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[KikiEars]

Interesting game, to say the least. I already wrote my complete thoughts on it and they haven't changed it, I guess I'll post that.


None of the sidestories are good or compelling and can stretch logic so much when the player realizes them.

The main plot(which is the weakest part of the game) is terrible.

None of what you can find is particularly rewarding, they also feel like Easter eggs that shouldn't be an Easter egg and is a fatal flaw of the game.

It’s not entertaining, compelling, emotional, engrossing , meaningful , or almost any positive quality as a piece of fiction.

It has mechanically good writing,but the actual writing it in it is terrible , nonsensical, and the characterization is godawful. “More manifesto than message”

And the mainifesto is so bad to the point of “I’d rather jump down a flight of stairs while carrying a pair of scissors in the dark while naked and crying after getting all of my money stolen when I was getting beat up in an alley during a downpour of unrelenting rain.”

The “main” narrative is hahahaha, hilarious and only enjoyable ironically.

All it accomplished is making me want play the number of games(I estimate a little more than 50)that do what it tries to do, but actually do it well.

The written notes and objects and such give way to the selling point of the game: finding notes and piecing together a story and unraveling certain things using your own intellect and investigation.

However, the execution of this is just terrible and seems to tend to use stretches of logic at times(even to absurd extents) when the player plays the game uses those skills, and what you find is hackneyed as all hell.

It’s horrendously designed as a game, feels like a tech demo or prototype to a possibly great game. The exploration and “finding stuff” requires absolutely nothing and is not rewarding whatsoever because the narrative is simply trying to echo a teen drama without knowing absolutely anything that made those great.

Did I mention how insulting and problematic the usage of the younger lesbian sister is?

The angsty lesbian sister, it’s kinda just hilariously ignorant and paints a patronizing picture of what actually goes on for LBGTQ people.

The social commentary it does is pretty much the opposite of what anyone who would want societal progression for equality would want in a mainstream work of media trying to convey these themes.

It’s a far below average family drama that’s irredeemable trash on many levels, the “gameplay” aspect of could have been done well too , but it was just really obvious and it could literally have been designed by a twelve year old.

2/10 from me, don’t buy it. Especially not for 20 dollars.

I could list you games that are near 8/10 to 10/10 tier on many levels, even decent games that you would find better than this piece of garbage and that I would find serviceable and having their own unique and great qualities in all likelihood.(Obviously not always)

Even if I tried pushing it and cut Gone Home some slack, it would still be a nuclear disaster every time.

I generally like a lot and , no, this was a whole mess of bad game design and and even worse writing meeting up in the middle for a cluster of absolute atrociousness.

I looked at it as a piece of writing, a piece of interactive fiction, and as a game. And it failed miserably as any of those.

This will never be anything remotely close to art.

 

[Grizza]

Huh, very interesting, but the game wasn't that cheap so I guess I'll wait on a sale for the DLC.

I wouldn't replay it so soon anyway, even though I loved it.

Umm...the commentary mode is free DLC.

 

[Jintor]

The “main” narrative is hahahaha, hilarious and only enjoyable ironically.

Oh, I guess my enjoyment of it never occurred. Must've been a passing delusion I guess.

The written notes and objects and such give way to the selling point of the game: finding notes and piecing together a story and unraveling certain things using your own intellect and investigation.

However, the execution of this is just terrible and seems to tend to use stretches of logic at times(even to absurd extents) when the player plays the game uses those skills, and what you find is hackneyed as all hell.

It’s horrendously designed as a game, feels like a tech demo or prototype to a possibly great game. The exploration and “finding stuff” requires absolutely nothing and is not rewarding whatsoever because the narrative is simply trying to echo a teen drama without knowing absolutely anything that made those great.

I mean, I don't understand what this criticism means at all. You just say "it's terrible" and you don't say anything about why it's terrible. Give examples, a concrete example of something that felt like a logical stretch. Why is it horrendously designed as a game and why does it feel like a tech demo? If it knows nothing about what makes teen dramas great, why did I and many of the other people in this game enjoy it on a completely non-ironic level?

 

[Purple_Tentacle]

It’s not entertaining, compelling, emotional, engrossing , meaningful , or almost any positive quality as a piece of fiction.

