This game feels like it was custom-made for someone like me. The loop of research and solving puzzles through that research is very addictive to me and having no pressure to solve something in a certain amount of time is also great. I find the UI very immersive as I move a book, a map, and various other objects around to figure out the latest hint to where I might find a new flower or some more pages for my book to expand the list of flowers I can identify. On my first time through, I got one of several endings and I am looking forward to another playthrough with different decisions and a different ending. If you love feeling like you were really there and doing something with your hands, you will find this game very satisfying, I'm sure. It's a calm and immersive game - something for the brain, not for quick reflexes.
I got more or less what I expected from the game: exploration, a bit of farming, a bit of crafting, a story to play through. I didn't get all the achievements during my game, didn't maximize the crew's happiness (discovered the many uses of stew a little late), and didn't do much with their shacks. Even so, the game was fun to play through (needed spare time on about three days) and I will have a second try at it, this time focusing more on all the things you can do on the side. I liked that fighting plays a rather small role in the game (only ghosts in, roughly, the second half of the game), because I like exploring a lot more than fighting. The grindy part of the game is the search for parts, especially early, which are regularly respawned in different boxes. It took me a while to realize that the look of the box is different for each part, so I gathered a lot of stuff I didn't need looking for what I needed. Yet, that isn't too much of a problem, at least for me. I also didn't quite utilize the quick-travel feature with the shards a lot, which might have sped me up a little. The game is fun and casual, has enough for a long run (relationships with the crew, furnishing the shacks, catching all fishes and finding all recipes, among other things), but can also be completed relatively quickly, if you're only after that. It's not perfect, but a solid game which is, indeed, also family friendly.
First of all, for those who are arguing this is supposed to be a horror game, it's not. The basic storyline is 'you come home and nobody is there, find out why' and not 'zombies have taken over the house and lurk in the basement'. Yes, "Gone Home" is short, once you know where to find the information and the keys, you can play it in a little over 10 minutes ... but that means only going through the house and triggering the ending sequence, that kind of playing will not give you the complete story. The story, however, is not just about Sam (the sister). You can also find out about your father's troubles with writing, about his weird uncle, who owned the house before the family moved in, and other stuff. Basically, the game lets you catch up with the family history during the time you were in Europe. It's an everyday story, not something great or heroic or scary. It's just the unease everyone would feel alone in a house they've never been in before, at after 1 a.m. on a night with a thunderstorm, not atmospheric horror like in "Amnesia." $20 might indeed be a little much for the game ... and 'game' a little too much of a word for "Gone Home," but it does not deserve all the bad reviews it has gotten. If you want an FPS or an action game, this is not for you ... but that should be obvious from the description. If you like uncovering a story for yourself, you might want to give the game a chance.
