mo-macrae
Lifetime Total
1+
IMDb Member
11 years
Reviews
Gone Home (2013)
The size of a puddle, as deep as an ocean
Gone Home is a unique game with a rich story, but it requires time, patience and curiosity for a full experience. The story is delivered by searching through a mansion to find clues. These clues develop and enhance the story of Gone Home.
The environment of Gone Home is very compelling and different from most other games. From beginning to end the whole game is set in a mansion in 1990's America. Throughout Gone Home thunder and lightning sets a dark and haunted mood. Lack of lighting just adds to the lonesome feeling of the empty house. Every time I turned on a light I felt oddly gratified that I have discovered a little more. I became more and more curious as I progressed through the game. However, sometimes there were parts in the game I felt I had nowhere to go. Quite a few times I was tempted to search for answers online, but I held off and it paid out in the end.
Gone Home's detail is probably the defining factor of the game. Every painting, floor or room has a purpose. For example, one room uncovers disturbing parts of the father's early life. Also, scenes such as Sam's room are the rooms that really begin to develop Sam (the sister), a full range of her personality was displayed just in the detail of one set. I won't reveal more than that, but the level of detail a player finds is the amount of time he/she puts in.
The gameplay was very different from most first person games. The developers set the walk speed annoyingly low with the intention of the player to explore the finer details. If the game is played as the developers intended, looking through drawers and opening letters, the true depth to the story is revealed. Side plots open up and things begin to make sense; every audio message I stopped moving, and felt gratified in hearing Sam's voice. A minor negative to the story line of Gone Home was that the player has no affect on it; it felt as though no matter what I did, everything was laid out before hand.
The gameplay, environment and story of Gone Home were superb to say the least, although some hiccups in pacing, the developers were very effective at what they wanted to do. They create a unique game that told an interactive and interesting story.
The environment of Gone Home is very compelling and different from most other games. From beginning to end the whole game is set in a mansion in 1990's America. Throughout Gone Home thunder and lightning sets a dark and haunted mood. Lack of lighting just adds to the lonesome feeling of the empty house. Every time I turned on a light I felt oddly gratified that I have discovered a little more. I became more and more curious as I progressed through the game. However, sometimes there were parts in the game I felt I had nowhere to go. Quite a few times I was tempted to search for answers online, but I held off and it paid out in the end.
Gone Home's detail is probably the defining factor of the game. Every painting, floor or room has a purpose. For example, one room uncovers disturbing parts of the father's early life. Also, scenes such as Sam's room are the rooms that really begin to develop Sam (the sister), a full range of her personality was displayed just in the detail of one set. I won't reveal more than that, but the level of detail a player finds is the amount of time he/she puts in.
The gameplay was very different from most first person games. The developers set the walk speed annoyingly low with the intention of the player to explore the finer details. If the game is played as the developers intended, looking through drawers and opening letters, the true depth to the story is revealed. Side plots open up and things begin to make sense; every audio message I stopped moving, and felt gratified in hearing Sam's voice. A minor negative to the story line of Gone Home was that the player has no affect on it; it felt as though no matter what I did, everything was laid out before hand.
The gameplay, environment and story of Gone Home were superb to say the least, although some hiccups in pacing, the developers were very effective at what they wanted to do. They create a unique game that told an interactive and interesting story.