Go

Spoiler

ne

home, you're drunk.

 

[KikiEars]

Oh, I guess my enjoyment of it never occurred. Must've been a passing delusion I guess.

I don't really need a disclaimer telling you that my subjective opinion and outlook on the game is different from yours, right?

I mean, I don't understand what this criticism means at all. You just say "it's terrible" and you don't say anything about why it's terrible.

I did say why it's terrible, you were right about the concrete examples , but yes, I did say why I personally thought it was terrible.

Give examples, a concrete example of something that felt like a logical stretch. Why is it horrendously designed as a game and why does it feel like a tech demo? If it knows nothing about what makes teen dramas great, why did I and many of the other people in this game enjoy it on a completely non-ironic level?

It was just pretty awkward to me. It kinda worked well with

Spoiler

Oscar molesting Terry and how that was revealed

But nah, I didn't really see any of it being particularly well-designed.


I think I meant to re-edit it at some point, I think I was more leaning towards "this is really obvious based on one thing you saw earlier, this is dumb and not even worth it at all."


You're obviously a different person than me if you enjoyed the game on a non-ironic level.

The game is pretty shallow and doesn't have anything to say on any of the subjects it addresses, the physics is laughable and I can't believe it was praised, the crux of the game is "figure out the narratives through all these clues" but it beats you over the head with it even through that. Different strokes.

Go

Spoiler

ne

home, you're drunk.

I'd rather hear legitimate responses like the poster above you if you're going to respond. Adding something of no value like that isn't worth my time.

Oh yeah it's a stretch of logic because it has to conveniently connect back to an object you saw earlier regardless of any other possibility, it doesn't really work for me I guess.

 

[Jintor]

I don't really need a disclaimer telling you that my subjective opinion and outlook on the game is different from yours, right?

Then don't state it as if you're the bloody king of Opiniontown! Your review started interestingly enough and then begun a slow and tiring descent into hyperbole to the point where I begun to question if you just wished ill on the team who created it.

I did say why it's terrible, you were right about the concrete examples , but yes, I did say why I personally thought it was terrible.

It was just pretty awkward to me. It kinda worked well with

Spoiler

Oscar molesting Terry and how that was revealed

But nah, I didn't really see any of it being particularly well-designed.

You're obviously a different person than me if you enjoyed the game on a non-ironic level.

The game is pretty shallow and doesn't have anything to say on any of the subjects it addresses, the physics is laughable and I can't believe it was praised, the crux of the game is "figure out the narratives through all these clues" but it beats you over the head with it even through that. Different strokes.

I mean, I take some small amount of umbrage with how document-driven the game is, but that's a aspect of environmental-based storytelling that no team has yet managed to get around effectively beyond "Bloody corpse on the floor"-style storytelling so I don't really take it as a massive minus. But even though it's document driven, I don't think it beats you over the head with its narrative as such, especially compared to other doc-driven stories in other games.

Certainly you find diaries or audiologs that relate to objects and they piece together fairly neatly, but there's still more than a few elements of player reliance. You're not simply moving into a room and hitting 'E' on the glowy object; you're not just pressing 'next' on a dialogue wheel. You've got to sit down and piece together what you know of the family so far so as to find the next piece of evidence, assemble it all in your brain into a single coherent narrative, and work out what to do next based on that. Some story elements won't even occur to you if you're not actively thinking about them in that frame of mind - I completely missed the Oscar/Terry supposed connection my first time through.

As for whether the story is shallow or not, I must admit I don't particularly give a shit. I can enjoy a shallow story as well as a deep one so long as it's interestingly told and well executed. And I felt it definitely was.

I also don't understand why you'd say anything about the physics of the game to be honest.

 

[KikiEars]

Then don't state it as if you're the bloody king of Opiniontown! Your review started interestingly enough and then begun a slow and tiring descent into hyperbole to the point where I begun to question if you just wished ill on the team who created it.

I spent 3-4 hours playing it and it was a pretty meaningless and cringe-worthy experience.

I wrote that up the next day, might reflect the feeling of those 3-4 hours.

