mostra in un museo dove ci fermiamo, nella maggior parte dei casi, a lanciare più di una semplice occhiata a tutto quello che ci circonda, ed un gioco investigativo. Non vediamo mai la protagonista in volto, la prospettiva è in prima persona: questa scelta non è così cattiva in quanto aiuta chi gioca a concentrarsi di più su quello che lo circonda e a sentirsi parte del gioco.
    L'obiettivo del gioco è quello di scoprire cosa si cela dietro la famiglia della protagonista, ma nessuna paura, nulla di pauroso succederà. Quello che si viene a scoprire è scioccante fino ad un certo punto: ci aspettiamo già che il gioco tratterà di argomenti delicati, in caso contrario la famiglia non si sarebbe presa la briga di nascondere le prove.
    Tutto molto interessante, ma poco avventuroso: non ci sono puzzle difficili e luoghi che non siano la casa.

    Gioco molto tranquillo, utile se si vuole passare qualche ora senza volersi scervellare troppo, ma non adatto a chi preferisce qualcosa con più azione.    … Expand
  11. CriticalHit20
    Oct 21, 2019
    6
    I did not pay for this game and would not pay much for it. If I did, then I might give it a low review for its value. In terms of the overall experience, it was merely okay. I wasn't as offended by the ending as others. That said, this game is all about story and there is not a good story in this game.
  12. p1menta
    Jun 9, 2019
    7
    too many bad reviews for an okay game. i wonder if it is related to the story being about a lesbian teen couple instead of hetero-broken-hearted-man's-self-pity
  13. treakj
    Jan 16, 2018
    6
    Not a bad game, but VERY SHORT. I thought it was a horror movie. The game itself is used only as a vehicle to tell a story. Reminds me of "Heavy Rain". The visuals are acceptable, the sound is good. Voice acting is very good. It is interesting to piece the stories (like in Resident Evil, Bioshock, etc), but I think the story could be deeper. Since the story was the main point of this game,Not a bad game, but VERY SHORT. I thought it was a horror movie. The game itself is used only as a vehicle to tell a story. Reminds me of "Heavy Rain". The visuals are acceptable, the sound is good. Voice acting is very good. It is interesting to piece the stories (like in Resident Evil, Bioshock, etc), but I think the story could be deeper. Since the story was the main point of this game, it could try to achieve storytelling as, for example, "To the Moon".
    If there was some kind of replayability, like changing the player and the timing, changing points of view, putting more story and arcs, this game could have been very good.    … Expand
  14. SuperkenGaming
    Oct 4, 2017
    7
    Gone Home
    A Nostalgia Trip
    Gone Home is a 2 hr long walking Simulator where you play as Kaitlynn return home from Europe after studying abroad.. you come home to find a note from your little sister sam and an empty house you spend these 2 hours finding out where everyone went… the game is set in the mid 90s, it does a decent job at setting the house with nostalgic items like board    Gone Home
    A Nostalgia Trip
    Gone Home is a 2 hr long walking Simulator where you play as Kaitlynn return home from Europe after studying abroad.. you come home to find a note from your little sister sam and an empty house
    you spend these 2 hours finding out where everyone went…
    the game is set in the mid 90s, it does a decent job at setting the house with nostalgic items like board games, answering machines, vhs tapes, cassettes and game cartridges, though as a 90s kid myself.. none of this really hit me and brought me back…
    the house didn’t really feel 90s to me as everything sortve felt like decoration, the house didn’t really feel lived in to me…
    You can interactive with practically everything in the game, rotate items to inspect them, and the occasional note and letter will give more insight into what exactly happened, and who her parents were and what they did and their own problems theyre dealing with..
    Im not going to spoil the story, ill just say its really touching and heartbreaking at times..
    listening to the occasional voiced dialog while you explore this house is the best part of the game…
    however I feel this game is a tad bit overrated and I cant really go into why without spoiling the story…
    But once you play it I think the reason for this game getting such high scores will be fairly apparent..
    as the experience isn’t really that special… youre just looking through things, and stumbling on the occasional secret until you’ve found what you needed for the end game…
    I didn’t find game progression to be clever, I just felt my heartstring pulled on a little bit here and there…
    Gone Home is a good experience..
    but it isn’t this masterpiece you’ve been hearing about for years
    I give Gone Home
    a 7/10    … Expand
  15. Gracz-org
    Aug 8, 2017
    7
    Gone Home jest tytułem idealnym dla osób, dla których w grach liczy się coś więcej niż ciągła akcja. Przemierzając zakamarki tytułowego domu nie nudziłem się ani na chwilę, a odkrywanie fabuły krok po kroku uświadomiło mi jak wiele twórcy mogą nam jeszcze zaprezentować w tego typu produkcjach. Co prawda grę tą można przejść w niecałą godzinę, ale… zdecydowanie wystarczyło to jednak, bymGone Home jest tytułem idealnym dla osób, dla których w grach liczy się coś więcej niż ciągła akcja. Przemierzając zakamarki tytułowego domu nie nudziłem się ani na chwilę, a odkrywanie fabuły krok po kroku uświadomiło mi jak wiele twórcy mogą nam jeszcze zaprezentować w tego typu produkcjach. Co prawda grę tą można przejść w niecałą godzinę, ale… zdecydowanie wystarczyło to jednak, bym zapamiętał ją oraz opowiedzianą w niej historię na długi czas ;-) Gorąco polecam!

    Pełna recenzja dostępna jest na blogu Gracz.org    … Expand
  16. artificeprime
    May 27, 2017
    5
    Dramatically over-rated. While Gone Home offers a subtly crafted narrative and some interesting atmospheric story telling it is average or below average in nearly all other areas. In this case the user score is far more accurate than the critics score. I can see this game appealing to some people as a somewhat unique way of experiencing a story but even as a slightly interactive storyDramatically over-rated. While Gone Home offers a subtly crafted narrative and some interesting atmospheric story telling it is average or below average in nearly all other areas. In this case the user score is far more accurate than the critics score. I can see this game appealing to some people as a somewhat unique way of experiencing a story but even as a slightly interactive story there are many games that do it far better.

    There really isn't much gameplay to speak of. You walk through a house and pick up objects to investigate. The controls are extremely clunky, even simply movement feels awkward, sometimes just performing simple tasks was challenging just because the controls were poor. For a game where all you do is walk around, picking up and investigating items that should have been done far better. There are a few puzzles in the game but they aren't really puzzles, basically you just have to find a few pieces of codes and then use those codes together. There is no creative problem solving to speak of. The developers could have added some riddles or clever ways of solving puzzles to add some element of gameplay but they didn't.

    The Story and writing is what most people praise this game for but even that is way over-rated. The main story itself hints at having a lot of depth but ultimately is little more than an overly dramatic teenage drama. The way the game reveals the story is quite intriguing with the player needing to uncover hints by looking at little objects in the house but the supposed big twists are so obvious that by the time they are revealed fully they have very little impact. I guessed all of the twists long before they were revealed and so when I actually got to the big moments I was expecting that there would be more to the mystery, there wasn't. The ending is plays out as though it is supposed to be this big dramatic surprise but really it just left me asking "Is that it?" The story isn't bad, it would be good if it was a side quest in a game with more going on but as the central plot it is very underwhelming. There are no big ideas here. I suppose it gets a few points for telling the kind of story that isn't told often but that only goes so far.

    Where the game does shine, and why I gave it a 5 as opposed to a 2 or 3, is the atmospheric story
    telling. The main story is a pretty standard teenage drama but how the story is revealed with little items in the home is quite compelling. Also, there are things about the characters that are not told through the main narrative that can be discovered by finding certain objects and drawing the lines together yourself. Learning what happened to the family through their possessions is interesting and is the one thing that this game does that makes it stand out. Unfortunately those discovers have little to no impact on how the game plays out.

    Visually Gone Home is fine but the house itself really seems generic. With the house being the only set piece in the whole game the creators really could have put a lot more care into making it feel personal. It is supposed to be some kind of old mansion that has been in the family for many years but for the most part its design seems really basic. Many games that have dozens of houses have better ones than this one.

    The sound design is good for an indie game. The voice work is all good enough and the atmospheric sounds are nice. There are several similar interactive story games that have far better soundtracks though. For example, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture and Fire Watch.

    I can understand why some people might really enjoy this game as an experience. The story might really appeal to some people and the atmosphere might really appeal to you. That's fine but I think giving this game an 8 or a 9 for those reasons alone is an insult to games that have been crafted with far greater effort and artistic skill. The critical score for this game currently stands at an 86, that puts it in league with legendary games that are dramatically better in almost every way and that is truly unfortunate.

    I give Gone Home a 52%

    Gameplay - 2
    Story/Progression - 7
    World - 4
    Sound Design - 7
    Uniqueness/Ideas - 6
    Characters - 7
    Visual Style - 5
    Length/Amount of Content - 3
    Immersion - 6
    X-Factor - 5    … Expand
  17. Avodeskorm
    Feb 27, 2017
    7
    Walking simulators have been done better, but this is one of the first good ones that came out. This is much harder to get into with games being focused on story becoming much more popular.
  18. spikedloop
    Jan 2, 2017
    7
    Don't view every pencil and pen. It's useless. I advise concentrate only on note from your sister and note about your uncle, only then you probably feel the pleasure from game.
  19. Nocturne2521
    Nov 28, 2016
    5
    The best part was the atmosphere of this game.
    I was able to concentrate on the play time of this game with the unusual atmosphere and background photographs and background music. When I first turned on this game, I felt like I was really in this house alone, and the feeling of euphoria was real enough. The background music was something that the company thought was a big hit, so I    The best part was the atmosphere of this game.
    I was able to concentrate on the play time of this game with the unusual atmosphere and background photographs and background music. When I first turned on this game, I felt like I was really in this house alone, and the feeling of euphoria was real enough. The background music was something that the company thought was a big hit, so I thought it would be fascinating to those who missed that time by placing cassette tapes of music that fit the times.
    I was also impressed by the fact that the details for the hardcore player are arranged according to the manufacturer's intentions. I was also impressed that I could indirectly know the personality of the characters through report cards, various documents, and letters. In this way, I have focused more on the relationship between the characters than on the way of direct personality, and it seems that I have seen the clues without fail.
    But I am not American, and since I did not live in the 1990s, it was difficult and emotional to agree with the theme that penetrated the game. I could not sympathize with JFK conspiracy theories, feminism, rock culture that appeared in this game, and it was very difficult to understand when the contents of this part appeared.
    Playing time was also a little less than the price. GTA, Skyrim, Civilization, and other famous games are priced from $ 60 to $ 100, but the games have content that I can play for 10 hours, 100 hours, or even 1000 hours. But the game is worth $ 20 and the play time is 2 hours. I think the price of 5 to 10 dollars is a reasonable price.
    I could also picked up things such as business cards and books so that I could see them while rotating, which I think is unnecessary. Even if you only see some important things like that, you'll see almost the same detail, and development costs and time will be lower.    … Expand
  20. stayathome
    Nov 27, 2016
    6
    Gone Home, overall, was a refreshing experience, to say the least. I’m not saying this in a positive or negative way—just that it was something new for me. Actually, I had to play this game for a class and to be honest, I don’t know if having been required to play the game made it more or less enjoyable. I tend to get bored of stuff easily (the main reason why I never seem to finish anyGone Home, overall, was a refreshing experience, to say the least. I’m not saying this in a positive or negative way—just that it was something new for me. Actually, I had to play this game for a class and to be honest, I don’t know if having been required to play the game made it more or less enjoyable. I tend to get bored of stuff easily (the main reason why I never seem to finish any video games, TV shows, or anime series), so at least the requirement forced me to even finish the game, something I’m not sure I would’ve done if I was just playing it out of my own will. On the other hand, being required to play the game made me, even if just a little bit, view it as classwork, which, let’s be honest, isn’t really something people typically enjoy.

    The game’s graphics were fine, I guess. I had to play the game on the lowest graphics setting, but even so, they were still okay. For gamers, the graphics were probably just average, but for non-gamers, they were probably already beautiful. At least by not having pixelated graphics, the mood of the game wasn’t affected and I was able to play the game without noticing how crappy the graphics were every now and then. For the interface, it’s just the average stuff. Nothing special. I mean, the game doesn’t really require much so… Everything needed to experience the game was there. The simplicity has its own beauty I guess, as there are no unnecessary controls that distract from the story.

    The mood of the game was, especially in the beginning, dark and ominous. It was like there’s always something around the corner preparing to kill you. I was looking out for jumpscares all the time. I even had to search if Gone Home is a horror game, just to put my fears to rest. But even after that, I was still constantly unnerved by the continuous pouring of the rain, occasional sound of thunder, and the flickering lights. The game just builds up so much tension and keeps you hanging, which I think, is really clever. It keeps you thinking—where is this story/game really going? And then you just get kind of surprised or dumbfounded as the story progresses that it was nothing like you thought it would be.

    Actually, I would say that Gone Home is more of a story than a game. To say in better terminology… an interactive movie? It’s a refreshing way to tell a story, and that’s what I like about it. It’s unconventional. The story, by itself, however, is nothing really special. In its core, it’s just about coming of age (and coming out of the closet haha) and the rebelliousness and confusion experienced by youth. Although, I would say that it’s amazing how we get to see the characters develop so much without even seeing them. The characters were colorful. They had different personalities that were amazingly apparent through a bunch of stuff scattered on the floor. The misleading setting also has its own charm. A seemingly haunted house and a dark, stormy night… who would’ve thought the story would turn out like that? It’s like a plot twist without really being a plot twist. I also found the side stories very interesting, and contributed a whole lot to the main plot without really distracting from it. It’s also nice that the story itself tries to send a message, one that is very relevant to our society nowadays.

    I do admit that, from a gaming viewpoint, I consider Gone Home to be boring. I mean, I don’t think you even ‘game’ in this game. But, putting all the factors together, it was quite worth it.    … Expand
  21. obosen
    Nov 27, 2016
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Never have I ever played any form of video game before I knew about Gone Home. However, just the fact that it was an adventure game made me very interested in it, especially that I'm deeply leaning more towards these kinds of games rather than the conventional ideas incorporated in most video games.

    Gone Home may not be considered a game because, in my opinion, there is always a way to lose and to repeat all over again in a game. That is not the case here in Gone Home. I would have enjoyed this game more if it included that type. Nevertheless, it has included a bunch of stories intertwining to give us a deeper understanding of the family's relationships inside and out, as well as how it connects to the players. It embodies the current situation of the world that some families or people in the society will encounter, such as LGBT, feminism, teenage angst and even interfamily problems. I felt like Gone Home succeeded in incorporating these concepts and how it affects one family in specific. I have met people whose parents were in denial of their sexuality, females who were deprived of their rights simply because of their gender, and young people who have tendencies of being misdirected because they could not understand why their parents act the way they do. Through this game, people will have a clearer image of these problems as they progress. What makes me appreciate this game is that it effectively used virtual reality for a greater cause. This game has broken the stereotypical mindset I had about video games. Moreover, it gives you the thrill of wanting to know more about the characters especially that the vibe that the game displays has a spooky, thriller effect on it.

