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
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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.
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  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.
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