I mean, I take some small amount of umbrage with how document-driven the game is, but that's a aspect of environmental-based storytelling that no team has yet managed to get around effectively beyond "Bloody corpse on the floor"-style storytelling

That's a pretty insulting thing to say about the medium, this was pretty terribly done and rather obvious to me, in a way that doesn't engage the player at all with over-the-top writing. Yeah, I'm pretty sure it happened before and better. Have you heard of this popular game called Dark Souls?

Certainly you find diaries or audiologs that relate to objects and they piece together fairly neatly, but there's still more than a few elements of player reliance. You're not simply moving into a room and hitting 'E' on the glowy object; you're not just pressing 'next' on a dialogue wheel. You've got to sit down and piece together what you know of the family so far so as to find the next piece of evidence, assemble it all in your brain into a single coherent narrative, and work out what to do next based on that. Some story elements won't even occur to you if you're not actively thinking about them in that frame of mind - I completely missed the Oscar/Terry supposed connection my first time through.
.

The single coherent narrative is about a dysfunctional family who is obviously dysfunctional, the pieces of "lore" in this case, can repeat themselves from time to time IIRC. It's pretty obvious. For example, it's way too obvious that

Spoiler

Lonnie was non-cis / transgendered

You find the next piece of evidence and the moment you actively think about it, it's almost spoon-fed to you. It's like a damn flow chart when so much more could have been done with it, I don't enjoy reading flow charts and figuring out a very easy flow chart isn't much of a game, and didn't end up being much of a story or experience.

Working out what to do next when the game betrays this through the default settings(voiced journal entries that solely focus on the main narrative, and I believe the map has markers on it that show you how to progress)

I think it's a failure of game design in some ways. Not that I really even think it's a game, a piece of interactive fiction where the interactivity is "oh man that object leads to that object; flow charts"

Oh, you missed the Oscar/Terry connection too? I wonder why that could possibly be. It's like there was no actual motivation to do that because none of the characters were interesting in this game of exploration that has a definite goal of reaching an endpoint.

As for whether the story is shallow or not, I must admit I don't particularly give a shit. I can enjoy a shallow story as well as a deep one so long as it's interestingly told and well executed. And I felt it definitely was.

I also don't understand why you'd say anything about the physics of the game to be honest.

The entire game is the story. If it's interestingly told(which it was not to me) then I'm afraid that coincides with me thinking it's a tech demo. The entire point is the story, the mental busywork wasn't anywhere close to enough to compensate, nor did I personally believe that the mental busywork even works as mental busywork.

The physics? The physics of this game were praised in a few reviews I saw of it. They weren't impressive and fairly standard and above-average at best. I'd consider replaying this but that sounds like a terrible time personally. I thought more of the game and thought it was a 4/10 instead of a 2/10, but then your post here reminded me of its failings so I decided against ever thinking that again.

I am interested in supporting the company's later works if they're conceptually different that doesn't keep going with the flaws of this game, so hopefully that happens.

 

[Jintor]

I would argue you need a certain amount of spoon feeding. Most people don't even realise dark souls has a story, let alone can follow it.

I am really confused as to what you mean by the physics. Sea saw puzzles? Am I weighting down lifts with barrels? What are you referring to?

(I also don't understand that somehow, despite the fact you claim the storytelling is rote and there's no mental busywork to be found, you still managed to play for almost three times longer than I did. Quite a feat)

Oh, you missed the Oscar/Terry connection too? I wonder why that could possibly be. It's like there was no actual motivation to do that because none of the characters were interesting in this game of exploration that has a definite goal of reaching an endpoint.

Or maybe it was because it required reading into information that was of no pressing immediate importance in the furtherance of the immediate storyline, and was instead a side thing to be looked at in context when later attempting to piece together all the rest of the family narratives?

 

[remz]

I thought we were a little beyond the point where anyone actually gave a shit about physics in gaming, this generation and last had a million games pretty much nail it, in virtually every genre ever so yeaaaaaa. is it really a talking point?

regardless, commenting on the physics engine in Gone Home is kind of missing the point of the game no?

 

[Inkwell]

Interesting game, to say the least. I already wrote my complete thoughts on it and they haven't changed it, I guess I'll post that.