    However I would frankly not suggest this for people leaning towards adventures to play. To begin with, this game could be finished in less than a week at most, considering that you're a hardcore video game player, or just a newbie finding your way into some interesting games. Yes, the game is thrilling and it encompasses a wide array of ideas that really stimulate your thoughts and pull you more towards the family's story, but I felt like the game could have been developed more so that it contains more elements of what most people like about games. This game was just plainly focused on searching for evidences to collect the pieces of the story, but most of what people want in a game was to literally play and win it, not just simply scrambling over scattered objects in a large, creepy house. I'd obviously not spend money just to buy this game. Nevertheless, I still applaud the creativity of this game in terms of the unconventional ways it has done compared to typical video games.    … Expand
  22. Explicit
    Nov 27, 2016
    7
    I am a high school student living in Korea, and I have played through this game a few times as it was included in the curriculum in my English class. Although I was a frequent steam user, I have only got to know about this game in class since games of this type, walking simulators, are not exactly of my interest. I felt very uncomfortable and even irritated as I was playing this game atI am a high school student living in Korea, and I have played through this game a few times as it was included in the curriculum in my English class. Although I was a frequent steam user, I have only got to know about this game in class since games of this type, walking simulators, are not exactly of my interest. I felt very uncomfortable and even irritated as I was playing this game at first. However, as I played through the game a few times and found more and more evidences scattered throughout the house, the complexity of the story intertwined in each and every clue has started to catch my interest, and eventually I found myself looking for more possible story-lines that might have been hidden from my view.
    I would like to comment on the technical parts of the game than the story itself. One thing that I think is important for a walking simulator game, is its realistic environment. I am not a person who really cares much about the graphics of a game. It does not affect my game-play so much whether I have the highest or lowest graphics setting. However, one thing I have to talk about is the game’s ‘head bobbing’ affect. This ‘head bobbing’ effect in the video setting actually gives much more reality into the game itself, and give users the feeling that they are actually walking around the house. However, if you are not used to this kind of setting, this might in contrast create dizziness and eventually make you sick. There is a choice for turning off the bobbing effect though, so it does not really matter if you care enough to look for the button. Also, I have felt that this game, a walking simulator game, is much slower than a first-person-shooter games, too much that I felt frustrated that I could not ‘sprint’ in this game. But this also helped me look for evidences much more carefully and provided me more time to think about the story rather than simply running around looking for evidences.
    The technical part of the game Gone Home was in fact frustrating and made me impatient at first. However, as I have gotten used to the game, these factors actually helped me think and concentrate much better on the game. And although it is not mentioned in this review, the storyline of the story has been very interesting thus I would give this game a 7 out of 10.    … Expand
  23. mintchoco0
    Nov 27, 2016
    5
    For me, this was almost the first video game that I have played with my computer. Although I did not have a computer mouse so the controlling of the game was not smooth as expected, it was an interesting game with specific details that lead people back to the aura of the 1900s.
    This is a general exploration game of an unfamiliar house that the main character has encountered. If you look    For me, this was almost the first video game that I have played with my computer. Although I did not have a computer mouse so the controlling of the game was not smooth as expected, it was an interesting game with specific details that lead people back to the aura of the 1900s.
    This is a general exploration game of an unfamiliar house that the main character has encountered. If you look around the house, you can observe fascinating details that the developers has hidden into the corner of every house. Not only the visual details, but there are also auditory details just scattered around the floor or on the furniture. It is just astonishing how they cared about something as little as hand-written like letters to crumpled notes. Never in any escaping game that I have seen such a complete story and little clues that match up for the whole story. Also, there were some missing information that you could not obtain unless you have looked thoroughly through all the house. It leads you to continue the game even after you have finished it, because finishing the game does not mean that you have understood everything about the relationships between the characters. Even if you have poked every end of the house, it gives very different impression. The conclusion that you lead differes depending on your experience, and that makes the game attractive.
    However, the ending of the game was not as I have expected. You can just end the game by chance, if you go to the right place. This was the most critical disadvantage of the game. There is no worthy reward for finishing the game. There is no more information given because you have successfully finished the game. Exploring is more emphasized then playing the game and seeing the ending, which was a disappointing point for me. The game just threw us a house, and nothing else.
    The graphics were okay, and the control was hard since I did not have a mouse, so had to use the mouse pad so the character sometimes did not move as I have wanted her to move. Therefore I rated this game as 5 for the extraordinary details and the game that has nothing but details.    … Expand
  24. x_Tash_x
    Nov 27, 2016
    6
    When we were told in our Critical Thinking class that we had to play a game, I wasn’t too thrilled about it (partly because my laptop is pretty heavy to carry along with my Calculus book), but hearing about Gone Home being this interactive game that unfolds a story as you go along to ‘investigate’, I thought that wasn’t too bad at all—it was even more than exciting for me. The game startsWhen we were told in our Critical Thinking class that we had to play a game, I wasn’t too thrilled about it (partly because my laptop is pretty heavy to carry along with my Calculus book), but hearing about Gone Home being this interactive game that unfolds a story as you go along to ‘investigate’, I thought that wasn’t too bad at all—it was even more than exciting for me. The game starts on a dark and stormy night; it was June 7, 1995, and the character you’re playing, Kaitlin Greenbriar, just returned to an empty home. The goal is to search around the house and discover clues on what happened while she was gone—exactly what her sister, Samantha, asked her not to do on a note stuck to the front door. Exploring inside the large house, wherein we will later find secret passageways, was surreal even with the graphics set on low. All the items you’ll see, whether you are able to pick them up or not, and even the technology stick to the setting of the game quite loyally, giving you a peek of the ‘90s. While searching for clues, you can observe a room fully and be able to feel as if you’re looking through the personal belongings of a real person or in the case of Sam’s room, you can actually relate to what being a teenager felt like. The journals you’ll suddenly hear when you touch certain objects were also well-recorded. I don’t have much experience with games to compare it with anything, but I have heard that the voice acting for this game was quite exceptional on its own. While I found the game enjoyable at first, especially when you’re still at the beginning, madly curious to piece everything, I found the whole point of the game lacking. It may be due to the fact that I am fond of horror and more dramatic plot lines, but the game doesn’t really give you much space to actually investigate your own, only to find that the story of the family is not quite the dark past (or present for them) that you expected. Rather than setting standards too high, it is logical that the eerie sound effects and lights suddenly turning off or dimming set the mood for a more interesting story. This also wasn’t the detective game I was hoping for. On the contrary, you’re simply an outsider going through the house and observing what unfolds until you finish the game. Even Kaitlin’s reactions feel too far from what a real family member should be experiencing after finding a creepily deserted home instead of a warm homecoming. I think I also expected the clues to be harder to unlock, actually requiring some critical thinking and even small deductions within the game to get a good guess of your own as to how the game ends. It is understandable that others who actually paid $20 for this find it unsatisfactory and don’t even consider it a good adventure game. However, I think the game’s attention to the smallest details on objects around the house and the fact that it seems to be a time capsule on its own, able to bring nostalgia to the older audience, make the game a worthwhile experience on a quiet and lazy day given that there’s nothing more interesting to do than poke around the privacy of a digital family.… Expand
  25. jungyeon
    Nov 27, 2016
    6
    This game has a good story and an intriguing, pretty complicated plot. Also, the hidden message behind the story was pretty fun.
    What really got me were the details of the game. The voice acting was very good and realistic, and there were many details and parts that made the game a real-life experience. I could pick up anything from a pizza box to a letter from a girlfriend, or do    This game has a good story and an intriguing, pretty complicated plot. Also, the hidden message behind the story was pretty fun.
    What really got me were the details of the game. The voice acting was very good and realistic, and there were many details and parts that made the game a real-life experience. I could pick up anything from a pizza box to a letter from a girlfriend, or do anything, from meaningful things such as discovering a secret passage to very mundane and very non-meaningful things such as flushing a toilet or crouching down. The details were totally realistic, and it felt as if I were really in the American house itself.
    However, as an international player, anything else excluding the main plot was very hard to understand. There were tons of video game references and other 90’s American references that were impossible to understand. Without this, the game was, except for the actual plot, straightforward and dull. If I understood some things about American culture in the 90’s, it would have been kind of exciting and like a treasure hunt, but I could only relate to the main plot and nothing else. It was like watching ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them’ without reading Harry Potter. Nothing really caught me, and something was missing.
    Also, I would have liked to know about the other characters a bit more as well. It would have been nice if there was more evidence and more references for the other characters, leading to their own stories as well. Uncle Oscar deserved a bigger role, and Katie’s parents did as well. There was nothing about Katie as well, and although I understand the concept of the game and that Katie is only a strictly third-person narrator, it would have been better if there were more quips or narrations with her opinion. The evidence was too matter-of-fact, and the narrator was too calm and composed. Wouldn’t it be better if the narrator was more… human?
    Since I got this file for free during class, I can’t complain about its price. However, I think the price is too extreme for this one-time experience. If you want to purchase this file, I recommend you reconsider. It’s nice enough, but not worth your 20 dollars. Go buy yourself something delicious, watch a movie, or buy a present for someone you love. Although this is a good experience, I can think of a million things better to do with this amount of money.    … Expand
  26. wonwoosuh
    Nov 27, 2016
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The game Gone Home, was like a second-lasting magnificence. I really enjoyed playing it, but it was somewhat disappointing.
    First of all, like all the other reviews, the story itself were essentially well-made. Hidden stories of love and growing up of Sam Greenbriar were wisely distributed and placed through the empty mansion. Each clue was not so big or so small that I could follow the whole story flow naturally, and records played at particular moments or places of the game also helped me understand the stories. (Actaully my favorite part was the emergence of the character "Lonnie" after opening the locker, who actually takes almost same importance in the story as the protagonist(Sam) does.)
    However, the route to finding the story in the game was not that satisfying. Before finding the story, all I did was wandering around the mansion examining useless things like all the books in the whole house. Very first clues to "enter" the main story such as stuff in Sam's locker, or loose panels were too hard to find. For me, who have not ever played this kind of game before, spent almost eighty percent of whole playing time wandering around. But more disappointing thing was that the main story(after entering the secret door) was super fast. It took just five to ten minutes. As this was the most enjoyable part of this game, I wish this part should be much longer to be a good game. Actually, I even felt 'what have i done???' after opening the attic door and listening to ending clip. It takes too long to the starting line, and the track to rush is too short.
    For the technical reasons, I was a little disappointed again. At the very first moment playing this game, I had no idea how to pick or select objects. White dot in the center of the screen, or "cursor" is too small, and I could barely find the tutorial about this. It would be easier for players to enlarge the cursor and make it more visible.
    The game Gone Home was one of my first game experience in this mystery - exploration field, and it was quite an interesting experience!    … Expand
  27. Blackfury
    Nov 26, 2016
    5
    I played this game as an activity in my English class and before I even started playing it, I sort of knew what it was talking about. It is an interactive story driven game, that tries to tell the struggles of a young lady. This game contains a rich environment, that tries to talk about the family, their activities and their personalities.

    But to be honest the game falls flat real    I played this game as an activity in my English class and before I even started playing it, I sort of knew what it was talking about. It is an interactive story driven game, that tries to tell the struggles of a young lady. This game contains a rich environment, that tries to talk about the family, their activities and their personalities.

    But to be honest the game falls flat real quick. Yes, the environment feels full of things but same objects repeated again and again. I found the same toilet paper roll around the house in a large number. Everything looks bland. There are so many things in the mansion yet, it feels empty. There are people living in the house, yet it doesn't feel like it. It just feels meh.

    The story is a very predictable one. After playing one-fourth of the game, the player will know what will happen next. It is not bad, but it is not amazing. Everything surrounding the main character is great but the main story just falls flat. The relationship between the mother and the father, the school and the crazy uncle's story is all great but Lonnie's and Sam's relationship is meh.

    Overall, Gone Home is a slow and boring walking simulator that finishes with a story not good enough for my liking.    … Expand
  28. gloriouspotato
    Nov 18, 2016
    6
    Ultimately, Gone Home is a story about the struggles of a teenager coping with the stigma of homosexuality and the sad realities of life, including the dysfunctions in her family and history of the setting the game takes place in. A well told story overall, but otherwise quite unremarkable in all other aspects of the game.
  29. dandalis
    Nov 2, 2016
    6
    This is barely a game. Its a mystery story that you have to unravel yourself by exploring a house and interacting with objects, mostly its just reading written messages. Gone Home made me understand that im not a fan of this kind of story telling, but that doesnt say i outright hated it or didnt enjoy it to some degree. It was a short and decent experience for me. Which i really liked wasThis is barely a game. Its a mystery story that you have to unravel yourself by exploring a house and interacting with objects, mostly its just reading written messages. Gone Home made me understand that im not a fan of this kind of story telling, but that doesnt say i outright hated it or didnt enjoy it to some degree. It was a short and decent experience for me. Which i really liked was the atmosphere and the ambience you get to experience by playing this, game feels kinda spooky and feeling of being all alone in the house worked really well.

    As for story, it was intriguing to see mid 90's from teen's perspective and i wanted to solve the mystery of main protagonist's missing family. Its just that once you do, you dont feel that rewarded. Once you find out to what has happaned to your little sister, which also is the game's main objective and the ending, will leave players either pissed or understanding, depedning how you look at the world, itll overall help you decide if you wasted your money on this game or not. I for myself feel that 20 $ is quite steep for what you get here considering the content and 2 - 3 hour gameplay if you play the game as devs intended that is.    … Expand
  30. TitaniumDragon
    Oct 31, 2016
    6
    Gone Home is either a bare-bones adventure game or a walking simulator which included a very small number of puzzle elements. I would suggest it is really more like the latter from a cladistics point of view; its attraction lies in that direction, and if you’re looking for really cerebral gameplay, this isn’t the place to look.

    Gone Home is really a story that happens to be presented in    Gone Home is either a bare-bones adventure game or a walking simulator which included a very small number of puzzle elements. I would suggest it is really more like the latter from a cladistics point of view; its attraction lies in that direction, and if you’re looking for really cerebral gameplay, this isn’t the place to look.

    Gone Home is really a story that happens to be presented in a video game format. The game consists of you (a early 20s woman who lives as an independent adult – you were in the military) coming home after a vacation in Europe to an empty house; your parents and your sister are all absent, and as you explore the house, it becomes increasingly clear that it is a bit disheveled. You find some notes from your sister scattered around, as well as various notes and scraps of life left by your sister and parents. Some of these trigger audio logs from your sister, which are really journal entries that you are listening to. These tell the story about what your sister has been going through over the last year, and the story of her relationship with Lonnie, a girl she knows.

    There are other stories interwoven into that one – your father, who is a failed writer who is trying to climb back on the horse while working a real job, and your mother, who is struggling with her relationship with your father and who might or might not be having an affair, or at least contemplating one, as well as the story of the former owner of the house that your family moved into while you were in the military.

    These stories all come together to create a picture of a family that is troubled, but not broken, and of people who are people. Your sister is an immature high school student, but she is mostly immature like rebels without a cause are. Lonnie seems to be simultaneously more and less mature; she’s a bad influence on your sister in some ways, but also seems to have a more realistic and grounded view of the world in other ways.

    I liked the story of the lives presented here; it is sort of everyday drama, with people struggling with real problems rather than contrived situations (much as the game likes to pretend at one point that there might be supernatural elements involved).

    What I didn’t like, however, was the ending; when you get to the end, it seems to sort of throw away Lonnie’s character to force a “happy ending” which, if you think about it, isn’t actually really a happy ending at all. And this sort of ruins the story to an extent, because the whole story had been about growing up and trying to accept reality and find happiness through it, and then the end has Lonnie and your sister throw all that away while making a very stupid decision which flies in the face of Lonnie’s prior characterization, as well as the general theme of the piece.

    I’ll also note that it is possible to sequence skip in this game; as I assumed it was more gamey than it really was, I managed to find some secret passages, including the one that lead to the very final area of the game, far before I was supposed to. This partially spoiled a major aspect of the story to me from quite early on. The worst of it is, finding these secret passages isn’t even very hard if you are familiar with floor plans and realize that there are empty spaces which, in a real house, would have rooms in them.

    In the end, I’m left feeling ambivalent about this game. I wouldn’t not recommend it – I thought it was a decent enough use of two hours of my time – but simultaneously, I feel bad about recommending it, because in the end, the story doesn’t really feel like it actually came together thematically and tossed its build-up away for an ending that the game thinks is a happy one, but which the rest of the story (and plain logic) suggests wouldn’t be.    … Expand
  31. calvarez
    May 27, 2016
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. As Steve Gaynor, one of the seniors at the Fullbright Company, was set to bring out the simplicity in all of his games, he decided to create an interactive game for consoles, Gone Home. In this IGF-Award nominated game, you are placed in an unilluminated and unknown setting, in which you are encouraged to explore the empty house, the screeching drawers, and the notes thrown around the house.

    Gone Home takes place in 1995 as one of the family members arrives at their house and finds that there is nobody there. It is these moments, where you are still unaccustomed to the house and its setup, where the suspense of what has happened to the others that comes to mind. According to The Guardian, “the period is a time that many players of the game will have lived through and will be immediately familiar with” because of the fact that it is not period far from what we know today. Many people still live in environments like these where letters and books are used more than the internet and tablets.

    The main character in the PC game is Katie Greenbriar, who arrives to the house after a year of studying abroad, only to find a note on the front porch from her sister, Samantha, telling her not to go out looking for her. Although Steve states that his intention with this game was not to make it a game with “combat or puzzles in it,” it is easy to state that, from the very first moment when the note is found and you have to find a way into the house, that there are many puzzle pieces to find in order to crack Sam’s story.

    The game experience is more of a storytelling, but, as stated by The Guardian, it is done so “through design” rather than through an actual book. The story within the game develops as to find out what happened to Sam.

    Now, the storytelling game is not only about exploring the house in general, but it also seeks to explore the relationship and secrets of two sisters and how these secrets can lead to knowing about Katie’s sister, Sam, and her first lover from school, a girl she met after having so much in common. As more notes are found throughout the house and more rooms are unlocked only to find there are stories about Sam and her life feelings in each of them, the players are more engaged to find out why Sam has run away from her own house.

    The various clues, as I like to call them, around the house allow the players to engage in the middle-classed family and their personal struggles, as well as in their problems with the other people in the family itself. As Sam and her lover, Lonnie’s, relationship arouses through the playing of Nintendo games, ghost hunting, anarchic behaviors, and secret love letters, one is drawn into a world that Sam has created and imagined for herself and Lonnie to reside in without taking into account the possible consequences that these behaviors have had on her personality and on her piled up family problems.

    The release of the Slenderman game, Slender: The Eight Pages, came out in 2012 where one was placed in a single-player world with nothing but a flashlight in search of the eight pages that tell you the story of the horrifying, and totally fictional, creature of the Slenderman. This adventurous and exploring game can relate directly to the mysteries that can be found in Gone Home as Sam and Lonnie have tried to have first hand experiences with the supernatural world and a ghost who is thought to be haunting the house. Whilst investigating the possible outcomes of Sam and her departure, it comes to the player’s attention that a man called Oscar Masan died and that he may be the ghost that resided in the house, which may lead people to think that many of the clues around the house lead to the finding or the encounter of a ghost in the middle of the house.

    As stated by The Atlantic, with the rise of one relationship, comes the unknown story of Katie’s sister and how she can relate to Sam’s life. With the development of one story, it seems as if there are many others branching out of that one story. This comes to say as Sam and Lonnie's adventures started out with ghost hunting and, as time passed, it quickly escalated to Sam’s first cigarette, her first sexual experience, and her leaving this childish world behind only to start a life with someone who actually understands her: Lonnie.

    With a small team of workers building a PC game there came a great story told. As stated by Steve, “normal people's stories are really interesting if you are able to discover them.” This being said, a normal family’s problems and drawbacks cause for an exploration in a small house in search of the ending of such a metaphoric story wherein each clue and each of the notes left in the house call for another story to be told about the family itself.    … Expand
  32. nathalieyoyo
    Jan 29, 2016
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The game gone home it`s about a girl named Kaitlin Greenbriar and her empty house. Kaitlin returns from Europe and found out that no one it`s home. Samanta`s letter hang on the door, and Kaitlin will later find out where her sister and family is. Kaitlin have to find the keyhouse and escape the whole house to find out what just happened to her sister Samantha, her mom Janice and her father Terrence.

    Gone Home was a very interesting game at the beginning. Graphics in the game was a bit scary because all the colours was a bit dark. All the sounds in the game was a bit creepy, I can hear when Kaitlin walk, opened the doors and much more. Sound and the graphics combined together very well. That makes the game seems and sounds interesting and a bit scarier than I thought. Gone home was a bit sad because her sister Samantha has no friends except her best friend Loonie, and they ends up to be girlfriend/boyfriend. In the house, there was many secret rooms and secret doors, that was very interesting for me. Personally I mean the length of the game was not long enough and the ending was so badly. I just got opened Samantha's book and the game was just done already. In the kitchen I think I saw a calendar, the parents went one week on holiday to a wedding when Kaitlin finally came home. Samantha was just gone, and i don't know 100% where she is and what had happened to her. So that's the whole reason why the ending of the game was bad. Kaitlins parents should die and be a very scary, dangerous ghost or zombie. In that way, the game should be very god.

