Most of the gameplay feels like a mobile/tablet game, or a flash game. Basically you do the same task till you either got bored to death or complete the game. Go to the right, try to find a code to leave the actual station, meanwhile loot and possibly rescue some survivors. Types of zombies and weapons are limited. When you are on the train, you _could_ admire the pixel art or listen to the survivors' interesting conversation, related to the backstory and lore. I say could, because the devs decided to nag you with either stupid minigames (fix some issue on the train) or rush to get some medkit / food to the passengers before they die. By the way I played the game for almost two hours and only managed to keep a single survivor alive, despite of looting everything.
I remember my childhood, spending a whole summer vacation playing Fallout. Discovering that civilization is gone (Shady Sands) sneaking in the Raiders base, Struggling against the time limit, wandering in the Hub, running from Deathclaws and so on. Then another summer vacation, another Fallout (2). Trying to assemble the car, discovering that without a melee fighting skill you are fubar in early game stages, my boxing career, exploring the mine of Broken Hills, chasing the GECK. While I count myself as a hardcore Fallout fan, I didn't hate Fallout 3 per se, rather than quietly acknowledged that the series I once loved... gone. Like losing a close friend or a beloved one. Then New Vegas popped up out of the blue and the old Fallout atmosphere managed to break through that slimy mess of surface, which defines Bethesda games, with the weird animations, questionable graphics, silly NPC dialogue system and all that stuff which makes me dislike those games. And basically that's what New Vegas is for a hardcore Fallout fan. A bittersweet closure, like miraculously traveling back in time to spend 100+ hours with that beloved person you lost, knowing that it will end soon. Thank you, Obsidian. :')
I remember my childhood, spending a whole summer vacation playing Fallout. Discovering that civilization is gone (Shady Sands) sneaking in the Raiders base, Struggling against the time limit, wandering in the Hub, running from Deathclaws and so on. Then another summer vacation, another Fallout (2). Trying to assemble the car, discovering that without a melee fighting skill you are fubar in early game stages, my boxing career, exploring the mine of Broken Hills, chasing the GECK. While I count myself as a hardcore Fallout fan, I didn't hate Fallout 3 per se, rather than quietly acknowledged that the series I once loved... gone. Like losing a close friend or a beloved one. Then New Vegas popped up out of the blue and the old Fallout atmosphere managed to break through that slimy mess of surface, which defines Bethesda games, with the weird animations, questionable graphics, silly NPC dialogue system and all that stuff which makes me dislike those games. And basically that's what New Vegas is for a hardcore Fallout fan. A bittersweet closure, like miraculously traveling back in time to spend 100+ hours with that beloved person you lost, knowing that it will end soon. Thank you, Obsidian. :')
Even after a year from the release, the game crashes with an error after the intro video and it seems the devs are not bothered by this fact. Based on a quick Google search, couple of folks out there are affected by the problem. Definitely the last time when I purchased anything at all from this dev / publisher.
Disclaimer: I have the game purchased on Steam. I swear to God, I wanted to love this game. Beautiful graphics, awesome atmosphere, province management, lieges, tactical map gameplay and real time battles, nice lore and the best is... Fighting Fantasy style mini-events and adventures! Yet, I had to abandon it, because it's a terribly flawed game. Why? Basically the game is not tested properly and it ruins the whole experience. Random events (both storyline related and minor ones) triggered left and right and you have no idea how those are gonna unfold. You are being swamped with them and you have ZERO idea which one should be pursued and which shouldn't (read: which one could result in losing the game and which one won't). A ghost castle appears in the distant part of your realm (mind that it's one of many random events, nothing strange or suspicious). What will you do? a.) If you already triggered war with a major faction in the main storyline, then nothing, you lost. The castle will spawn armies of incredibly strong ghost warriors and no chance to survive a two fronts war. b.) Send a moderate sized army with a decent hero to investigate? Wrong, you just lost the game, they will be slaughtered and till you can send a big army there, too many ghost armies spawned. c.) Send your main army? Well, the ghost army will be pretty strong, chances are, you will lose the fight and the castle will continue spawning ghost. Then you are a goner. d.) Send everyone, I mean EVERYONE there, as soon as possible? Yes, correct, you can continue the game. And that's the pitfall, it kills the gameplay experience. Basically you can play the game one of the three ways: 1.) Easiest difficulty, kills the fun. 2.) Having a dozen of save games and reloading to the proper stage when you realize that a mistake was done, kills the fun. 3.) Restarting the game and playing 10-20-30 hours of the same stuff, just to progress. Kills the fun. And that's why I gave the game two stars... :/
That's my sixth time, trying to write a review about Gone Home. Usually I'm not writing such things, but the fact that the game has three stars rating and the top reviews are negative ones made me to do it. However, the fact, that I'm unable to properly explain why the game is great is a certain indication that it's not an easy nut to crack. Therefore I cannot really blame people for giving debunking reviews. Let me put it this way... Gone Home is a unique experience. It's more of an interactive storytelling, rather than a classic "game", what you could categorize like TBS, FPS, etc. If I would want to strip it down, I would say that Gone Home is a first person exploration game, whereas you revisit your old home to find everyone missing. Then you have to explore the house room by room to figure out what happened via notes, visual signs and audio diaries. However, the game is much more than that and alas, it's impossible to give you an idea about the brilliance of the game without including major spoilers. Basically if you are fine with a game which is not revolving around saving the world and epic battles AND you are ready to be open minded toward a new gameplay experience, then buy it and enjoy. I'm sure you will do. However, if you think that games should be games (fighting in trenches, chasing orcs, upgrading your character, whatever) and no excuse for leaving the beaten track, then just ignore this one.
