Gone Home (2013)

I feel like the game was a bit misleading. For what I saw about it and the first part of the experience everything suggested a big mystery: no one's at your home for some unknown reason, there's 2 messages in the voicemail of someone crying calling your sister's name, they say the house is haunted and that the uncle who lived there went psycho. Even one note suggested someone in the family went through the same thing as the uncle (I mean sure, it was high school nonsense but it was still there).

I was definitely expecting way more than what I got. Even when I felt like I got it all figured out (which was pretty soon) I still fell misled by the game (why is the parents room a complete mess when they just left for a planned retreat? It totally seemed to me like they left in a hurry and up until I found the truth I was expecting they went after Sam because she ran away with Lonnie. I think this does have an explanation that you find a lot later, but it still feels misleading to me)

The story was cute and I enjoyed it, up until the end. I was way more on board with the bittersweet ending of a first love and first heartbreak than just 2 teenagers running away from home with absolutely no plan. Maybe I'm not adventurous enough. But I did feel like it was not "enough". It was mundane, took too long for what it was (you move pretty slowly and you have to check every damn thing unless you're fine missing important plot points) and didn't even resolve well.

I probably ruined my experience by expecting something it wasn't and by playing What Remains of Edith Finch before it. Or maybe I just wasn't in the mood, because there's another walking simulator that's all about misleading you about this big mystery that's actually nothing, and I loved that one.

This walking simulator is a short little exploration of your empty house where your family is no where to be found as you unravel the central narrative of why the house is empty and features enough things to nosey about to seem like an actual place (occasionally small nostalgic 1990s attention to detail helps). The game itself leans a bit more heavily on the idea and message of the story rather than the game itself. (Any discussion of, being rather spoilery iMO and best not discussed) But imo, both are pretty good and a walking sim is a very good vehicle to take with what they were going for since the player is approaching the subject matter 'as family' Some parts are funny some parts are a bit sad. Overall it's a rather emotionally charged game.
just know its short and linear

One thing I liked the most was it is kinda nice how you can infer a few things about some of the minor characters and events that happened in the story that arent central plot related (if you are nosey enough) based on what you find in the house (arguably secrets) Even though you dont know these characters and learn some of their flaws making them feel like real people.

As far as walking sims go, it's a very good one.

How well do you really know the people closest to you? When Kaitlin Greenbriar returns home from a gap year in Europe to find her entire family gone, it’s up to her to uncover the secrets that didn’t make it into those long-distance letters.

Picking up the threads of her family’s lives, the player must explore the colossal house they have since moved into, examining letters, newspaper clippings and, if one so chooses, the hundred thousand other details that make up a life. If it’s the people, and not the house, that make a home, then this game shows how each individual has inhabited every room with their cares, uncertainties and basic humanity.

From hastily scrawled notes passed between friends during class, to adult magazines buried under work documents, Gone Home is teeming with meticulously authentic details of family life that the player is at liberty to snoop through, turning each find over to yield further hidden notes or features.

To see the rest of my review, please take a mosey at my blog. Thanks!