    I mean that we should play something adventure games like this gone home again, because I like it. Normal english lessons there we have to write much and read in the books it's not fun. It's much funnier and better when we can play games with a partner or alone. I learned how the game world was, I learned some new words in the game and I feel that I worked very well in this way.    … Expand
  33. SiljeAG
    Jan 29, 2016
    5
    The game is about a girl named Kati who has been in Europa, and when she comes back to USA, her parents and sister are not at home. She goes inside the house and she finds many clues about where everyone is. She learns that her parents have moved to a new house, and her sister has run away to start a new and better life.
    In this short story, the main character tries to find out where her    The game is about a girl named Kati who has been in Europa, and when she comes back to USA, her parents and sister are not at home. She goes inside the house and she finds many clues about where everyone is. She learns that her parents have moved to a new house, and her sister has run away to start a new and better life.
    In this short story, the main character tries to find out where her family is. In addition, we see a lot of things and clues after Kati’s sister so she is almost the second main character. Her job is to give clues to her sister, in order to tell her where she is. She places a lot of different items and information in many secret rooms and all over the house. Some of those things we find are letters, pictures, music, articles, and many newspapers.
    The game has many journals from Sam that we can listen to in many different places in the house. All these things makes the game more exiting, because without them, the game would be a bit boring.
    The game can be played in chronological sequence, but it is not necessary because we find clues from many time periods. The game jump in time, actually. I think it is better to not to play the game in chronological sequence, because it makes the story more exiting.
    I think the key message is that when you leave your family, a lot of things can be different when you come home again. That means that you cannot accept that all things are the same, because all things changes.
    Personally, I think the game was a bit boring, because the only thing I did was going around in the house to find clues about where the family was. It would have been more exiting if we actually met her parents or sister. On a scale from 1-10, I give 5.    … Expand
  34. ellabergemohr
    Jan 28, 2016
    6
    Game review

    The game is about a girl called kaitlin, she’s 19 years old and she’s been in Europe for one year. When she’s gets Home, her family is gone. Where are they? Kaitlin finds notes from her sister, sam. Sam is actually the avatar. Sam has wrote a diary. It's about her life in the new house and her love story. Is sam streight? Is the house safe? This game can be extremely scary    Game review

    The game is about a girl called kaitlin, she’s 19 years old and she’s been in Europe for one year. When she’s gets Home, her family is gone. Where are they? Kaitlin finds notes from her sister, sam. Sam is actually the avatar.
    Sam has wrote a diary. It's about her life in the new house and her love story. Is sam streight? Is the house safe?
    This game can be extremely scary if you think that you're in the game. that you're the one who's looking for you're family in a pretty old house. and not anoth with that. the weather outside is awful. It's raining, thunder and lightning. that just make everything much worse.
    The game has a main message. In this case i think the main message in this game is the love story with lonnie and sam. It's not against the law to be gay.
    The way this story is produced on is chronological.
    Actually i dont think its symbols in this game. Not some pretty important ones.
    In this game there is a gay couple. it's a mom, a dad, a sister and a good friend of sam, called lonnie. they are all different, as anyone else in this world. the only thing that many people seem to think its wierd, is that there is a gay couple in this story of a game.
    The main character, kaitlin have a good, but difficult task. Her task is to find out where her family is. While walking around in the house she's finding some notes. The notes is pretty good help in this situation. I like to think that this game is kinda romantic, with a scary background.

    So with all this information i just want to tell you my review of this game. I think this game was kinda boring, but also kinda exciting and cool. I had fun while playing this. I just think that there's better games in the world. I seem to think that the story was hard to get, but when i understood, the story was pretty interesting.    … Expand
  35. aurorahoem
    Jan 28, 2016
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The game is about a girl named Kaitlin Greenbriar. She is 19 years old, and has been traveling around in Europe for one year. Her family has been moving to a new house. But when she is coming home a night in 1994 no one is home. Her sister Sam has left behind a note… “Don’t come and look after me”. Sam is the principal, and Kaitlin is looking around in the house for answers. When you are going around in the house as Kaitlin Greenbriar you are getting information about her family and the house. The game is about to understand the story and try to figure out where Sam is. The surroundings are dark and gloomy.

    The main message is that it wasn't easy to be lesbian in 1994. Not everyone accept being gay.

    It is different sounds in the game. You can often hear that Sam is talking about things and giving information when Kaitlin for instance are taking up an object. It is thunder and rain in the background. It was a bit hard to steer Kaitlin especially when you not are a gamer. It was difficult to walk and steer the direction.

    I think that the game is a bit boring. You are just walking around in the house and are doing the same thing over and over again. It was funny in the beginning , but i think we played the game to long. It was a very good story in the game, but i wanted the game to be a jump scare game.

    My experience of the game was that it was a bit hard to concentrate when you did not sit in a dark room alone with headphones. I think that i would have another experience then. I have splitted meanings about the game. It was a very good story, but it was a bit boring to. It should be some task in the game. The good thing with the game was that it was chronological.    … Expand
  36. VidarM
    Jan 28, 2016
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Gone Home

    You’re the 19 years old girl named Katie Greenbriar that comes home to a “new” house after being in Europe for a year. The year is 1995 and you’re family have moved to your dead uncles villa. When u come home to your “new” house the clock is 1:15 AM and there is a storm outside. When I come inside the house you discover that all the lights are off and nobody is home. While you’re progressing around the house looking for clues about where your family is gone and you find more and more weird notes from you’re Sister Sam Greenbriar.

    I think the key message is that you should be yourself and don’t act different for other people. A lot of people hide their self just so other people think they are “cool”. I think it’s wrong because everyone is different and there is nothing that u can call weird or unusual.
    Sam is lesbian but haven’t told it because she thinks her family would get mad at here because they were Christians.

    The game itself is chronologic but the notes are from different times so you need to put them in the right order to fully understand the story line. I’m pretty sure the whole game happens in one night but the notes give you years of information and you learn a lot more about your family trough the notes and diary entrances.
    The game got a lot of different symbols about the different thoughts and ways of life. You can find a skull in the first room that is from the day of the dead which is a Spanish celebration day for the dead. You can find a Demon ritual under the stairs and you can find a bible.

    The game talks a lot about human relationships. In the Diary entries you learn a lot about the family, and Sam’s struggles with “fitting” in. In the diary’s Sam talks about how she doesn’t like the other girls and how she’s only been a friend with a boy that was living to close to her before the family moved.

    The main characters is Sam but you’re playing as Katie which is kind of strange as not many games does that kind of style. Some of the Other characters are Terrence Greenbriar, Janice Greenbriar and Lonnie.

    The game is romantic/sad. The feeling of the game is pretty sad and reminds me of a Horror game when u walk around in the dark house and u hear the Rain hit the house walls and the thunder strikes outside. The music is slow and helps the sad feel of the game flow.

    The gameplay is pretty good because of the story and diary entries. The game got no Action because of the simple reason of being a story telling game and not a shooting game. The game functions pretty well but I had a hard time finding the hitboxes of some of the smaller objects and doors. Some of the objects that could move seemed a bit buged since if u closed spammed open and close at a door and walking into it u could get inside the door or just walk through the door.

    I personally really liked the game and it was well made. What Fulbright managed to do with the game is incredible and I liked the soundtrack, diaries and story.

    I rate the game 7/10    … Expand
  37. hhjelmaas
    Jan 28, 2016
    6
    The year is 1995, Katie Greenbriar is 19 years old and she’s home from Europe. She arrives at the house in Portland at 1.15 AM and the rain is pouring. On the door it is a letter from Sam. As she comes home she finds out that nobody is home. Katie walks around the messy house on search for her family she steps over some tracks and letters about her sister Sam. She finds out things nobodyThe year is 1995, Katie Greenbriar is 19 years old and she’s home from Europe. She arrives at the house in Portland at 1.15 AM and the rain is pouring. On the door it is a letter from Sam. As she comes home she finds out that nobody is home. Katie walks around the messy house on search for her family she steps over some tracks and letters about her sister Sam. She finds out things nobody did know about Sam and where she might be. As she study the house more and more she also finds tracks of her family.
    I think the games key message to this game is to be who you are. You should trust yourself and you should not care about what anyone thinks about your but have your own opinions. It’s a lot to learn about this fantastic story.
    I did not see that many symbols in this game, but I did see the Bible which means they are Christians. Later in this game we can see that the parents are hardcore Christians.
    I think it is a weird contact between the people in this game. At the start of the game you will get so much information of some of them. It’s just weird. When you’re getting closer to the end you will understand more..
    The gameplay is good. The setting is easy to understand, and the music is great, so are the sound effects as well. It is best to play with a headset because you will get a total different experience of the game. In my opinion I think the graphics were **** Some places the shadows would be rough and blocky. I could easily glitch trough doors and they were some illogical placements of some of Sam’s letters. But the story in this game is good.
    My judgment of the game is that it is a good game. The story was fantastic but the graphics was the main reason why I did not like it. At the start I absolutely thought that this was an awful bad game, but later when I began to understand more I could not stop playing it.    … Expand
  38. HenrietteSophie
    Jan 28, 2016
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Gone Home - Game Review
    The game Gone Home is a short story that tells us about to sisters and their parents. This game brings us back to 1995. The biggest sister Katie has been away for one year in Europe. When she was gone, her family had moved to their dead uncle’s house, which is called the psycho house.

    When she comes home from Europe, the house is dark and the family is gone. The wind is blowing and you can hear the rain pouring down. She is coming home to a note on the door. The house is messy and empty, its obvious that something strange has happened there.

    The game is a little scary with all the sounds, the thunder and the rain, and its not better with a dark house rather.

    Gone home gives you the story of the people who live there. The story is beautiful, and when you play, you are getting to know the Greenbriar family better. You are playing the character Kaitlin Greenbriar, the oldest sister. The house is big and you have to go around in the house to find out what has happened. There is a lot of rooms to discover, and to some of the doors, you must find the keys. There is much to discover.

    The game is a little difficult to understand sometimes, but it is a very interesting story. The story focuses on Sam, and on your way you will hear some journals that Sam has written to Katie. The story is build up from the notes and journals form Sam. Its about her life, and her love who is difficult. She is a lesbian and her parents aren’t so happy with that. But where is everyone? That are exactly what the players are going to find out when they play.    … Expand
  39. solveigrose
    Jan 28, 2016
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Gone home – Game Review

    The game is from the 90`s, and they lived in an old house. The game handled about a girl named Kathy Greenbrier and mostly of her sister Samantha, Kathy moved away from her family and friends to study. When she came home her parents and sister was disappeared, and she couldn’t find them. She looked around in the house after any clues that could help her finding them. Or finding out where they were. Kathy found many letters and audio files that the sister (Sam) had left in the house. And that was very helpful for Kathy. In the end Kathy understood everything. Why they left and everything. But she cannot find them. Everything is about the sister Samantha, why she left and which file she has.
    The house in the game was very big and so pretty. But it was kind of old, from the 90`s or something. The house had many rooms, and almost every bedroom had a bathroom. Many of the rooms wasn’t in use, but full of boxes. It looked very real because of all the things everywhere. For example in the bathroom it was toilet paper on the floor.
    The game's key message is that it’s complicated to be lesbian, and the entire struggle behind it. Sam didn’t have it very easy; it was all though for her. But she was strong and made it okay and she also kind of admitted it for the sister and the rest of the family. She was scared about her feelings for Lonnie. And she didn’t know that gay is ok. But she may show us that the solution is not to run away and hide. That might be the message number two.
    Sam`s diary book was kind of a symbol to her sister. Symbol of her love, her love to Kathy. She had written in it almost every day, just to Kathy. She was confirming that she didn’t left because she wanted, but because she didn’t have a choice. Sam wanted to be home when Kathy arrived, but she couldn’t. She's explaining this in her diary book. She’s explaining that her love to Kathy is so big, bigger than she thought.
    The hardest or the toughest thing in the game most have been to open the closet (blue) in Samantha’s room, there we needed a code. In the beginning we couldn’t find the code, it was hidden. But finally we managed and fulgurated what the code was, and realized that it wasn’t so hard that we thought. It was a challenge!

    The music in the game was good, and placed at the rights times. It was helping the game to be more exciting, special and funny. Some places the music scared me, just because of the music.
    Telling was chronological or jumping forwards in time? It was kind of both. But most chronological, sometimes they jumped forwards in time. In addition it was ending with the end.
    The game was funny to play, but sometimes it was kind of boring. It was funny to go around in the house and find clues. What I liked with the game was that it was kind of realistic. Realistic stuff was everywhere in the house, and it felt realistic to play. Many of the doors were closed. So we had to find a key or another way into the room. Some places in the house it was secret “doors” on the walls, and it was kind of hard to get in. But it was fun to think an experimenter around in the house. Some of the letters was very much text, very much to read. So that was in a way boring. All in all I was enjoying playing it, my judgment of 1-10 are 7-10.    … Expand
  40. maggaMLG
    Jan 28, 2016
    6
    It’s a story about a girl named Katie. This girl lives in a haunted house, she don’t know where why her family is gone.
    It’s June 6th 1995 and Katie just got home from a year in Europe. In this year have the family has moved out to a new house, but her sister wasn’t very interested to move in to this house. When Katie arrives to the house, it was very empty. Nobody was there. Katie is    It’s a story about a girl named Katie. This girl lives in a haunted house, she don’t know where why her family is gone.
    It’s June 6th 1995 and Katie just got home from a year in Europe. In this year have the family has moved out to a new house, but her sister wasn’t very interested to move in to this house. When Katie arrives to the house, it was very empty. Nobody was there. Katie is standing outside of the door with no keys, trying to figure out where the keys are. While you are playing this game you will maybe find out that there may be some lesbian girls in this story. You are going to find a lot of cassettes where Katie are talking about how it goes and other things in her life. Where she has been and what she has done in the last couple of days. There are many different rooms you may have to check out, where you will find other posted notes. You will find many
    The gameplay is kind of boring and the graphics could be better, but the graphics have nothing about the game to. But if you pay attention to the store it will be very interesting. At the start when you are outside the door you will find some posted notes, where you will get some help where you are going to.    … Expand
  41. Oskipromlg
    Jan 28, 2016
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. After attending in Europe for a year Katie comes home to the states. In this timeline her family has moved to a new house. When she comes home she finds an empty note on the front door and an empty house. When you as the person in control enter the house the mood is dark and with the storm outside it gets kind of scary, you almost get the feeling that something is going to jump at you from around any corner.
    The gameplay is kind of boring and the graphics could be better. But the story itself is interesting with many twists and unexpected turns. There are turns about the main character Sam and her uncle Oscar.
    The function of the main character Sam is to make you want to play the game more, because she records herself, talking about her day and general stuff going on in her life. These cassettes you are going to find throughout the house and these are the “connectors” for the story to make sense.
    The whole game is played in 1st person, the music is kind of scary and sad, there are no cut scenes or “quick time events” in the game.
    My personal experience with the game wasn’t the best. I didn’t like the game because I thought the gameplay was a bit slow. I would give the game a 5/10.    … Expand
  42. Kamalias
    Jan 28, 2016
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The game is about this girl who just came home from a year in Europe. Her family recently moved to her dead uncle’s house. She arrives at the new house in the middle of the night. You could hear the rain pouring down. The door is locked. On the door there is a note, written by her sister Sam. Where is everyone?

    There’s two parallel stories in the game. One is about her dead uncle, the other one is about love. The one with her dead uncle I assume was in the game to make it seem scary. However the main story is about difficult love. It gives the game some romance.
    It’s quite a realistic way of telling a story I think. Everything is truly well founded.

    There are several things you need to find to manage to get forward in the game. You can’t finish it without finding a lot of different notes and codes. This makes the game chronological.

    In almost every room in the house you can find a holy bible. If you're really good, you would notice this. The game uses this book to show her family's Christian beliefs. Sam writes a lot in her diary about this girl named Lonnie. Later in the game she opens up and tells that she's gay. You can imagine how her parents responded to this. This made the game a bit dramatic.

    The graphics were surprisingly good. As I said earlier they told the story in a realistic way, the display was three-dimensional which made the game look realistic as well. Despite of this, there were many things annoying me throughout the game. One of them was the darkness. Everywhere you went it was dark. It felt like I spent more time turning on the lights then actually playing the game. I also had some trouble to stand up after going low. This may have been the computer though. The music was okey. I didn't notice it that much really.
    What I did like with the game was the diary. As you walked through the house a girl suddenly started talking. This was Sam telling her diary. It gives you major clues. I needed these very badly. The best part was the end. It was unexpected and nice.

    To be honest, I don't like gaming at all. This of course had a huge impact on my experience. I liked the scary part with this game. Sam and her love story was not that great, but ok I think. I give it a 7 out of 10.    … Expand
  43. Madelen
    Jan 28, 2016
    7
    Gone Home – game review
    In the game Gone Home you play a 19 years old girl, named Kaitlyn. Kaitlyn has been on a trip to Europe for 1 year. When she arrived back home at 1:15 am, the first thing that she sees is a note in the door. The note I from her sister Sam. The note says that Sam has left and she don’t want anybody to look after her.
    In the game you get to go into your dead crazy    Gone Home – game review
    In the game Gone Home you play a 19 years old girl, named Kaitlyn. Kaitlyn has been on a trip to Europe for 1 year. When she arrived back home at 1:15 am, the first thing that she sees is a note in the door. The note I from her sister Sam. The note says that Sam has left and she don’t want anybody to look after her.
    In the game you get to go into your dead crazy uncle’s house and explore. It is many secrets in the house, and secret passages. In the game you find many journals that belongs to Sam. When you listen to them, you can hear about different stories that Sam Is telling, and you get to know her more.
    When you first start the game you might think it is a scary game, but after you have finished the game you realize that it is a nice story. The story has many small details but most of all it is about love.
    The graphics in the game was not bad, but it was not that good either. I think that the sounds was a bit creepy, but it was also fun. The game jumps a little in time, and it was hard to understand everything in the beginning. But after a while playing it, I began to understand more.
    I liked the game, it was funny to explore in the house, and find out Sam’s story. I will rate the game 7 out of 10.    … Expand
  44. HeleneRos
    Jan 28, 2016
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Game review: Gone home
    In this game, you play a girl named Kaitlyn Greenbriar. After a year traveling around Europe you come home to your family's new house. The date is June 7, 1994 and the clock is 01:15 am. The rain is pouring down, it is lightning and thundering. But something is of. Your sister isn't home but she has left you notes and journals all around the house. Your next mission is to go around in the house and find out what has happened and where your sister. But you should know, the story does not end how you think it will end in the start. You will discover a moving story about not being accepted for who you are and about what some will do for true love.

