Now Playing: Gone Home

It’s 1995 and you are 21 year old Kaitlin Greenbriar. You return home from a trip abroad on one dark and stormy night only to discover the house deserted. Where are your parents? Or your sister, Sam? Gone Home is something of an interactive mystery house. Entirely at your own pace you can explore, find clues and figure out what happened.

So far, so intriguing. When I first entered the house it reminded me a lot of Shenmue, which may seem like an odd comparison. But one of the first things you can do in Shenmue is walk about your own house, opening drawers and cupboards and rifle through people’s personal possessions. And that’s what you’ll be doing throughout Gone Home. You’ll be walking through this house, poking about, searching every drawer and examining all sorts of (mostly mundane) items. Like a toilet roll! Why? Because maybe there’s a clue in the roll! (Tip – there’s not!)

I actually really enjoyed this aspect, although I’m not sure I was supposed to spend so long making piles of assorted junk in the entrance hall. Of course, this exploration and examination is more than just cosmetic. Certain items you find will trigger ‘journal’ messages from your sister. As you progress and find more of these recordings you’ll piece together exactly what happened. And this is really the main story of Gone Home – what happened to Sam.

But there are other stories in this mystery house, full of secret passages and hidden rooms. By reading various notes and letters throughout (as well as discovering particular items) you’ll gain an insight into the lives of Kaitlin’s parents and their relationship with Sam. There’s also a little side plot about the previous owner of the house. This is something Gone Home does pretty well – building these narratives through your own exploration.

So far, so good. The game looks nice and builds a good atmosphere with some great lighting and sound. The attention to detail is also great and as someone who was a teenager back in 1995, I loved a lot of the details. It does feel (mostly) like a real place where people live. Although alone in the house you come to feel that Sam is your companion, guiding you through from one clue to the next. Her VA is fantastic and adds a lot to the game.

So where does Gone Home go wrong? Well, although the freedom Gone Home grants the player is great, it can result in you stumbling across something that might break the flow of the narrative. About 20 minutes in I found a ‘secret’ area and realising I probably wasn’t supposed to go there yet, I backed out. Which was lucky, because if I had followed it through I’d have ended the game barely as it was getting started. Which would be a shame, because exploring the house, opening up new areas and finding each successive journal entry is extremely enjoyable and rewarding.

My other concern is that the side narratives are rather undercooked and don’t really lead anywhere. I was expecting a little more from them. This, sadly, is also a problem with the main story and my primary issue. There was a point about an hour and twenty minutes into Gone Home where it felt like things were really getting interesting. I was enjoying it a lot, far more, I must admit, than I was expecting. And then it just ended, incredibly abruptly.

Oh. I don’t want to get too much into the story stuff because I really don’t want to spoil it for people. All I can say is that the ‘ending’ just fell totally flat for me. I just sat there and thought ‘is that it?’ It’s not such a case of expecting some grand, dramatic finale or anything like that. It simply feels like the story took a great leap. As if we’d jumped from the middle of the tale to the very end. It wasn’t very satisfying and left me feeling like I’d missed out on a lot of stuff.

Only I hadn’t. I had all the journal entries so I certainly hadn’t rushed anything. But the ending of Gone Home did feel rushed. I was getting swept along with the story and then suddenly it wraps up in the space of a couple of minutes leaving me feeling rather deflated. It felt like there was a lot more story to these characters, especially the parents and their involvement.

Overall though, I liked Gone Home. Like The Stanley Parable, it’s something I’ll probably spend a few days debating internally whether it’s a ‘proper’ game or not before remembering that I don’t really give a f**k. It’s an experience, one I enjoyed and ultimately that’s all that really matters. Like Stanley, I’d recommend it to those who want to try something a little different. It’s neat, but it does feel a lot like eating half of a delicious meal before the plate is suddenly snatched away.