Video games are great aren't they? You put the cartridge/CD/DVD/download from steam and boot up your game-playing machine and while away as much time as you like shooting baddies/slaloming/pointing and clicking your woes to oblivion. There's some people who think this isn't enough, though. They think games approached in an unorthodox way could give users a completely new experience. They feel that this new experience would provide something different from film, books or television. Gone Home has been lauded by some as this new kind of game.
Gone Home takes place in
1995. You play Kathy Greenbriar, a student eager to reunite with her family after a gap year in
Europe. When she gets home, however, she
finds it deserted. Gone Home is a first
person game where you explore the Greenbriar house to find out what happened to her family.
The game started out with promise. There is a true sense of mystery surrounding the family's disappearance and a feeling that you're in a scary, psycho house. The sporadic narration (voiced by Sarah Grayson) is compelling. It's very atmospheric. At first you feel trepidation at the smallest action in case something evil jumps out at you.
The game soon falls down, though. Gone Home's average playtime is short - about an hour and a half. While it is nice to wander about rooms, searching anything clickable, it soon transpires that that's all you do. It's claimed that empathy must be used to solve puzzles which translates as 'click on anything to find code, put code wherever you can'. It's all very disappointing and anti-climactic. The game has no right to call itself a game. It's just a tech demo to show developers what an engine could do.
The game soon falls down, though. Gone Home's average playtime is short - about an hour and a half. While it is nice to wander about rooms, searching anything clickable, it soon transpires that that's all you do. It's claimed that empathy must be used to solve puzzles which translates as 'click on anything to find code, put code wherever you can'. It's all very disappointing and anti-climactic. The game has no right to call itself a game. It's just a tech demo to show developers what an engine could do.
It’s claimed that Gone Home challenges the "testosterone-fuelled” stereotype of computer games. This is entirely unfounded, though. In the last twenty years, the market has been saturated with adventure, puzzle and platformer games. The story for Gone Home isn't revolutionary, either – the
religious themes, for instance, seem hastily tacked on. Ultimately,
while video games are able to tell stories in a way that other mediums can’t, Gone Home is not a good example of this. If you want a game with true atmosphere and empathetic puzzle-solving, try System Shock 2.
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