    I think the games main message is that even your closest family may not know who you really are, and when they find out they may not understand. That even though you think you know your parents, they may be keeping a lot of secrets from you. And those secrets will come out one day. If you want to know them or not.
    If the story is chronologic or not depends on how you go forward. In the end you will get the whole story but at first it won’t really make sense unless you listen to all the journals in the correct order. So it kind jumps in time but that will even out.
    Gone home has an environment that really helps on the excitement of the game. The lightning, thunder and the rain makes a perfect environment for a game like this. When they also have added the creaking in the house and the sound of doors opening and closing it just makes it even creepier.
    In addition to the moving story about Kaitlyn’s sister Sam, they bring up important political meanings. Since Sam starts dating her friend Lonnie we hear about how Sam at first tries not to bring it up. But after a while she tells her parents. Sam thought that they would get angry at her but that they would have accepted it after a while. But she got really angry. Because her parents didn’t just get angry, they started saying that it was just a phase and that she and Lonnie was just good friends. Her parents wouldn’t let Sam and Lonnie hang out as much as they used to and they wouldn’t accept the fact that Sam was a lesbian.    … Expand
  45. KarenNaalsund
    Jan 28, 2016
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Gone home is a short story game about Sam Greenbriar, Kaitlin
    Greenbriar’s sister. Kaitlin is the person everyone who play the game are. Kaitlin is a 19 year old girl, who has been traveling around in Europe for a year. When she comes home, the year is 1995. In the past year her family has moved to a new house, and when she comes home again, she comes home to an empty and messy house. She starts walking around in the house, and finds a lot of clues, about what happened and where the sister is. The game is about finding out where her sister Sam is, and what has happened the last year. The main message is about Sam and Lonnie’s “forbidden” love for each other. It jumps a little bit in time, it just depends on which journal you find. The game is a short story with a touch of love in it, because as Kaitlin walks around in the house, she finds journals her sister left to her. In the journals you hear about Sam and Lonnie’s love, how it was for Sam to move and start on a new school, and how her life is after she moved here.
    The game is build up nice. The house is this big mansion, with a cabin look, (the walls is made of a dark three type, and old furniture, or not as modern. But I wouldn’t say it was that old, because this game takes place in 1995. The game where bugging a little bit, but that was the pc we used I think.
    I thought this game where fun to play, and I recommend it to both boys and girls in an age of 13 and up. The reason I will say from 13 years old is because it was a little bit hard to understand what the meaning of the game was at first.
    I will give the game from a scale from 1 to 10 a 7.    … Expand
  46. KajaNerdal
    Jan 28, 2016
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This short story is about this girl, Kaitlyn, which comes home from her trip to Europe. When she comes home she finds that her whole family is gone. In the story you (Kaitlyn) are going to look for traces after your family and where they might can be.
    I think the main message in the game is that your family can be more unknown to you than you think. You can think that you know them very well, when they actually keeps a lot of secrets from you. It can be hard to live in a house that everyone thinks is “the crazy house” because of the earlier history from the house. The very main message is actually about the love story between Samantha and Lonnie.
    The way this short story goes is very chronologic, at least how I understood it, and I think that was great. The game was very exciting and I liked it when it got a little scary but still exciting. It was kind of hard to move the avatar because you couldn’t walk and change direction in the same time, you had to take brakes to change directions. It also were kind of hard to find the important traces so it took a while to really understand what the short story were about. I don’t think they used any symbols, at least I didn’t find any.
    In the game you’ll hear about your sister/Samantha, mom, dad, Lonnie and your uncle. There are a lot of different relations between all of them. Especially mom, dad, Samantha and Lonnie. The main character in the game is not actually in the game, but the game is about to find out where Sam, the main character is. I think the game is supposed to be romantic, and exciting in the same time, because it is a love story with some twists.
    If you are going to take screen-prints in the game I think that is kind of difficult because if you just do it as normal, you`ll get a picture of your home screen. The gameplay was great, but the graphic was bad sometimes, it had great sound effects which made the game more exciting.
    My experiences with the game was that the game was exciting, but I think you were way too free to go where you wanted, so you could end the game before you ever got a thing from the actual short story. But if you wanted to get the whole short story it could`ve taken hours before you`d end it.    … Expand
  47. Lolphy1234
    Jan 28, 2016
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Gone home
    The game is about Kaitlin Greenbriar whose just arriving home from her trip to Europe?
    The main message of the game I think is that people can be quite different on the inside than it seems.
    The game is straight forwards but it jumps a bit back and forwards.
    Some symbols are used in the game but as far as I could see they did not have any particular meaning.
    Relationships that are mentioned are lovers and family relations.
    The main character is Kaitlin Greenbriar who is discovering her own past.
    The game enviorment is pretty dark not only because how the house progresses but also due to the feeling that something terrible has taken place in that house.
    The mood of the game is quite dark or psychopathic.
    The creators did a good job in making this game they did an amazing job with the music and imagery.
    The gameplay is a little bit to slow and sometimes the framerate dropped quite a bit (but that might just be the computer I played it on.
    I personaly think this game is a great idea for use in for example school, although it was kind of boring but still I enjoied the game a whole lot.    … Expand
  48. Maaagzboi
    Jan 28, 2016
    7
    Gone Home

    The game. Kaitlin came home from a trip in Europe, her family had moved to a new house when Kaitlin where in Europa. When Kaitlin came to the new house, the house was empty. She started looking after her sister, and she found letters and tapes all around the house about her sister and her parents. She found out much information about her sister, and then she walk down to the    Gone Home

    The game.
    Kaitlin came home from a trip in Europe, her family had moved to a new house when Kaitlin where in Europa. When Kaitlin came to the new house, the house was empty. She started looking after her sister, and she found letters and tapes all around the house about her sister and her parents. She found out much information about her sister, and then she walk down to the basement...
    The game is very realistic and its look like you’re walking in to a real house but you’re doing it on an computer. The house looks like all other houses, or maybe it’s a bit old. The toilet looks realistic and there is magazine’s in the house that looks like It’s taken from the real life. The graphic could be better, but the rest I think was very good.
    The narrative style is chronological but you find much information from the old time. There are some letters and tapes that was made when the moved, and some letters that was made a long time ago.
    The main character function is that she’s coming home from a trip to Europe, when she came home there where no one home. Then she starts looking after her sister. There are one main character and that is Kaitlin , but there is also one more person that is very important in this game. You learn about some people when your playing the game. Kaitlin, Sam, her mother, her uncle, her father and some others.
    My experience after I played this game is that if you have been on a trip to somewhere, and your coming home, everything has maybe changed. It was not boring playing this game, and the game is has span lift in it.
    In last I would give this game and 7 out of 10 as an rating    … Expand
  49. NoraHamzaoui
    Jan 28, 2016
    5
    The game is about a girl called Kaitlin that went to Europe in June. Her family lived in a big house, but when she came back a rainy and stormful night she found the house empty. No one was inside the house just the things the family owned. She investigates the house to find out where her family is. She found a lot of old letters and signs that helped her to find out where her family was.The game is about a girl called Kaitlin that went to Europe in June. Her family lived in a big house, but when she came back a rainy and stormful night she found the house empty. No one was inside the house just the things the family owned. She investigates the house to find out where her family is. She found a lot of old letters and signs that helped her to find out where her family was. She also found a lot of secrets about her sister Samantha. While gaming you have to pick up and search for things that will help you to find information and secret rooms. You’ll finish the game when you come in to the attic by using a key you’ll find while searching in the house.
    It’s bad for a family to leave the house without all the family members knowing it. I think the message is that Kaitlin’s family had a lot of problems and secrets that Kaitlin didn’t know before she visited the house after they disappeared.
    It was a bit difficult to understand the game in the beginning, but it got easier. I think that it’s easy for gamers to understand the game from the beginning. The story is told in the past, but you’re playing is like it’s happening now.
    It’s used signs and symbols, like letters, maps, religious symbols and other information you find to lead you. By reading/finding the signs, you can get info about the family, some secret things and where you have to go and so.
    Its pictures on walls, and a lot of other places. By looking at the pictures, you can find out how the family members looks like, and their names. While playing I heard sound tracks, where Kaitlin was talking about things. While searching in the house, you’ll see cassette players. If you find a CD, you can put it in the cassette player for some music.
    I didn’t like the game, because it was a lot to find, and a lot of places to go to. I wish the end was a lot better. I was very excited for the ending, I was expecting something terrible in the attic, but guess what. After playing the whole game, and finally finding the key to the attic, nothing happened. When I walked around in the attic, I saw a book on a table. When I opened the book, the game ended. I thought that the game ended with finding Sam. And because of that, I’ll give it 5/10.    … Expand
  50. jjuev
    Jan 28, 2016
    6
    Gone Home game review

    This is a short novel game. The game is about a girl named Katie that comes home after traveling and finds her family missing. She can’ find her parent or her sister Sam. She then decides to investigate the house and finds the shocking truth about her sister. The way the story is told is chronologic because you start from the beginning. You do see back on old    Gone Home game review

    This is a short novel game. The game is about a girl named Katie that comes home after traveling and finds her family missing. She can’ find her parent or her sister Sam. She then decides to investigate the house and finds the shocking truth about her sister.
    The way the story is told is chronologic because you start from the beginning. You do see back on old memories sometimes, and that is very good.
    The main character in the game is Katie. It is good that it is the sister who is there but actually it doesn’t matter who is the main character. I mean anyone could have been the main character. A friend, an uncle, maybe the mailman or some stalker. Just someone is in the house and investigates
    I think the area where the house is perfect. It is in no man’s land, it’s an old house and it’s raining. I mean I couldn’t be better because you wouldn’t have the same excitement if it’s in the city or it’s sunny or something like that.
    I don’t play so many games but I do believe that the graphics could have been better.
    This game is in the mystery genre because you would find any of those things in the game in a comedy or a romance.
    My experiences with the game was that it was really exciting. I was bored sometimes but it was fun.
    I give this game 6/10    … Expand
  51. isakbrattoy
    Jan 28, 2016
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Gone Home is about a girl named Kaitlin Greenbriar. Her mission is to find her family that is gone. In the game you need to think a lot because it is letters from herself and her family.
    You need to remember a lot and seek in every corner in the house because it is things that are written places that you don’t think is important. There are letters that lead you closer to find out the big secret about your family. Sometimes you find letters and objects that triggers a story about your sister and your family’s life.
    The message in this game is that not everything look like what it is. It may be something else.
    This game jumps sometimes back and forth in time but I liked it. It helped me to get a feeling that I’m in the game. Some of the story’s in Gone Home are from your childhood and before you moved from your family.
    The peoples in Gone Home is very unknown, but sometimes it may be a letter from a person that you don’t know about in the game. And almost every person in the game that you hear about have an own story. Some of the people you get letters from in Gone Home are maybe in your family, just friends of you and your family or there are letter from peoples that are dead.
    The main character in this game is named Kaitlin Greenbriar. She needs to find things that take her closer to find where her family is. She can take up things and that triggers a new story from her sister that is closer than she thinks. The environment in this game is very nice.
    You are in the family Greenbriar`s old house and need find places that are hidden from you. Some places are dirty and nasty and other places are nice and clean.
    This game is very sad and sometimes scary. Sometimes when you go in dark places the scary music kicks in. The gameplay in Gone Home is sometimes good and sometimes bad. Because sometimes you know what`s going on an sometimes not. The game is very confusing because it is much back and forth. I don’t understand the whole story but what I know is that you need to find out what happened to your family and where your family is. The graphic in Gone Home is very nice and pretty. They made the pictures in the game look real and graphically at the same time. And the function in Gone Home is very good.
    You can pick up thing and look at it. You can open closets and doors. You can play music on music players and hear at phone calls from yourself and your family. And because of that I`ll give 7/10.    … Expand
  52. Kastomono
    Jan 28, 2016
    7
    Gone Home Review.

    Now, as this is a game review i’m going to take this slightly more seriously than my games of TF2. I’m going to shove this into a Pros/Cons system and give my rating afterwards. But first i’m going to make a short summary of the game. You play as Kaitlyn Greenbriar, a girl who has been in Europe for a year and has returned to her home in America. But no one is home    Gone Home Review.

    Now, as this is a game review i’m going to take this slightly more seriously than my games of TF2.
    I’m going to shove this into a Pros/Cons system and give my rating afterwards. But first i’m going to make a short summary of the game.

    You play as Kaitlyn Greenbriar, a girl who has been in Europe for a year and has returned to her home in America. But no one is home and she has to find out where everybody has gone.

    Pros:
    The game has some pretty good visuals if you set the graphics up.
    The story is really good and will surprise you on several occasions.
    I ADORE good lighting engines and this one was pretty.
    This is less of a game and more of a short novel than anything.
    Despite being set in a house there is still a bucketload to see.
    There is a lot of small objects you can pick up and hover in front of your face.
    The sound design is very satisfying.
    You can flush toilets.
    Light Switches exist.

    I’m going to mention that i spent 10 minutes shoving things into a box. It was oddly satisfying…

    Cons:
    It’s ridiculously short.
    Because of the aforementioned it is also very expensive on Steam.
    You walk very slowly for an exploration game. You can't even jog.
    You can complete this game in like 2 minutes if you know where to look.
    I don’t have legs! I want to see my legs!
    It’s not really a game and as such it doesn’t have any challenges.

    My conclusion is this: It’s an interesting experience but not a game. It’s also very expensive for its length. I’m going to rate this a 7 out of 10 Kasto Points due to it being a good story and fancy graphics and it’s pricing (ON STEAM) is pretty high.    … Expand
  53. Hannahklinge
    Jan 28, 2016
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Gone home

    Gone home is about a girl that comes home after traveling a year in Europe. This girl called Katie has a sister called Samantha. Katie gets home, but the house is empty. But full of secrets and hidden surprises. Terrance walks through the house in Portland, Oregon to find out what's going on and where is her sister and the rest of the family?
    The game happens in a chronological way. The symbols that's have been
    It have been brought up several relationship between the people in this story. Samantha(Katie little sister) has an relationship whit a girl called Lonnie. She does not tell anyone about this. Their mom Janice Greenbriar is friend with this lady Carol. A boy named Daniel has also been in the picture.
    The main character in this game is Terrance, or yourself you can say. You can Walk around the house and see if you find some answers. The games variation of environment makes it more eventful. The game is an scary/spooky genre. It gives you a feeling of being alone and scared.
    The filming , mowing and the music was generally good. The music made ​​you completely into the tuning of the little nasty feeling of being alone in the old big house. The game is realistic and have quite good graphics. The game play in the game is quite good. It doesn't challenge you like big time. But it definitely makes you upset when you can't find what you are looking for. This game is all about understands, you need to read if you want to find anything. Some of the letters are extremely hard to read because of the bad written cursive handwriting. But some of the letters is easier than others. Some of the letters are more important than other. Some of the items you have to find before you move on. The game is very optional. You can choose to do whatever you want to do and go. The more you find out, the more you want to know the rest. I give the game a 7/10. Because it was an exiting game and very good made.    … Expand
  54. SokkorNinja420
    Jan 27, 2016
    6
    The game is based in year 1995 in Portland Oregon and the person you are controlling is named Katlin Greenbriar. The story behind the game is to find out what happened to your family because they moved away to another place, and especially her sister Sam (Samantha). It is up to you to find out by picking up key elements of objects and find the story behind it. The atmosphere in the game isThe game is based in year 1995 in Portland Oregon and the person you are controlling is named Katlin Greenbriar. The story behind the game is to find out what happened to your family because they moved away to another place, and especially her sister Sam (Samantha). It is up to you to find out by picking up key elements of objects and find the story behind it. The atmosphere in the game is very dark and scary in somewhat areas of the house.
    I still do not know what the People that made the game of the game want us to think, but in my opinion, I think that the People that made the game want us to tell that anyone can turn out to be like her sister. I am not going to spoil anything for you so I would not say anything in deep detail about that subject.
    The game has one timeline, but the game has a sort of a ‘flashback’ so the story about a particular object that the main character have. Then occasionally you will hear her telling her story.
    The game has some religious symbols like bible and other Christian symbols, but there will be many Satanist symbols here and there, and a weedgee board and other such stuff.
    The main character talks many different conflicts they had in school and what the family thinks about gay folks. Supposedly because the family is very Christian.
    The character is very important since she’ll ramble much about the different history and how they were when they was kids and all other histories.
    The game is an adventure horror kind of a game because of the dark turns about religion and what not while you are roaming the house to find all the bits and pieces.
    The photos showed how the family and the other members of the game looks like and the music tells us what kind of a person the different characters are. By listening to the songs Samantha likes to listen too, got me thinking that she is definitely not a Christian.
    The game was an fps type horror adventure game.
    My opinion on the game is, I didn’t like the game at all sadly. Why? Because it got very repetitive when I had to pick up and throw millions of objects, trying to find an object that starts her to tell me a story. Nevertheless, in the end of all picking and throwing objects, I did not care what story she’ll tell. It might be just be I, don’t forget that it is just my opinion. However, don’t get me wrong, it is still a good game in it unique way. Its just that I like my games to be extra shooting and you know, fun…    … Expand
  55. Rtheom
    Jan 11, 2016
    7
    I wouldn't say this is worth the full $20 that's usually charged, but it is worth at least half that. It's short, there isn't much to it, and honestly I would have said stay away except for one particular story twist that really got to me. There are very few games (or otherwise) that can make me flip-flop from absolute dread to breathless excitement so quickly. I would say more, but itI wouldn't say this is worth the full $20 that's usually charged, but it is worth at least half that. It's short, there isn't much to it, and honestly I would have said stay away except for one particular story twist that really got to me. There are very few games (or otherwise) that can make me flip-flop from absolute dread to breathless excitement so quickly. I would say more, but it would give away one of the only powerful moments in the game. If you play it, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.… Expand
  56. frankielee
    Jan 4, 2016
    6
    it was a little bit of a dissapointment for the game was praised a lot and i had high expectations. it is very short and when you finish the game you see that there is no mystery element. although through the gameplay, there is some. i dont know why they placed the "mysterious" objects in the house and the weird previous owner in the game because they have no function at all.
  57. mcullen98
    Dec 16, 2015
    6
    Being a mysterious adventure exploring a modern locale, Gone Home includes a story line of problem solving to find where the main character’s family is. Throughout the game the player will encounter many rooms and clues such as notes and other artifacts which help move the plot forward and ultimately lead to the final scene revealing the mystery previously unsolved. This game incorporatesBeing a mysterious adventure exploring a modern locale, Gone Home includes a story line of problem solving to find where the main character’s family is. Throughout the game the player will encounter many rooms and clues such as notes and other artifacts which help move the plot forward and ultimately lead to the final scene revealing the mystery previously unsolved. This game incorporates themes of other games, and adds its own refreshing sense of family and feminism, which makes it appealing to women as well as men, something most games are not able to accomplish.

