Gone Home

Early in this game, you find your mother's day planner. She's overworked. Her older daughter (you), the "good" one, has been out of the country. Her younger daughter adores her husband; they're very similar people, and your mother has always felt like she couldn't fully understand them. Her husband has been moody since they moved to this new house. She's lonely and sad. This day planner describes a cooking class she's been taking every week, despite her long commutes and tough job. At the end, she writes in an excited handwriting and several exclamation points that she'll finally use what she learned in class to cook a special dinner for her family. A few minutes later, you'll find a note your sister wrote to a friend. Your sister is an incredibly interesting and endearing person; everything you learn about her just makes you like her more. In this note, she writes something along the lines of, "Mom's cooking some kind of dinner or something on Friday, but it's not a big deal. I can miss it and go hang out with you." This game is like a sandbox of dramatic irony. Every step provides more information, of things other people didn't know, of things you won't find out until later, of feelings and thoughts they wouldn't communicate to the people who matter. Don't listen to anyone who says that no one would like this game if it wasn't about gay people. First of all, that's asinine, but even if it wasn't, this game is not about gay people. It's about when you finally find out why your parents really aren't home. It's about when you read the story Sam wrote when she was twelve or so. It's about the moment when you suddenly stop and think how your father must have felt, watching his brilliant, adorable daughter make a big game of trying to summon the ghostly spirit of her great-uncle. And yes, it's a love story, too.

There are plenty of games that include LGBT themes, while still managing to be a game. This isn't a game, it's a tumblr given life. If your idea of a good time is to cruise social justice blogs, this is for you. No reviewer is allowed to say this, though, or they will be called a homophobe by the tumblr overmind.

Bought the game with discount for 4.99$ and for me it was worth the price. Just be aware that it is a short adventure for one or two playthroughs.

I rarely do reviews but this time I feel I must seeing all the rage against "walking simulators" lately. There's a distinction that should be made between actual games and visual novels. I understand gamers looking for an actual adventure games are let down by these kind of "games" thus these should have a genre name separating them from actual adventure games. In short: If you're looking for an adventure game with puzzles and actual gameplay, skip this. But if you enjoyed stuff with minimal gameplay like "Dear Esther" or "To The Moon" you should give this a try. In Gone Home, you simply wander around the house to uncover notes, diaries and various other stuff that are used to advance and tell the story. There is some voice acting but also a lot of notes you have to read yourself. That's it - no puzzles, if you don't consider some of the clues about a certain subplot to be puzzles. The story itself, is great. It is a realistic real-life drama. All of it could very well happen in real life, and does happen. That's what makes it different from most of game stories. The storytelling is done very well and in a perfect pace. The voice acting is professional and a real pleasure to listen to. Gone Home sucked me right in and I completed in one session. It is short, though, around 2 hours but still worth the price in my opinion.

Wow, this was short and a big waste. People who buy this game are what is wrong with everything. Everything.