None of the sidestories are good or compelling and can stretch logic so much when the player realizes them.

The main plot(which is the weakest part of the game) is terrible.

None of what you can find is particularly rewarding, they also feel like Easter eggs that shouldn't be an Easter egg and is a fatal flaw of the game.

It’s not entertaining, compelling, emotional, engrossing , meaningful , or almost any positive quality as a piece of fiction.

It has mechanically good writing,but the actual writing it in it is terrible , nonsensical, and the characterization is godawful. “More manifesto than message”

And the mainifesto is so bad to the point of “I’d rather jump down a flight of stairs while carrying a pair of scissors in the dark while naked and crying after getting all of my money stolen when I was getting beat up in an alley during a downpour of unrelenting rain.”

The “main” narrative is hahahaha, hilarious and only enjoyable ironically.

All it accomplished is making me want play the number of games(I estimate a little more than 50)that do what it tries to do, but actually do it well.

The written notes and objects and such give way to the selling point of the game: finding notes and piecing together a story and unraveling certain things using your own intellect and investigation.

However, the execution of this is just terrible and seems to tend to use stretches of logic at times(even to absurd extents) when the player plays the game uses those skills, and what you find is hackneyed as all hell.

It’s horrendously designed as a game, feels like a tech demo or prototype to a possibly great game. The exploration and “finding stuff” requires absolutely nothing and is not rewarding whatsoever because the narrative is simply trying to echo a teen drama without knowing absolutely anything that made those great.

Did I mention how insulting and problematic the usage of the younger lesbian sister is?

The angsty lesbian sister, it’s kinda just hilariously ignorant and paints a patronizing picture of what actually goes on for LBGTQ people.

The social commentary it does is pretty much the opposite of what anyone who would want societal progression for equality would want in a mainstream work of media trying to convey these themes.

It’s a far below average family drama that’s irredeemable trash on many levels, the “gameplay” aspect of could have been done well too , but it was just really obvious and it could literally have been designed by a twelve year old.

2/10 from me, don’t buy it. Especially not for 20 dollars.

I could list you games that are near 8/10 to 10/10 tier on many levels, even decent games that you would find better than this piece of garbage and that I would find serviceable and having their own unique and great qualities in all likelihood.(Obviously not always)

Even if I tried pushing it and cut Gone Home some slack, it would still be a nuclear disaster every time.

I generally like a lot and , no, this was a whole mess of bad game design and and even worse writing meeting up in the middle for a cluster of absolute atrociousness.

I looked at it as a piece of writing, a piece of interactive fiction, and as a game. And it failed miserably as any of those.

This will never be anything remotely close to art.

What is up with the formatting of your post? I mean, you obviously don't need to write like this is some kind of formal essay, but you write one or two sentences and then add a double space. Most of the time you're separating the same idea, or just repeating the same thing later in an offensive way. I didn't even want to re-quote the whole thing, but I thought you might see it again and realize how terrible it looks.


You make a lot of points that don't make any sense. In fact, I was initially going to ignore your post because it looked so much like trolling. Things like:

None of what you can find is particularly rewarding, they also feel like Easter eggs that shouldn't be an Easter egg and is a fatal flaw of the game.

What things? How is it a fatal flaw of the game? Maybe you could use some of that extra space between sentences to add some more context. There's plenty more of this, but lets must move on.


I'll give you a bit of a tip. If you want to make a solid point and add to the discussion, then that's just grand. If you just want to try to get a rise out of people keep posting like you are. Insulting the development team behind this game doesn't help you prove your point. There's so much I could quote showing this that I will just let it be. You and everyone else reading this knows exactly what I'm talking about. I guess when it comes to these kinds of points, I could just say

Adding something of no value like that isn't worth my time.

Are you LGBTQ? Seeing things like:

Did I mention how insulting and problematic the usage of the younger lesbian sister is?

The angsty lesbian sister, it’s kinda just hilariously ignorant and paints a patronizing picture of what actually goes on for LBGTQ people.

makes me want to say yes, but you also seem to be keeping your distance a bit. If you aren't, who are you to say what should offend them? I apologize if you are LBGTQ, but I have not seen a single comment from anyone saying this point was offensive. Show me some examples of this. Also while you're at it, let me know how it's ignorant and patronizing.