    Gone home takes time and focus to understand the game fully, and creates a need for attention to detail such as music, lighting, and relating it to personal experience. Gone Home is designed to be fine combed which makes the game that much more intriguing. Considering that many people find this aspect of the game a bit tedious, it adds to the realism of it. One thing that is done very well is the level of low lighting they use which adds a feeling of mystery. The player is constantly stimulated with music which relate to the atmosphere of the house therefor drawing the player even deeper into it. Along with the music, the graphics create a very real feel for the player. If not played properly you miss most of the messages meant to be taught and therefor making the game much less enjoyable. Another aspect which was well established was the option to play Gone Home a second time with developer’s commentary, which explains problems which the developers had to overcome when creating the game, and developing a more in depth explanation of many rooms of the house. After playing this game I found myself feeling multiple emotions, however one which was the most apparent was the feeling of disappointment that it was over.

    Aspects of the game that could be improved are spread out among the entire game. One aspect which needs to be addressed is the direction given when playing the game. Understanding the game is supposed to be a free exploration for the gamer to experience, some guidance of where to go or what to see would be helpful. After talking to many people about the gameplay, they mentioned that they missed a few very important pieces of the game because they did not know they were a part of it. If the developers were to include a list of things needed to be accomplished, the game would be easier to understand. The objects being examined should be tweaked to allow collection of knowledge for everyone. Some of the letters or books were written in very neat, but hard to read cursive which restricted many people from understanding some of the clues.

    Overall the game itself presented the aspect of mystery, adventure and difficulty which will appeal to many players who enjoy story line games. The gameplay was enjoyable and aside from little tweaks, the game was well developed. Taking into account the difficulty of some aspects such as opening and closing doors, the developers made great use of coding to make the game the way it is. The story drew the player in, overall pleasing the senses of the player. I would recommend this game to people who strive for adventure and interest in knowledge of the game.    … Expand
  58. andrewwindmills
    Dec 16, 2015
    7
    The game Gone Home is a story about a girl named Katie who comes home from a European trip to find her family is missing. As you walk around the house there are artifacts and audio journals left from Katie’s family. As you find more and more artifacts you can put together the story piece by piece.
    I thought that the game was overall a good game. Some things that I liked about it is the    The game Gone Home is a story about a girl named Katie who comes home from a European trip to find her family is missing. As you walk around the house there are artifacts and audio journals left from Katie’s family. As you find more and more artifacts you can put together the story piece by piece.
    I thought that the game was overall a good game. Some things that I liked about it is the fact that I got to connect with the characters in the story in a different way then I would be reading a book normally. The game was played in first person, even though I am not a teenage girl named Katie it really felt like when I was playing the game that I had a sister named Sam and parents named Terry and Janice. This made me a lot more interested in the game and connected to the other characters. The other thing that I really enjoyed about this game is the story. This game is nothing without the story and I think it is interesting how it was presented.
    There are something’s I did not like about the game however. I didn’t like the game play very much, I thought it was slow and it really seemed boring at times. I often did not know what the game wanted me to do. It also felt like for a game there was a lot of reading. There were so many documents, articles, and letters it was often hard to decide which were important and that I had to read or whether it was something that wasn’t of as much importance. One other thing that I would have liked to have seen is the parents being more involved in the story. It often felt as though I had to make up a lot of the story about the parents and I think that could have been a whole new side of the story that the developers missed out on. It would have been nice to see some audio journal entries from the parents as well.
    In conclusion, overall this game was a fun and cool way to learn a story but I think it could have been better. I liked the character development throughout the story and the idea of a first person game to tell it. While it was a fun game I think it could have been better in that the parents are not shown in the story as much as I would have liked and the game play was pretty slow and somewhat boring at times.    … Expand
  59. mhopeenglish
    Dec 15, 2015
    7
    The game, Gone Home, begins on a dark and stormy night on June 7, 1995. Kaitlin Greenbriar returns home to an empty mansion in Oregon after backpacking for a year through Europe. In the game, the gamer plays Kaitlin. Players are set loose in the empty mansion to find out what happened to Kaitlin’s mom, dad and younger sister, Sam.
    The gameplay in Gone Home focuses primarily on the    The game, Gone Home, begins on a dark and stormy night on June 7, 1995. Kaitlin Greenbriar returns home to an empty mansion in Oregon after backpacking for a year through Europe. In the game, the gamer plays Kaitlin. Players are set loose in the empty mansion to find out what happened to Kaitlin’s mom, dad and younger sister, Sam.
    The gameplay in Gone Home focuses primarily on the uncovering of clues to tell the story of the whereabouts of Kaitlin’s missing family. Whereas most video games (like Grand Theft Auto and Assassins Creed) operate under a set of rules and methods to drive players toward some sort of objective (like murder and zombie mass killings), Gone Home takes the interactive nature of video games and blends this with storytelling. In Gone Home, the story is everything. Players uncover the mystery of the missing family in an unguided way by learning through Sam’s audio journal, as well as through the presentation of environmental and audio clues.
    The graphics used in Gone Home look like those one sees in graphic novels published in the 1990s. The game allows the player to pick up the object and zoom in to get even more graphic details. Gone Home’s graphic treatment is in contrast to the more realistic (almost too realistic) computer generated graphics used in most video games today. In Gone Home, graphics are deliberately and specially placed by developers throughout the story so players can uncover the family story, especially when it comes to Kaitlin’s parents. The player essentially steps into the pages of the Greenbriar’s life storybook. For example, players look through Kaitlin’s parents’ things. Players find old novels that Terry wrote and published. The novels are based around the assassination of JFK and how the lead character knows the truth and must stop it. Players also learn that Kaitlin’s parents are at a Couples Retreat to get their marriage back on track.
    Sound is effectively used throughout Gone Home to set the mood and intrigue of the story. For example, players randomly hear rain and thunder throughout the story, and expect a zombie to jump out any moment from behind a dark corner. Environmental sounds, like lights turning off and on or a door opening, are also used to enhance the game and make the player feel like they are part of the story. It is like the storybook novel comes alive. Music is also an important component of Gone Home. For example, Sam’s interest in the Riot Grrrl music scene opens a window to a unique musical movement from the 90’s which helps portray the sexual awakening of Sam and Lonnie.
    I am not a fan of video games. In fact, I never play, and when I do, I am useless. However, I did have chills when playing Gone Home—not because it was so scary, but because it was so emotionally evocative. Being the eldest of three siblings, I could not imagine going through what Katie went through. Part of me wanted to rush through the game to just get through it. However, I ended up not rushing because I wanted to try my best to reflect upon how I (as Katie) would react in her situation. I would recommend this game highly, especially to non-gamers.    … Expand
  60. DylanCEnglish
    Dec 15, 2015
    6
    The game, “Gone Home,” is a refreshing new take on the classic mystery and adventure genre, the player takes on the role of Kaitlyn Greenbriar, a young woman returning home for a visit from university, however upon arrival everyone is missing. You must take all the jumbled pieces to the puzzle that are hidden around the house and slowly piece the story in order to discover where everyoneThe game, “Gone Home,” is a refreshing new take on the classic mystery and adventure genre, the player takes on the role of Kaitlyn Greenbriar, a young woman returning home for a visit from university, however upon arrival everyone is missing. You must take all the jumbled pieces to the puzzle that are hidden around the house and slowly piece the story in order to discover where everyone has gone.
    Gone Home gets a lot of features correct, from how the music and sound attempt to pull the player in, and all of the visual effects in the house are simply superb. Upon first entering in the game, the player finds themselves on a dark and creaky porch outside of the house, a storm is raging and lighting crashes, these subtle tweaks add to the ominous overtones of the game. Then once inside it quiets, the only sounds that can be heard are your own footsteps as you slowly navigate the house searching for clues to pull you further in.
    The game is far from perfect, and has quite a few problems that prevent the player from fully immersing themselves in the story. The majority of the background story is narrated by Sam, the younger sister of Katie, it is done by walking around and triggering flashbacks or memories upon discovering and inspecting certain objects found in the house. While it is certainly a unique and novel idea, it lacks the elements of realism that the rest of the game strives so hard to achieve. The flashbacks tell Sam's story but because of the lack of connection to you the protagonist and the means of which they are deliver means the the message is not as effective as one might hope. Secondly while its mechanics provide a somewhat fresh and new experience in video games I find myself unconsciously wishing for a few more moment features to accompany the somewhat sparse controls provided to navigate the game. A sprint button to get from the top floor to the bottom would make the game much more enjoyable instead of slowing clomping your way down each set of stairs, and another wonderful idea would be a jumping mechanic. Hiding clues on top of objects would have added another element of realism and that ability to see on top of the bookshelves or cabinets would have made it so the player can immerse them self even further into the game.
    Gone Home attempts to break the generic restrictions that many video game titles face in this day and age, the belief that fast paced action and adventure are necessary to achieve success. Unfortunately, it ends up as a slightly disappointing mystery adventure game, with mechanics that make the player feel restricted and un-immersed because of the lackluster controls, however the plotline, audio and visual effect make up in part for these problems in order to create a game that for some could be described as enjoyable. 6/10    … Expand
  61. Broccolli
    Dec 9, 2015
    6
    Gone home is a mystery and exploring game set in 1995, in a big empty(?) house.
    Created by the Fullbright Company. It is a first person game and the gist of the game is that there is no real action. It is only a storytelling game that is very interactive, you can almost interact with anything in the game.
    Perhaps it’s not much game-wise, perhaps there’s not much mechanics in the game,    Gone home is a mystery and exploring game set in 1995, in a big empty(?) house.
    Created by the Fullbright Company. It is a first person game and the gist of the game is that there is no real action. It is only a storytelling game that is very interactive, you can almost interact with anything in the game.
    Perhaps it’s not much game-wise, perhaps there’s not much mechanics in the game, but that’s not what the game is about. This game is the well basically like the developers merely trying to create a story, but letting you think you’re doing much.
    It has a horror game setting, but the only reason you can feel the suspense is without it the game would be very boring. Yes perhaps there’s a great story, perhaps they are great characters but the feeling that any second there’s going to be a jumpscare is the suspense needed to make it a more, playable game. Granted it’s nothing compared to games like: The Vanishing of Ethan Carter.
    But that’s what the creators wanted, and they got it. They got a game that doesn’t include any action but tells a story. But that’s the fault with this game, most games very often include some sort of mechanic, some sort of action happening even if it’s a storytelling game, or if it’s just a chill game. Compared to bigger games such as Dragon Age the story isn’t really super deep and it mostly develops one character, while Dragon Age has a very vast amount of story, characters and depth.
    I can say hands down from the bottom of my heart that Gone Home isn’t the greatest game created, but it’s not bad. It’s as some may have said, a start to a new genre of games.
    You can see more and more story telling games popping up here and there which are also good sellers to the public eye.    … Expand
  62. Karolineemblem
    Dec 8, 2015
    6
    Gone Home

    The videogame “Gone Home” is developed by The Fullbright Company and designed by Steve Gaynor. It was published on August 15 2013. Gone Home is a mysterious and romantic video game. The game is set in Portland, Oregon in 1995. You play as the eldest daughter of the Greenbriar family, Kaitlin, who just arrived home after a year abroad. She expects her parents and sister to    Gone Home

    The videogame “Gone Home” is developed by The Fullbright Company and designed by Steve Gaynor. It was published on August 15 2013. Gone Home is a mysterious and romantic video game. The game is set in Portland, Oregon in 1995. You play as the eldest daughter of the Greenbriar family, Kaitlin, who just arrived home after a year abroad. She expects her parents and sister to greet her when she gets home, but instead Kaitlin only finds a deserted house, filled with secrets. What happened here? Where is everyone? These are both questions you will find answers to as you play the game.

    You can wander around the Greenbriar house and get to know what happened to the family by investigating the clues and secrets hidden around the house. There are no set goals in the game, however the game rewards and encourages you for exploring new areas of the house and finding all of the secret messages. All the clues lead you to one place that explains everything clearly.

    The game is very well designed. It allows you to open doors and drawers, and find out what´s inside. It even has furniture and small things like movies, which makes it feel extremely real, almost like you are actually in the house. In the beginning I was really confused because I did not know what I was looking for, but as I continued playing I understood what to do. After a while, I started to find the game a lot more interesting. I noticed that as you play and you start finding clues, you don´t want to stop, you just want to find more answers.

    Gone Home is also very different from most games because it has no fighting involved in it. Most games use combat as their main focus, but Gone Home is different. Because there is no risk of dying, it allows the player to carefully examine everything so they don’t miss any pieces of evidence. But this does not mean that you can relax when you are playing the game! If you aren’t very alert when you are playing the game, you could miss important clues and other pieces of the story.

    The main thing future buyers should be aware of is that when you complete the game, you can´t replay it with the same surprises, because you already know the what the outcome is. You can beat the game quickly because you will know the story line and all of the secret short cuts, and finding secrets won’t be as fun because you know them already. This means that after the first time you play, you will have completed the whole game.

    I would recommend this game to anyone who likes mysteries, uncovering secrets, and using their brain to think about what has happened. It could also be fun for people who are used to violent games, because it is so different from them, and opens a new world of video games to them. Even though you can only play it once, it is still a fun game and I would recommend you give it a try!    … Expand
  63. olivialouise
    Dec 7, 2015
    6
    GONE HOME

    Developers: Fullbright Designers: Steve Gaynor Released in the year 2013 The game is set to the year 1995, in Portland, Oregon. We experience and play the game in the first-person, through Kaitlin Greenbriar, the oldest of two sisters. She has just come home from a year abroad in Europe, and find the new family house empty. She has no idea where her mother, father or    GONE HOME

    Developers: Fullbright
    Designers: Steve Gaynor
    Released in the year 2013

    The game is set to the year 1995, in Portland, Oregon. We experience and play the game in the first-person, through Kaitlin Greenbriar, the oldest of two sisters. She has just come home from a year abroad in Europe, and find the new family house empty. She has no idea where her mother, father or sister are. As she searches through the house she discovers well hidden secrets about her family.

    The house is very large, with many rooms and hidden passages. To explore the whole house must find these passages and keys. In order to do this, we need to find documents and codes. Gone Home’s designers has done a great job in making us feel like we actually are the person walking around in the house. We can grasp things, throw it away and get frustrated when we cannot open a door or a drawer because something is in the way.

    The game is as mentioned, set in 1995, which is easily recognizable with the styling and the old cassettes.

    The game atmosphere is scary. You are always on the edge, waiting for some sort of climax or something horrifying to happen, but this never occurs. The scary atmosphere comes from all the spooky sounds of both rain and thunder and all the creaking from walking and opening a drawer and a door. When you walk in to rooms the lights are always out and you can see lighting strikes regularly. Also the background music plays a major role when it comes to my first impression of the game.

    My first impression of this game was far from the same impression I was left with after playing it to the end. You start to play with the feeling that something terrible has happened, and that you will find a something like a dead body around the next corner. When you play your way to the end and find out where Katie’s family are, you get somewhat disappointed with the story.

    You feel more like a detective than a member of the family when you go through the house. I see similarities to the concept of "escape rooms"

    Gone Home is nothing like other games I have played, I really enjoyed the game concept but I had wished there was a better story behind it and more challenging.    … Expand
  64. elinajao
    Dec 7, 2015
    5
    Gone home is made by The Fullbright Company, that was formed by Steve Gaynor, Karla Zimonja, Johnnemann Nordhagen and Kate Craig.
    It is a adventure and interactive fiction game that was released 15th August 2013. When the game begins you play as a 21-year-old girl named Kaitlin Greenbriar in the 90´s. She comes home to Arbor Hill after a year long trip away from her family, only to find a    Gone home is made by The Fullbright Company, that was formed by Steve Gaynor, Karla Zimonja, Johnnemann Nordhagen and Kate Craig.
    It is a adventure and interactive fiction game that was released 15th August 2013. When the game begins you play as a 21-year-old girl named Kaitlin Greenbriar in the 90´s. She comes home to Arbor Hill after a year long trip away from her family, only to find a note on the door from her sister Samantha saying that she should not try to find her or even looking for answers to where she is. As she walks in through the door she realizes that not even her parents are home. No one is.
    In my personal aspect I find the game interesting but almost a bit boring along the way. The game can be played out very fast and I think that is bad.
    But besides that Gone Home is a interesting game that makes you wondering what happened and what’s going on. I definitely thinks that it’s worth testing if your interested about the game.    … Expand
  65. stinabaum
    Dec 7, 2015
    6
    Gone home is a adventure game that takes place 1995 in Arbor Hill in Boon County. Katie Greenbriar has been away for a year. When she gets back she expecting her family to be home, but they are not. She gets curious and want to know what’s been happening. She searching for clues and the first thing she found was a note on the door. The note was written by Sam, her sister, which says thatGone home is a adventure game that takes place 1995 in Arbor Hill in Boon County. Katie Greenbriar has been away for a year. When she gets back she expecting her family to be home, but they are not. She gets curious and want to know what’s been happening. She searching for clues and the first thing she found was a note on the door. The note was written by Sam, her sister, which says that she is going away for a while but not where or for how long. Katie goes in and searching for clues in every corner in the house. She found different clues that says different things so that she has to puzzle the links together to find her family. It is Katie´s younger sister Samantha who is pulling you through the story but you’re playing as Katie.

    Gone home is a well made non-violent game with a lot of emotions. The story drags you in the game into the mystery story. It is a game you really get to know the players deepness. Gone Home is a game that really proves that you don’t have to kill people to keep things interesting. The story is well written and feels real and like someone had experience and represent the story.    … Expand
  66. tjabba
    Dec 7, 2015
    5
    Gone Home is an exploration game set in a traditional american home in the year of 1995. We get to play as the character Katie, who comes home after a year long trip in Europe and finds her new family home abandon. We as the players then need to find out what happened to the family by picking up and reading notes made by our little sister Sam and observing our environment throughout.Gone Home is an exploration game set in a traditional american home in the year of 1995. We get to play as the character Katie, who comes home after a year long trip in Europe and finds her new family home abandon. We as the players then need to find out what happened to the family by picking up and reading notes made by our little sister Sam and observing our environment throughout.

    Since I’m more for the classical Nintendo games I’ve had a hard time playing this. I thought it was boring since nothing really happened. If this wasn’t for a school project I would not have spend my time on this game since it wasn’t filled with anything special. As said, you just search around the house to get clues on what happened to the family. But also it was a good game considering the budget the creators had.

    Gone home was a game I’ve heard about before and actually was kind of interested in. I went into the game with quite mixed expectations not really knowing what I was going to get except that it was a mysterious indie game that has earned quite a lot of critical acclaim.

    The first hour of the game delivered a fresh introduction and built up a suspenseful and mysterious vibe and had a very atmospheric tone throughout. Going through all drawers and wardrobes and exploring all the rooms floor to floor was something I’m not used to. I more than often play more fps games or Rpg’s so it felt fresh actually playing a game where using a weapon is not an option and it was quite nice. However after a while It gets kind of boring to be honest. Because then you are just revisiting the same places to find more notes and keys that will eventually lead you till the end, which is tiresome for me. Since it is a Indie game the room more often contain the same furniture and overall color scheme so it just doesn’t feel that engaging going through the rooms once more, it gets quite repetitive.

    My biggest gripe with this game is that it doesn’t really have the gameplay to keep me interested till the end. I found myself being quite frustrated the last 20 minutes just rushing my way through to just get to the end. Considering the game has a length of approx 2 hours that’s not a good sign. And some people seem to say that the reason for the game not having a real gameplay side of it is because it needs to keep its concentration on the story. But I feel there have been plenty of games who has succeeded with delivering serious gameplay with a well written story ( example would be Bioshock which the developers worked on before this). I understand that they’re a small team of workers on the project so they don’t have the same opportunities as a big developer with hundreds, however I still believe a little more in depth gameplay is needed. In the end I still think it is a solid game with an intriguing and mysterious story that unfolds. Sadly the gameplay and interaction itself is lackluster and not as good as needed for a replay.    … Expand
  67. Pesper
    Dec 7, 2015
    6
    I’ve played the Gone Home, which is a very story based game where you play as the character Kaitlin who recently came home from a year of studying in Europe. You get to this new house where the family moved in too when Katie went traveling, but you quickly notice that there is no one home and then you find clues to solve the mystery by Kaitlins sister Samantha and i will not tell you moreI’ve played the Gone Home, which is a very story based game where you play as the character Kaitlin who recently came home from a year of studying in Europe. You get to this new house where the family moved in too when Katie went traveling, but you quickly notice that there is no one home and then you find clues to solve the mystery by Kaitlins sister Samantha and i will not tell you more since I’ll spoil too much.

    This is a new type of game for me so it was very interesting and when all games you played have been spooky or action packed you kind of go into the game just waiting for something scary or you needing to run away from something. I’m not going to tell you if i got scared or not because i guess some of you will get the same feel. To be honest it’s not my kind of game, maybe it is because I’m mind is damaged because of all the previous action games I played. I feel like it’s too slow and lacking interaction with things in the house, I want more of a challenge when I play video games.

    When i played this game I did it as a school project, which I feel like it made me enjoy it a lot more than I would if i’d play it on my free time. So as a game to play to learn I feel like it’s really good, because it’s an alternative to reading (in my opinion) boring books and watching a movie which often is not my kind of movie since a teacher with different taste in movies did choose the movie. By the way in Sweden we often study at least 13 years and it’s refreshing playing a game instead of all the boring books and movies.

    So I think it’s a really good alternative to play for school projects, but otherwise it’s not my kind of game but i would lie if i wouldn’t say that really well done and an interesting plot.    … Expand
  68. 14samajb
    Dec 7, 2015
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. GONE HOME - Created by Fullbright Company

    Gone Home is a computer game created and designed by the team in Fullbright Company. The game was first released 15th of August, 2013.

    The game takes place in a empty mansion in Arbor Hill, Oregon, America. The environment of the game is a mix of thriller and adventure. You as a player get to explore the mansion as Kaitlyn Greenbriar, who is one of the daughters of the Greenbriar family. It’s the 7th of June, 1995, in the game and Kaitlin has just returned home from a year long trip to Europe, but she comes home to an empty house. As Kaitlin we get to walk around the mansion and find clues about what's going on and where everyone has gone.

    What we didn’t like about the game it that the atmosphere of the game is giving you a scary impression, but in fact there is nothing scary happening throughout the game. The setting is dark, messy and mysterious. The rain is pouring outside and the thunder comes when you least expect it, which makes you believe that something or someone is about to scare you. I guess it’s a success from the creators side, but to us it just didn’t make any sense.

    But what we did like about the game was that we got to walk around the house by ourselves and decide which room we walked in to. There were objects around the house that we could pick up, for example letters and they gave us clues.

    Overall, it’s a nice game. We would recommend it to people in all ages. It’s a good game if you are a new gamer and don’t have a lot of gaming experience.

    By Kaja & Sandra    … Expand
  69. IAmCynical
    Dec 7, 2015
    7
    A good story told through setting.
    In a desolate empty house late at night, you walk through the hallways in search of answers. Where are your dad, mom and sister? Where have they gone? What has happened? That is what the game “Gone Home” is about.
    The game “Gone Home” is a first person one-player adventure/explorer style game. It is developed by Fullbright, designed by Steve Gaynor    A good story told through setting.
    In a desolate empty house late at night, you walk through the hallways in search of answers. Where are your dad, mom and sister? Where have they gone? What has happened? That is what the game “Gone Home” is about.

    The game “Gone Home” is a first person one-player adventure/explorer style game. It is developed by Fullbright, designed by Steve Gaynor and the music composed by Chris Remo. Also, it was released in august 2013.

    “Gone Home” is set in Oregon, USA in 1995. The person whom you play is Kaitlin, the older sister of the Greenbrier family. She has just returned home from studying abroad for exactly a year. Upon returning, she finds the house empty and that the doors are all locked. Then the game starts, with you not having a clue of what had happened. From there you must find the answers.
    I loved experiencing the environment and the story hidden within the house. The environment seemed completely unknown and new to me, as the furniture and the house itself looked quite antique. The atmosphere, which the environment gave off, actually further enhanced the story.

    The thing, which kept me interested in the game, was the story. It was quite a well-made story in my opinion and I really enjoyed it. The reason as for why I enjoyed the story was its way of storytelling. It told the story through the environment. Not some pieces of paper or person, but the environment itself. Through the audio messages, clues and the realism within them. That was how I experienced the story’s ephemeral little story.

    The game’s story and environment was quite good. But, there was still something that I disliked. That was the brightness at some places within the game. It was simply too dark. I know that the developers intended for it to be dark for the setting. But I believe that they went overboard. Because it was too dark, it became too hard to find the light switches (if there was one). You would just get annoyed at that point and you don’t feel like continuing for a bit. Therefore was the brightness one of the few aspects I disliked about the game.

    In the end, I would like to give this game a 7/10, mostly because of the story. Moreover, I would like to recommend this game to people who enjoy realistic stories or maybe got some interest in antique stuff from the 1990s. As this game got its 7/10 rate mostly because of its story, but also because of the environmental features. The game could have gotten a perfect score (10/10), but because of some minor details like bad brightness, it did not achieve it.    … Expand
  70. Jaran
    Dec 6, 2015
    7
    “Gone Home” is a story game that is all about exploring what has happened to your little sister, Samantha Greenbriar. In the game you play as Kaitlin, Sam’s older sister, and you have just returned to an empty house after having spent the last year in Europe.

    The story takes place in USA in 1995, and the Greenbriar family has just moved to a new place. Sam is the main character in the    “Gone Home” is a story game that is all about exploring what has happened to your little sister, Samantha Greenbriar. In the game you play as Kaitlin, Sam’s older sister, and you have just returned to an empty house after having spent the last year in Europe.

    The story takes place in USA in 1995, and the Greenbriar family has just moved to a new place. Sam is the main character in the game, and as Kaitlin you discover what has happened her while you’ve been away. You explore the house and find notes, letters, pictures and other objects that give you information about Sam and your parents. Picking up certain items will also trigger Sam’s journals. In her journals, she talks about what has happened to her at school, and with her parents and friends. Other items you find, for example keys, can open up new areas in the house to explore.

    While you play as Kaitlin you have a first-person view, and you can examine items closer by picking them up. There aren’t any specific objects in “Gone Home” and you are free to explore the game by yourself. The graphics in the game are good, and the background sound of lightning and thunder creates a dreary atmosphere.
    The story stands out compared to other games I’ve played, because you can move around freely and decide for yourself what you want to explore. The game doesn’t tell you what to do, unlike games like Assassins Creed where you have to complete missions to progress with the story. This aspect of “Gone Home” makes it more interesting and enjoyable to play.

    Personally, I think the game was decent because it felt like I was exploring the story, and not being told a story. The gameplay got a little repetitive after a while, because there wasn’t much more to do besides reading letters and notes, and listening to Sam’s journals. However, exploring and finding clues about Sam, kept the game interesting. Though gameplay in itself could get tiresome, the story was so engaging that you wanted to keep exploring.

    “Gone Home” isn’t a typical story game, and I it’s really worth trying out if you like exploration games.    … Expand
  71. ChefenOSabo
    Dec 3, 2015
    5
    Gone Home. The game that was a massive hit amongst reviewers. People everywhere praised it for Its great story. We don’t agree. Because the “game” sucks. Don’t get me wrong, It’s a great interactive novel, just not a game.

    Gone Home is made by The Fullbright Company and it was released in 2013. The story Is about a girl named Katie that comes home from a year abroad only to find that    Gone Home. The game that was a massive hit amongst reviewers. People everywhere praised it for Its great story. We don’t agree. Because the “game” sucks. Don’t get me wrong, It’s a great interactive novel, just not a game.

    Gone Home is made by The Fullbright Company and it was released in 2013. The story Is about a girl named Katie that comes home from a year abroad only to find that her house is empty and her family is gone. You run around in the house and look for different objects and clues to find out what could have happened. While playing you find out more about her family, for example her parents names, where they work and stuff like that. You also find different pieces of her sisters journal, which is a huge part of the game. You can’t really tell anything more about the story because then you’d be spoiling it so I’ll refrain from it. All i can say is that the story is very captivating. The atmosphere is according to us, the strongest part about the game. It’s actually really spooky and you always expect a zombie or a monster to pop out and kill you but it never happens. You wait and wait for some sort of climax but it never occurs. They play on horror games cliché functions that just because that it’s a dark room it means that something will be there. You’re always on edge. However it also kind of backfires since after you’ve searched about 5 or more rooms you realise that nothing’s there so you just straight out yolo it and have no fear. However, It lacks simple game mechanics such as jumping, sprinting or some sort of narrative which moves the game forward. This “game” lets you discover the story as you go, putting the pieces of the story together on your own. It’s like a book, except the pages are scattered all around the place so you’re trying to put the pieces back into place so you can absorb it all. The worst part is that this game is about 2 hours long, you could even complete it in 20 minutes if you’d want to! That’s why in our opinion this game is more like a book you can explore. It emphasizes the story, everything else comes in second hand. The story is great but the game is pretty boring.

    If you’re looking for an interactive novel with great story, pick this up now since it’s a great example of this type of genre. However if you were looking for a fun game that you could kill some time with this is not for you.    … Expand
  72. eliseefristad
    Nov 8, 2015
    6
    Gone home is a first person interactive adventure game set in 1995. The player takes on the role of Kaitlin, a girl who returns from a year abroad to find that the new house her family has moved into is completely empty. The player then has to search through the house for clues to locate where Kaitlin’s family could be. As you play you come over hidden secrets of the other family membersGone home is a first person interactive adventure game set in 1995. The player takes on the role of Kaitlin, a girl who returns from a year abroad to find that the new house her family has moved into is completely empty. The player then has to search through the house for clues to locate where Kaitlin’s family could be. As you play you come over hidden secrets of the other family members all while unsettling noises is to be heard everywhere…

    The first thing that hit me about this game is its flawless graphics, the game never fail to flow elegantly between different moves the player makes and I almost forgot I was looking at a game and not a real home. It was a brilliant idea to choose the narrative to be Kaitlin who along with the player is discovering the house for the first time.

    The tone of Gone Home sets it up to be a creepy and scary game. There is something unsettling about hearing the rain outside while you are walking through a large and unfamiliar house and I was constantly waiting for a jumpscare or something really scary and dramatic to happen and was a bit frustrated when I realized the whole gameplay contains of walking around the house solving puzzles and looking for clues. After I got over that I realized just how amazing the story was and I was astonished of how many details the creator put into it to make it feel like your dealing with real life people. The journal and voiceover part was done wonderfully and made you really connect with the character Samantha and sympathize with her.

    So, the 10. 000 dollar question: Is Gone Home a good game? I’m not sure if I would call it a game at all. It hits me more like a visual novel than anything else. The creators succeeded in making you feel that you are walking through a real home, looking through the belongings of a real family, which usually is not a characteristic for video games. Since I view video games as an escape mechanism from everyday life I cannot say that I enjoyed Gone home that much. But I appreciate the originality and it is a well-made and interesting game, no doubt in that. I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a different kind of computer game that does not revolve around action and shooting stuff.    … Expand
  73. SondreVa
    Nov 1, 2015
    6
    Gone home is a game about Kaitlin, who have just come home from he backpacking trip in Europe. When she comes home no one is there, and she finds clues to where the rest of the family have gone.

    The good things about this “game” is that it has a somewhat great story, and you can interact with almost all the 1990s artifacts you find in the house. The amount of details the developers put    Gone home is a game about Kaitlin, who have just come home from he backpacking trip in Europe. When she comes home no one is there, and she finds clues to where the rest of the family have gone.

    The good things about this “game” is that it has a somewhat great story, and you can interact with almost all the 1990s artifacts you find in the house. The amount of details the developers put in to the house is also astounding. It is like they googled the 1990s and just put everything in the house. So if you are a 90s kid you will most likely get a nostalgic feeling. The journals were also really well written, and the voice actor for Samantha did an amazing job of making you invested in her, but the gameplay felt really slow, mainly because you could not sprint, so you had to take your time with everything. Which I personally don’t like, because I am really impatient. The graphics was not amazing, but they aren’t really the focus of the game either, and you cant expect really expect the most advanced graphics from a crew of 3-4 people.

    Gone home is a very short game, I spent 1-2 hours on the game, this includes the entire story, inspecting various 90s artefacts and even using the developer commentary. Because of the lack of length of gameplay I don’t think this game should be priced at 20$. And I personally would not really call this a game, sure it is interactive, but you would get the same experience from watching a short movie with the same plot.

    As I said I only spent about 2 hours on the game, so the story is not that long and it is not really detailed, and I would like to see journals written by both her parents, Daniel and Lonnie. It was an interesting concept to only follow Samantha, but the story became very predictable after 4 journals.

    It is not the best game I’ve played but it is certainly not the worst either. But I think Fullbright as a company has great potential, and Gone home is good steppingstone to make great games.    … Expand
  74. TheDavyStar
    Aug 30, 2015
    7
    Gone Home, like all of them other games where the act of walking advances you further into the game, is a weird one. It's obviously not a game in the sense that there is a challenge, or that you play to have fun. Instead, Gone Home puts you in the role of Katie, a young woman who returns home after traveling around Europe. When she finds nobody home and a suspicious note on the door, KatieGone Home, like all of them other games where the act of walking advances you further into the game, is a weird one. It's obviously not a game in the sense that there is a challenge, or that you play to have fun. Instead, Gone Home puts you in the role of Katie, a young woman who returns home after traveling around Europe. When she finds nobody home and a suspicious note on the door, Katie finds she hasa lot of catching up to do. From here you proceed to walk around, looking at various items around the house. It sounds unexciting, but the subtlety that comes with it helps you get really immersed in Gone Home's lovely setting. You can feel for how human each character is, despite never physically manifesting in the actual game.

    I would mark this game down, however, on the basis that the ending is just a bit too sudden and open-ended for my tastes. I came back to this game after misplacing my laptop for a whole month, and when I came back to it I didn't realise I was so close to the end. Additionally, it's too expensive for its length - 2 hours. It's a great 2 hours, but na pricey 2 hours nonetheless.

    If you don't mind spending a fair amount of cash on a 2-hour game, it's fair to say that Gone Home will be worth your while. The open-endedness of it and its rather abrupt ending may put off some, but the brilliant, subtle storytelling and character development will make sure that you come back from this game enlightened at what the art of videogames can be.    … Expand
  75. Rem
    Jul 10, 2015
    7
    Gone Home presents a clear divide between gamers on it being a piece of art that represents the best of video games, while being rectified for being too much of an interactive novel. Gone Home achieves neither of these, but instead carves out a unique identity of its own, catered to the most patient and open of gamers who are willing to look past a few design flaws. You play as KatieGone Home presents a clear divide between gamers on it being a piece of art that represents the best of video games, while being rectified for being too much of an interactive novel. Gone Home achieves neither of these, but instead carves out a unique identity of its own, catered to the most patient and open of gamers who are willing to look past a few design flaws. You play as Katie Greenbriar an older sister who returns from her round trip around Europe back to her home in Boston to find the house completely empty. The sole mechanics of this game include walking and picking up items to inspect them. Each item is terribly mundane, but it adds charm to a setting in the 90s where Street Fighter 2 was still a thing. Gone Home really makes you feel lonely and exploring the ridiculously large house uncovering the story of your absent sister is pleasing, despite the only real piece of story bits coming from Sam's voiceovers. Her story that unfolds is beautiful and captivating, but I can't shake the feeling that this was charged for 20 dollars. It's a clear experience, but I feel it would have been more powerful if you had more interactivity with how you went about, but what's there is serviceable to the plot. It's interesting to explore the Greenbriar's residence, but the experience is over before you can say "lesbians". It's captivating, but the feeling is fleeting.… Expand
  76. frozen_flame123
    Jun 8, 2015
    7
    Gone Home is an interactive story where you play as Kaitlin, a girl who comes back from Europe to visit her family and her childhood home, only to find that her parents and sister Samantha are gone. The rest of the game is spent trying to piece together clues about where your sister is. You find, I forget, but I think it is 7 notes throughout the game. These 7 notes are the things thatGone Home is an interactive story where you play as Kaitlin, a girl who comes back from Europe to visit her family and her childhood home, only to find that her parents and sister Samantha are gone. The rest of the game is spent trying to piece together clues about where your sister is. You find, I forget, but I think it is 7 notes throughout the game. These 7 notes are the things that progress the story. Each note tells a different part of Sam's life. The game has very good atmosphere, it's not a horror game, but it has almost a creepy atmosphere. It's made on the Amnesia engine, so that probably has something to do with it. A lot of log hallways and big rooms with very dim lighting.

    What this game does very well, better than virtually all game out there, is environmental storytelling. The only character in the game is you, and there is no other dialogue with any other character. The story moves along as you find clues. As you find more and more clues, you really get a good feel for the world that you are in. Games do not do this enough.

    However, GH's biggest problem is that environmental storytelling is ALL that it does. In a story driven game character interactions are very important because it can give the characters more dimensions. All of the characters are very one dimensional. You don't ever go into any depth to find out the motivations or the facets of their characters. This is why you can't build a game around environmental storytelling. Environmental storytelling paired with dialogue can turn one dimensional characters into three dimensional characters. If the game allowed you to talk to Sam, your parents, or Lonnie, it could give you better insight into the personalities of each of them, allowing for a stronger story.    … Expand
  77. Yirg
    Mar 27, 2015
    5
    Pretty boring game. Builds up the atmosphere of a horror game and never really delivers. What it does deliver is a relatively uninteresting story with characters I didn't really connect with. Maybe I played it too leisurely and when I was too tired to care, but I assume that a better game would do more to pick up my interest and pace.
  78. Daftshadows
    Jan 15, 2015
    7
    Gone home is a first person, interactive game, where you, the main character, searches through the house your younger sister and parents moved into, while you were away traveling. You go through the house and learn the secrets that each family member has. Although there are many different stories the main one you follow, about her younger sister, is the most interesting.

    In gone home    Gone home is a first person, interactive game, where you, the main character, searches through the house your younger sister and parents moved into, while you were away traveling. You go through the house and learn the secrets that each family member has. Although there are many different stories the main one you follow, about her younger sister, is the most interesting.

    In gone home you first find a note your sister (Katie) has left on the front door saying “Please, please don’t go digging around trying to find out where I am.“ Of course you ignore that and enter the house ready to do some of the best snooping possible. As you begin your raid you learn about the family and where they work and some simple things, nothing juicy. Although the game starts off pretty slow you quickly start ripping apart drawers and find some interesting yet confusing photos, articles and notes. You quickly get into the rooms and find out that everyone is being a little bit of snake. If you take the opportunity to sift out every little note, crumpled piece of paper and anything you can read or even just look at the game gets a lot richer.

    The game does a great job of giving you the basic premise of what is going on in each family members life. They leave enough room for interpretation that you can draw your own conclusions with the satisfaction of labeling everyone a snake with significance evidence supporting it. With this being said I would have loved to know what happened to the “Good ol’ Christmas Duck” The house itself gives you a very creepy vibe and adds to the suspense of what will happen next. As the floors creek and your fear has you peaking around every corner the anticipation of a jump-scare enforces the steady pace you should have when playing.

    The game was entertaining enough to play again even after knowing the outcome of all the characters. Also I found that there was always something new each time I went back. I recommend this game for those who love games that have a wonderful story.    … Expand
  79. evanhickey222
    Jan 6, 2015
    5
    Gone Home is a first person seeker video game that is centralized around Katie Greenbrier, a 17-year-old girl. Katie returns to a mansion in Arbor hill, Oregon from a yearlong trip, and discovers a note written to her from her sister, Sam. This note instructs Kaitlin (Katie) not to go looking for answers as to where she is. Curious, Katie steps into the house, after realizing nobody isGone Home is a first person seeker video game that is centralized around Katie Greenbrier, a 17-year-old girl. Katie returns to a mansion in Arbor hill, Oregon from a yearlong trip, and discovers a note written to her from her sister, Sam. This note instructs Kaitlin (Katie) not to go looking for answers as to where she is. Curious, Katie steps into the house, after realizing nobody is home, a series of characters, notes, and hints lead Kaitlin to her answer.

    The story of Gone Home mainly focuses on Sam, Janice (Mother), and Terrence (Father). Finding clues about her family allowed Katie to discover more and more about what happened when she was gone. I think this was a very unique and creative way of revealing information and critical plot points throughout the game. Because the game did not just hand you the knowledge, it forced you to start thinking outside the box to uncover more information about other characters. Although some may find this a challenging way to play a game, I found that this strategy made for highly effective gameplay.

    One aspect of the game that could have been stronger was the map exploration. . Katie was only permitted outside one time, and that was at the beginning of the game. I discovered that there were multiple missed opportunities to make the map more interesting, but instead there was only just a dead end or a blacked out window. Outside was barely explored throughout the game, which I thought was a big mistake both in terms of the game’s depth or intrigue and game time. While playing, I found that every room was becoming more and more predictable, where we would find the lights out, maybe one or two scraps of paper, and an unopened pizza box. Adding outside parameters of the house would have made the gameplay more intriguing and less predictable. In addition, adding the outdoor aspect would have added to the game time, which I found too short.

    The sound in the game was brilliantly done. If the intention was to feel like you were actually in the house yourself, then they succeeded and beyond. While playing the game I felt entrenched in this house, and that I genuinely had no clue where my family was. Every creaky door, rustled piece of paper, and opened safe noise enhanced this game immensely.

    I enjoyed playing this game a lot. It was packed full of information, clues and secret passages. Every twist and turn in the plot kept me on the edge of my seat. I would highly recommend this game.    … Expand
  80. fartheststar
    Dec 17, 2014
    7
    I enjoyed the game alot. If you like just exploring a world, and letting the world tell its story, then you should like this game. There's also more going on than the main storyline if you let yourself soak in the story. It's a story about family and family history. There's a lot been written, but I found myself engaged the entire way through, and felt the pacing and development were spotI enjoyed the game alot. If you like just exploring a world, and letting the world tell its story, then you should like this game. There's also more going on than the main storyline if you let yourself soak in the story. It's a story about family and family history. There's a lot been written, but I found myself engaged the entire way through, and felt the pacing and development were spot on.

    It's not a scary game. I don't like scary/tense games. This is not like that. Don't let concerns like that bother you. It's atmospheric - stormy night, big empty old unfamiliar house... but nothing there is gonna eat you!

    Other games that might have similar gameplay experience. Dear Esther (I liked Gone Home better than Dear Esther) and perhaps Lifeless Planet (which I really enjoyed). To The Moon is probably a similar experience (but different art aesthetic.)

    If this sounds the least bit interesting, I suggest you give it a try. I'm glad I played    … Expand
  81. brendan1717
    Dec 16, 2014
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. After a year abroad in Europe, Katie Greenbriar returns to the new house that her family has just moved into. Upon her arrival, she finds a note on the front door from her sister Sam, warning her not to go searching for the family. Once in the house, it is clear that there is nobody home. From this point on, it is Katie’s mission to find out where her family has gone.
    Overall, I believe that the greatest strength of this game is its plot. I thoroughly enjoyed looking through the various rooms and finding numerous clues that led me to the end of the game. I think that the allusion to external video games and significant figures makes the story more intertwined with the real world, causing the game to seem more realistic. Furthermore, I believe that although the game has a limited amount of story driven gameplay, it compensates through the various Easter eggs (such as the purple basketball) and deviating plotlines, which lead you to consider controversial theories. For example, consider the theory that Uncle Oscar abused his nephew Terrence, who is the father of Katie and Sam. Though never directly stating this theory, the creators of the game are able to lay the foundations for the player to make this interpretation.
    The mechanics of the game are actually quite good. Although the graphics are not amazing, they are sufficient for the user to easily play through the game without any issues. I don’t really think that it is necessary for the game to have top of the line graphics and visuals because aside from making the game more realistic, they don’t really serve a purpose. One of the stronger mechanical aspects of the game is the audio. Throughout various point in the game, you come across journal entries written (and dictated) by Sam. Instead of just finding pieces of paper with what Sam wrote in her journal, small sections are dictated after finding something relevant to that entry in the game. This is helpful because it adds emotion to the information Sam is providing.
    One of the weakest aspects in the game is the ending. I believe that the plot of the game is genuinely strong, and so the ending should do the plotline justice. However, I believe this is not the case. In my opinion, the ending should instill excitement in the player, especially since the game is based on the premise of mystery. I was left with a feeling of disappointment when I realized what had actually happened to the family, not due to the fact that they had been harmed, but due to the fact that the majority of the plot, including the link to Oscar, was of no relevance.
    Overall I enjoyed playing Gone Home and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is interested in the mystery genre. The plot has extreme depth considering the total playtime given to the player, and the mechanics of the game are quite strong. With the exception of the ending, it is a great game.    … Expand
  82. melia
    Dec 15, 2014
    7
    Gone Home is a first-person, single player, point and click, search and discover game where the player explores a storyline and eventually solves a mystery. The player enters the game, or interactive story, in the year 1995, from the narrative point of view of Katie Greenbriar, a 21-year-old who has just arrived back to Portland, Oregon from a backpacking trip in Europe, only to discoverGone Home is a first-person, single player, point and click, search and discover game where the player explores a storyline and eventually solves a mystery. The player enters the game, or interactive story, in the year 1995, from the narrative point of view of Katie Greenbriar, a 21-year-old who has just arrived back to Portland, Oregon from a backpacking trip in Europe, only to discover that her family appears to be missing from their gloomy, newly inherited mansion. Finding nobody home, it is up to Katie to discover what has transpired over the last year. The player begins the task of piecing together clues which objects around the mansion reveal. Some surprising details reveal the main plot while others simply enrich the background stories of the characters’ pasts and their intentions for the future.

    Gone Home was developed in 2013 by The Fullbright Company, which is owned and operated by three developers who had previously worked on a downloadable content expansion pack for BioShock Infinite owned by 2K, a big budget gaming developer. Such gaming developers typically produce games that are online multiplayer, involving leaderboards, high quality graphics, and which usually have a first-person shooter aspect to them. Gone Home is a completely different type of game where the focus is on a memorable storyline and the objective is to explore the lives and actions of the story’s characters to the point where you reach the conclusion of the story and thus the end of the game.

    The gameplay in Gone Home consists of self-determined exploration of different rooms where, for example, the gamer examines notes, objects, and audio journals spoken in the voice of Katie’s sister, Sam. Uncovering these well-thought-out details was the most captivating part of the whole game and did peek my curiosity as to what they would reveal about the story. Simulated ambient noises and audio effects were well done and professionally produced creating a realistic environment.

    A drawback and ultimate frustration about the gameplay was the complete focus on the steps of point, click and examine in order to make discoveries and keep the game going. There was a monotony to the clicking of a mouse in order to reveal the information the objects contained. The graphics fairly were fairly simple when compared with the photorealistic graphics of other games today, but it is what to expect from an indie game. Another downside for me was the fact that my actions did not determine any different outcome to the story, rather I was only making discoveries. The fact that the game has an ending that takes roughly two-hours to complete does not lend itself to being a good value for $20, especially as it has little to no replay value. On a final note, I had been hoping the story was going to make a turn into the occult or supernatural genre, and had thought that this was a possibility based on the creators’ past involvement with such genres in BioShock.

    Finally, I would give Gone Home a 7 out of 10 and would recommend it if you are looking for an interesting story exploration game, otherwise the gameplay format could leave you disappointed.    … Expand
  83. rwynn29
    Dec 15, 2014
    7
    The game “Gone Home” developed by The Fullbright Company uses a complex and developed story line as its main attraction. Players walk in the footsteps of Kaitlin Greenbriar as she comes home from a yearlong trip to find the new house, into which the family had moved into, empty. Through the course of the search through the house the character and player begins to uncover the events of theThe game “Gone Home” developed by The Fullbright Company uses a complex and developed story line as its main attraction. Players walk in the footsteps of Kaitlin Greenbriar as she comes home from a yearlong trip to find the new house, into which the family had moved into, empty. Through the course of the search through the house the character and player begins to uncover the events of the past year, a year she has missed. The discoveries slowly piece themselves together to explain the reason for her sisterís and parentsí apparent disappearance from the house.
    As a rule most games no matter how well designed have both their good and bad aspects, Gone home is no exception to this. The aspects that add to the game and make it an interesting run through are; the gameís interactive story, voice-overs and tangent stories. The game, which is centered on a rich and interactive story line, truly benefits from it. By generating a story line that can be revealed and played through in a few different ways but still leads to the same overall ending gives the player a feeling of greater control. To add to the experience the ways in which the voice overs which occur periodically at strategic points gives the game a more realistic feel as if the characters were real people enhancing the game play and overall story line. These aspects are then combined with a series of tangent stories that take place alongside the main story and can be unearthed and furthered throughout the course of the game. This I believe truly makes the game fun because it adds a series of extra layers that give more life to the game and donít truly end with a concrete answer keeping the player continuously guessing to their true meaning. Most important of all is that they do not clutter or subtract from the main story line of the game. The intriguing story and strategic use of voice-overs make the game a truly fun experience.
    Unfortunately there are some aspects to the game that are less than to be desired. Two specific things come to mind that are worth negatively critiquing; the brightness settings and the end of the game. Yes it is true that brightness settings can always be adjusted but overall the game has a rather dark vibe to it that understandably plays into the story thematic and adds to the game but it seems that at times even with higher brightness settings its difficult to see. Due to the difficulty of seeing objects I found that at times it was a chore trying to find objects in the semi darkness of the house. The second part that I found to be rather disappointing was the end. For such a build up in the game and all of the assumptions that one makes by the end, the ending chosen by the creators was rather bland and uninteresting. In my opinion the game could have been further enhanced with a more dramatic end, one that I was certain would happen when I reached the attic, but I wonít spoil the ending for you by telling you what doesn't happen. If the above listed things were to have been improved upon the game would be in my opinion a truly masterful work of digital and gaming art.
    Overall the game was fun and I enjoyed it. Though different from your everyday shooter with fast case action the story line was well thought out and interesting. I would recommend it to those that are more interested in the content of the game rather than looking for a way of killing a few hours with mindless game play due to the format of the game. If it were ever on sale I would tell people to try it out for they might like it, or not. The game is very specific in nature and hard to compare with an existing game due to its rather new look at what games should be and whatís more important, action and an okay storyline or a slower game with a well thought out story line.    … Expand
  84. possumboss
    Dec 15, 2014
    6
    Gone Home is a game about a girl named Katie who returns home from a year long trip to a new house. When Katie arrives she discovers that her family is not in the house and appear to be missing. Katie then searches the house to find clues to her family’s whereabouts. While Katie searches the house she uncovers shocking secrets about her family that have been carefully hidden for years.Gone Home is a game about a girl named Katie who returns home from a year long trip to a new house. When Katie arrives she discovers that her family is not in the house and appear to be missing. Katie then searches the house to find clues to her family’s whereabouts. While Katie searches the house she uncovers shocking secrets about her family that have been carefully hidden for years.

    Gone Home has one of the best stories that I have ever seen in a video game. (Though calling it a video game is a stretch). Gone Home takes the player on a 3 hour journey through one of the most densely packed stories in modern gaming. It is hard to talk about the story without ruining the ending. But what can be said is that the setting has the player thinking about one thing while the story is going in a completely different direction. The ending comes as no surprise to the player once they reach it, but the ending would seem absurd at the start of the game. The ending leaves the player with no loose ends and a certain happiness for the characters.

    The game doesn’t boast the most high definition graphics or the most cutting edge gameplay but the attention to detail makes up for it entirely. The not so high quality graphics even add to the atmosphere of the house. The graphics are meant to be played on a low brightness which has the player often turning around to see if that shadow was indeed a person or not. The attention to detail in the house was extraordinarily good. Everything in a 1995 home was there, with the exception of shoes, but one would not even notice this unless it was mentioned to them. The player learns all there is to know about a family in the mid 90’s, from tacky furniture to VCR’s it is all there.

    To call Gone Home a video game is a stretch. It is more of an interactive story in the form of a video game. In a contemporary video game the player makes choices and has different ways to overcome different puzzles or challenges. In some games the way one completes a task will affect what happens later on or the level of difficulty. Gone Home is extremely linear. There are no two ways of finding things or opening doors in Gone Home. Everything is laid out for the player to find, the only thing that can change is the order in which things are found.

    Gone Home is an excellent experience. The story was compelling, the setting was unique, accurate and added a level of realness to the story. But to call it a video game is a stretch. The game is definitely good there is no question about that, but if one does a excellent first run through they will feel no need to play it a second or third time. A truly good game would compel the player to play more than once, it is a game you can come back to years later and still have the same experience as you did when first played. Gone Home doesn’t achieve this. I would still highly recommend this game though.    … Expand
  85. didthisforclass
    Dec 15, 2014
    7
    Gone Home is a game created by the upstart Fullbright Company, a newcomer to the gaming community made up of former BioShock employees. It is as much an interactive story as it is a video game, and is a new experience in first person gaming.
    Since 2012, the year Gone Home was released, it has garnered positive reviews in the gaming world and even won a few awards, most recently the 2014    Gone Home is a game created by the upstart Fullbright Company, a newcomer to the gaming community made up of former BioShock employees. It is as much an interactive story as it is a video game, and is a new experience in first person gaming.
    Since 2012, the year Gone Home was released, it has garnered positive reviews in the gaming world and even won a few awards, most recently the 2014 BAFTA Games Award for Debut Game. The story focuses on a rainy night in June 1995, when Kaitlin Greenbrier arrives home from a year backpacking through Europe to find a new house all moved into but with no one in it. The only clue you begin with is a note on the door from her sister Sam, telling Katie not to go looking for her.
    The game then becomes what you make of it, as you are free to explore the house at your liberty. The game does have a plot line, but following the story is contingent on you finding the clues found around the household. The story does take shape in the form of Sam’s journal entries, which can be found by interacting with the many objects strewn about the house. The house is full of mysteries, and it is up to you to unlock them.
    What I really enjoyed about the game was the fact that you control what you find and when you find it. You find things in no particular order, and it forces you to formulate the story on your own. While rummaging around the house, you find many old family heirlooms, you uncover family secrets and you find out who the family is. What really brings you into the story is the familiarity of what you find in the house and how it can relate to your own family.
    I would say the graphics of the game are more than decent, even good, yet the lighting of the game is poor in some respects. It is used effectively to convey certain tones, but it is really irritating to not be able to see what is around you. You are blind to many things in this game, in more respects than just visually.
    The game is set in 1995, which may not seem like an important fact, but it provides the groundwork for Gone Home. It provides the perfect chronological setting for Katie to be out of the loop in terms of her family matters, and allows the whole game to exist. The social movement of that time and other factors from the mid 90’s allow the narrative of the game to exist as it is and become what it does.
    Why would you want to play this game you may ask? If I had to pick a singular reason, it would be that the story will captivate you and make you want to play and finish the game. It is less of a game then an interactive story, but is that not what video games are? I find that you either really enjoy Gone Home or not at all, and I greatly enjoyed it. So if you have a few hours to kill, open up your computer and play it, you might enjoy it.    … Expand
  86. nscime1234
    Dec 15, 2014
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The game Gone Home is an interactive story game that is told from the perspective of Kaitlin Greenbriar who has just returned home from a trip around Europe. Upon her arrival at the house she finds that it is deserted and there is an ominous letter left for her from her sister. The ultimate goal of the game is to figure out what’s happened to your family by examining the many different items that can be found in the house.

    After you get Sam’s note on the front door of the house you immediately begin assuming that something bad must have happened to your family for them not to be there. After being introduced to all of the members of the family you slowly begin to put together everyone’s stories. I found that the game focused more on the life of Sam then it did on her parents. Although that might have been the intention I felt like it made me disinterested in what her parents were doing. Although I liked the way that the game used different items and documents to get parts of the narrative across I found that it became annoying to constantly be picking up and closely examining every single item in the house to decide whether it was important to the story or not.

    I liked the fact that the game was based more on real life and telling a story through interacting with different items within a house. But the game did raise some questions that kind of threw me off even though it’s probably just me nitpicking. First I find it kind of strange that there’s a way you can traverse the house and pick up all the items in a pretty much chronological order. Even though the ultimate path you choose is up to you it just seemed kind of strange that all of the documents that detail the beginning of the family’s experience in the house would all be in one section of the house. I personally think that it would have been more interesting for the items to kind of be more scattered about so that it’s more of a puzzle for the player to put together the entire story.

    The second thing that came to mind was “is it just me or is the Greenbriar family made up of a bunch of complete slobs. Seriously there are piles of paper and other items just left about everywhere in the most disorganized fashion. Was recycling not a concept back in 1995 because no one is going to be able to find anything in the casual pile of one thousand post it notes left on a table. In fact some of the things in the house seem to have been lying there for over half a year and no one bothered picking it up. For example Katie got back on the 6th of June 1995 and she discovered a sheet on the ground and a document from around when Sam started school on September 6th 1994. That would be almost ten months that those documents were left lying on the floor. But I guess I could really just drop the nitpicking and call the Greenbriar’s messiness a somewhat arbitrary plot device.

    Overall I found the game and it’s concept to be rather interesting. The graphics were pretty good and gave the house some nice detail. Even though I found the ending to take a surprising and somewhat disappointing turn I would recommend that you play the game for yourself to make your own experience in the Greenbriar house.    … Expand
  87. Edong
    Dec 15, 2014
    5
    Gone Home is a first-person game that is set in 1995. The game takes on the role of Kaitlin Greenbriar, who comes home one late night to find an empty house. The game then progresses throughout the house as you find clues left behind to unravel the mystery.
    Gone Home is a game that narrates a story through the clues that are found throughout the house. The setting takes place at a lonely    Gone Home is a first-person game that is set in 1995. The game takes on the role of Kaitlin Greenbriar, who comes home one late night to find an empty house. The game then progresses throughout the house as you find clues left behind to unravel the mystery.
    Gone Home is a game that narrates a story through the clues that are found throughout the house. The setting takes place at a lonely mansion that is very close to the forest. All the items from the house are from 1995, and it certainly creates an aura that feels like it is set in that time. It is also very realistic. All the events that unfold through the story are believable.
    I was first introduced to Gone Home through my teacher in class. At first, I thought that the game seemed unusual; telling a story through a game. However, as I started playing the game, it became more interesting. It does not feel like a game, but you can interact with objects, and observe items throughout the house. The controls are simple; even people who are just starting out the gaming path can play it.
    There are different settings in the game itself to change the graphics. While the game runs best on the lowest graphic, the quality is very poor. However, while ran on the highest graphic, the quality is amazing and the furniture and items around the house almost look real. The down side is that the game takes longer to load and everything runs much slower. The sounds are very simple, yet also very realistic. It sets the mood of the night and would sound much like how you would be in the house in the middle of the night with no one else home; quiet, spooky, and almost haunting.
    I find Gone Home to be boring and dull. Sure, the narrative is good, and the graphics and sound are okay, but the player must pay attention to the deepest details around the house. I, with not much patience to paying attention to the littlest things, did not find every detail that was in the house. Since I was not able to find out all the clues, the ending confused me. It was on my third try playing the game before I finally understood the plot of the story, however I was still missing some major details.
    In conclusion, I find the game to have a good narrative story. However, there is a need to connect the dots to unravel what happened in the year that Katy was away from the house. I would recommend this game if you like mystery games and puzzle solving, however I would not recommend it if you are looking for something more exciting.    … Expand
  88. rossf
    Dec 14, 2014
    7
    Gone Home is an interactive story game that focuses on exploration to progress through the story. The game is played from a first person point of view as you take control of Katie Greenbriar as she returns home from a year abroad and arrives at her new inherited home to find her family isn’t there. Gone Home is based around exploring this mansion and learning about what has happened there.Gone Home is an interactive story game that focuses on exploration to progress through the story. The game is played from a first person point of view as you take control of Katie Greenbriar as she returns home from a year abroad and arrives at her new inherited home to find her family isn’t there. Gone Home is based around exploring this mansion and learning about what has happened there.
    Gome Home is an indy game which focuses on telling a compelling story over high action gameplay, large open worlds and incredible graphics. Gone Home is a great example of how less is often more and how the little things matter. An example of this is the setting for the game, which is a large mansion that Katie’s parent’s inherited while Katie was abroad backpacking around Europe and the entirety of the game in played in the house. While the house is large, keeping the entire game in this house allows for smaller details to not be overlooked. Details such as being able to interact with things that don’t have any effect or importance to the story adds to the realism of the house and forces the player to explore the house more extensively, never knowing when they may come across something important.
    As for things I didn’t like, my main complaint with the game is the fact that it arguably not a game. In my opinion Gone Home is an interactive story and not so much a game. Your actions in the game only affect the order in which you receive information and how deeply you choose to learn about the characters. There are no consequences, positive or negative, to your actions and outcome of the game is always the same no matter what.
    In conclusion Gone Home is an interactive story game that focuses on little details opposed to high action gameplay to tell a compelling story. While I don’t feel Gone Home is a game in the traditional sense, I still enjoyed the experience and those who value a compelling story over graphics and action will enjoy it.    … Expand
  89. GrahamTrusler
    Dec 11, 2014
    7
    Gone Home is the story of the Greenbriar family, who have inherited a house while the playable character, Katie, was hiking in Europe for a year. The story revolves around discovering where your family is, which gradually reveals itself as you work your way around the large house. Gone Home utilizes audio journals, ambient noise, and music in order to develop a vibrant atmosphere withinGone Home is the story of the Greenbriar family, who have inherited a house while the playable character, Katie, was hiking in Europe for a year. The story revolves around discovering where your family is, which gradually reveals itself as you work your way around the large house. Gone Home utilizes audio journals, ambient noise, and music in order to develop a vibrant atmosphere within the game. The audio is high quality, and often prompted by certain events within the game, especially in regards to the audio journals and music, which often play at the same time. The game utilizes ambient noise when no other is present, in order to make the game feel confortable to the player. Due to the budget, small team, and time restraints, the graphics in Gone Home are not comparable to most modern, big budget, AAA titles. Instead, the developers chose to use somewhat simple graphics, but amplify their effect by including an astounding amount of detail, specifically in the interactive objects around the house. The graphics are passible, but are by no means excellent. However, they do feel appropriate with the general tone of the game. What allows the game to be so special is the richness of the story, and the potential discoveries the player can make while exploring the house. Although not always expansive, the back-stories behind established characters gradually reveal. The game format allows the player to discover what they want to discover, giving the player the allowance of playing just through the main story, or to dig through every piece of information, to draw a full conclusion in regards to the entire story of the family. When playing through, the gameplay sometimes felt slow, and somewhat boring. This was due to the inability to sprint, or jump. Sprinting/jogging should have been added into the game, but jumping is a somewhat redundant mechanic. Another issue with the gameplay and visuals was the lack of light in certain rooms, which could make it frustrating to turn a light on. Although the game received critical reviews, as a gamer, it is not a good investment. The gameplay is often slow and boring, but is made up for due to its fantastic voice acting and story. The visuals fall somewhere in the middle, as they are neither good nor bad. My score for this game is a 7/10, as I recognize the effort and time that went into completing it.… Expand
  90. doncsoo
    Nov 29, 2014
    5
    It is a really interesting game. It has great story, great graphics but it's boring. It was like that I was seen a book made into a game. Gameplay is the most important part of a game and it was really boring after 1 hour and really not worth the price they're asking for. Only buy if it is on sale.
  91. thenthomwaslike
    Nov 28, 2014
    7
    It was a nice game, well paced, with obsessive attention to detail. It gave me a nice fuzzy feeling, some nostalgia, and a hefty dose of melancholy. Every character is flawed and has a subplot worth uncovering. Worth checking out and getting through in one go, which takes a couple hours.
  92. DPtdryste
    Oct 10, 2014
    5
    Although I give this a 5, I concede that this game being grounded in a setting "too non-fiction" already creates a staid atmosphere for a gamer such as myself.

    In Gone Home you're alone in a huge house, you can't walk, and "gameplay" is basically lookin' at stuff in this very active environment and getting filled in on what you missed while you were gone. The game gives you a digital    Although I give this a 5, I concede that this game being grounded in a setting "too non-fiction" already creates a staid atmosphere for a gamer such as myself.

    In Gone Home you're alone in a huge house, you can't walk, and "gameplay" is basically lookin' at stuff in this very active environment and getting filled in on what you missed while you were gone. The game gives you a digital family and through, basically, THEIR STUFF, tries to create an immediate familial relationship. It's a sudden jolt, expecting to care about this family, in particular your sister. I'm not sure if there's a game that does this successfully, but creating a strong emotional connection to characters, where there once was nonce before is a hard task. Books and longer games are better suited for the job than Gone Home is.

    The game get interesting when tones of survival-horror are introduced, but they are simply that, tones. The entire game I was expecting to have something really scary happen... expecting anything to HAPPEN really.

    I turned on a lot of lights in Gone Home, but I am not particularly moved to go back. By the time I finished Gone Home, I realized that their were some locks I left unopened, some letters I hastily discarded before reading entirely, and some corners of my family's house left unexplored. For me at least, these details shall remain in the dark.    … Expand
  93. JimCorbett
    Sep 16, 2014
    5
    Gone Home is a game that touches on "sensitive" issues and has a political agenda which is the only reason why this game has been praised by "critics." For $20 you'll get 1-2 hours worth of gameplay. You'll walk around your house searching for what happened to your sister and parents. You'll open doors, search drawers, and shuffle through socks to find notes and other items that will leadGone Home is a game that touches on "sensitive" issues and has a political agenda which is the only reason why this game has been praised by "critics." For $20 you'll get 1-2 hours worth of gameplay. You'll walk around your house searching for what happened to your sister and parents. You'll open doors, search drawers, and shuffle through socks to find notes and other items that will lead your on your journey. It's actually fairly linear since you're basically set to "Find X key to open X" And then you find the key, move to the next area and repeat until the game is over. The twist is that the story deals with a (spoiler!) oppressed lesbian. Honestly, the story itself sucked. I was never given a reason to care about this girl and she never seemed interesting in the first place. Yet, I enjoyed my time with the game. It was fun to roam through the house learning new things and I never got annoyed trying to find a specific item so it was quite casual. However there really wasn't anything great about it. The only possible reason i can see people giving this such a high score is because for some reason if you don't agree with a feminist or LGBT you'll be deemed intolerant or some other crap. This game only seeks to put fuel to the fire which is quite disappointing.… Expand
  94. Metatarsals
    Aug 21, 2014
    6
    This is more of an interactive novel than it is a game - and no matter how much I wanted to really like it (riot grrl?! hell yeah!), it just didn't have the game play to back up to $15 price tag.

    I beat this game in about 80 minutes, which is saying something. I love to take my time, winding through a game and exploring all of its hidden secrets, but there wasn't a whole hell of a lot    This is more of an interactive novel than it is a game - and no matter how much I wanted to really like it (riot grrl?! hell yeah!), it just didn't have the game play to back up to $15 price tag.

    I beat this game in about 80 minutes, which is saying something. I love to take my time, winding through a game and exploring all of its hidden secrets, but there wasn't a whole hell of a lot of that in this game. You're just walking around in half lit rooms, trying to figure which hallway you're in, trying to move the story forward. This is something that would have definitely worked better as a short story or even a short film.

    Maybe the console update will see some improvements, here's to hoping! Not the best, but not the worst either. A solid 6.    … Expand
  95. ausgebombt85
    Aug 20, 2014
    6
    Unconventional is the word; its not a game but rather a display of an interactive short story. There are no game mechanics, no puzzles, nothing, just progression through unlocking sections of the house, and a beautiful story, with great music and voice acting. But it would not be fair to give it a higher score, yes its artistic, but I was expecting some kind of involvement through play,Unconventional is the word; its not a game but rather a display of an interactive short story. There are no game mechanics, no puzzles, nothing, just progression through unlocking sections of the house, and a beautiful story, with great music and voice acting. But it would not be fair to give it a higher score, yes its artistic, but I was expecting some kind of involvement through play, puzzles would have been nice.

    I wish this level of writing could be achieved by real games, but in the meantime, you've got "Gone Home".    … Expand
  96. ns0l
    Aug 11, 2014
    6
    I disagree. 9 or 10 is too much. Gone home is just a good game nothing more. It feels real, but I think it still lacks many things to be that perfect.
  97. GenuineOpinion
    Jul 11, 2014
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Plain and simple, it's an interactive story. I'm not knockin' it for that. It's just that.....
    ....that ending was absolutely ridiculous! I cracked up so hard. To summarize, the main character's little sister has a lesbian love affair, and their Ouija board tells them to run off together, and the parents are gone looking for them. That's why you come home to an empty house, lol!    … Expand
  98. WinkOrDie
    Jul 1, 2014
    6
    The bad thing about reviewing this game is that the game is not very depth mechanics wise. This review is basically hindered on the fact of how well I liked the story and the few characters that are in it.

    I enjoyed the story quite a bit, I did find myself really enjoying the character development and recording. It really let you into the life of you (Kaitlin) and your sister you hear    The bad thing about reviewing this game is that the game is not very depth mechanics wise. This review is basically hindered on the fact of how well I liked the story and the few characters that are in it.

    I enjoyed the story quite a bit, I did find myself really enjoying the character development and recording. It really let you into the life of you (Kaitlin) and your sister you hear through recordings (Sam).

    The audio was pretty great. The voice acting was solid, not that this was an extremely difficult job but great nonetheless. The music was pretty solid queuing in when needed and the song at the ending makes a nice parallel to something you hear from your sister earlier on it hit home with the song at the end.

    Graphics... I am not one to talk about graphics too much because I do not care about them unless they take you out of the experience the game is going for. For this game I think they are okay, nothing spectacular in the sense the textures are a little messy which take you out of the "zone" but for what it is it's okay. Period.

    The length of the game is very short. Even with someone like me who read every document and what not, it only took me ~2 hours. That is good and bad... Good because the story could only really a hold a 1-3 hour length. Bad because some people have paid $10-$20 for this game and it is not worth that price at all. I picked it up today on the steam sale for $2.99. Yes it was worth that price tag and maybe a $5-7 price range but nothing more.

    For those saying this shouldn't be a game, I disagree wholeheartedly. The reason being this game could not exist as is in another medium. It is far too short and lacks depth to be a book or a movie.

    Overall, it is a good game, with a huge emphasis on story so don't expect anymore mechanics from a interactive story. Should you pick it up? Yes, if you enjoy JUST a story and ONLY if you can find it from a $0-5 price range. I feel very bad for the people who spent $20 on the game so I do understand where there frustrations come from.    … Expand
  99. Jacer200
    May 17, 2014
    7
    This is a good little interactive story. The graphics are good and the single voice actor gives her character some soul. In my opinion interactive stories are a genre of gaming like RTS or RPG to first person shooters. But it is very niche. Only buy this game at under $10 because of the length per dollar you get.
  100. SweetrollJim
    Mar 12, 2014
    7
    Good game but definitely NOT worth 20 dollars. hour and a half worth of playtime at most so get it on sale or free even. Fairly interesting story but kind of a let down at the end, it will leave you wanting more. All in all: worth the experience but I'd never play it again.
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Awards & Rankings

12
#12 Best PC Game of 2013
11
#11 Most Discussed PC Game of 2013
3
#3 Most Shared PC Game of 2013

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
86

Generally favorable reviews - based on 56 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 49 out of 56
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 56
  3. Negative: 0 out of 56
  1. JeuxActu
    Feb 10, 2015
    85
    Grow Home is an interesting surprise from a publisher who get used to mismanaging his own IP's. This platformer like no other has everything going for you and for a very low price tag. You can easily give it a try.
    Read full review
  2. IGN Italia
    Jan 5, 2014
    95
    A beautiful, emotionally engaging, artfully crafted game, completely centered around exploration and telling a mature story through interaction.
    Read full review
  3. RPG Fan
    Dec 2, 2013
    75
    A story that will move some and alienate others.
    Read full review
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