You don't have to like this game. You can absolutely hate it. I personally don't think there's anything special with the main plot of the game. Maybe next time you could be less offensive, a bit more clear about your points, and quite possibly add a little more context and evidence. People might be a little more receptive to your post.

 

[voodoopanda]

For example, it's way too obvious that

Spoiler

Lonnie was non-cis / transgendered

?? Did I miss something big because I don't recall this being suggested at all? The only thing I can think of that comes close was the pirate story Sam wrote, but that was written before she met Lonnie.

 

[KikiEars]

Maybe you could use some of that extra space between sentences to add some more context.

Yeah man, I can't have an opinion or state my feelings on the matter , good to know.

What is up with the formatting of your post? I mean, you obviously don't need to write like this is some kind of formal essay, but you write one or two sentences and then add a double space. Most of the time you're separating the same idea, or just repeating the same thing later in an offensive way. I didn't even want to re-quote the whole thing, but I thought you might see it again and realize how terrible it looks.

Nope. Try again.

You make a lot of points that don't make any sense. In fact, I was initially going to ignore your post because it looked so much like trolling. Things like:

I was initially going to ignore your post because it pretended to know what my post was talking about, but ah, I decided not to. What a shame.

What things? How is it a fatal flaw of the game? Maybe you could use some of that extra space between sentences to add some more context. There's plenty more of this, but lets must move on.

The side narratives are pretty terribly presented, and this game doesn't really benefit from it. For example, the Oscar/Terry connection, various other things that you may miss even though finding them isn't particularly hard in the first place; pretty bad design.

I'll give you a bit of a tip. If you want to make a solid point and add to the discussion, then that's just grand. If you just want to try to get a rise out of people keep posting like you are. Insulting the development team behind this game doesn't help you prove your point. There's so much I could quote showing this that I will just let it be. You and everyone else reading this knows exactly what I'm talking about. I guess when it comes to these kinds of points, I could just say

"Insulting the development team" Not sure how you could pretend I did that, but keep on pretending if you feel like it.

If you want to make a solid point and add to the discussion, make sure you actually read the post you're responding to instead of making stuff up.

And no, go ahead, quote my post showing all of that "getting a rise out of someone by simply saying I thought this game was bad", I sure would love to see what delusions of grandeur you have.

I'm afraid I and everyone else reading this post can actually tolerate other opinions, because that's what a discussion can, in fact , be in a civil matter.

Are you LGBTQ? Seeing things like:

makes me want to say yes, but you also seem to be keeping your distance a bit. If you aren't, who are you to say what should offend them? I apologize if you are LBGTQ, but I have not seen a single comment from anyone saying this point was offensive. Show me some examples of this. Also while you're at it, let me know how it's ignorant and patronizing.

Oh see, I originally wrote this in a way as to not spoil the game for people interested in it, but I'm sure it's fairly obvious how milking the homosexual relationship the game is centered around for as much drama as possible is exploitative and terrible, and I've heard numerous criticisms on how many people doubt if the FullBright Company has ever met lesbians. That's why it's ignorant and patronizing.

You don't have to like this game. You can absolutely hate it. I personally don't think there's anything special with the main plot of the game. Maybe next time you could be less offensive, a bit more clear about your points, and quite possibly add a little more context and evidence. People might be a little more receptive to your post.

Next time you disagree with somebody merely stating their opinions on the manner, don't pretend the post was something it wasn't. It wasn't meant to be a particularly analytical post, and I provided my examples for it afterwards.

Context and evidence in this case were not included to avoid spoilers when I originally posted it, it was mostly unedited and I don't really think I need to apologize for that.

Also, be sure to pretend I wanted people to be receptive.

After that, make sure to pretend I was being particularly offensive, when such a thing did not occur on a factual basis.

I would argue you need a certain amount of spoon feeding. Most people don't even realise dark souls has a story, let alone can follow it.

I am really confused as to what you mean by the physics. Sea saw puzzles? Am I weighting down lifts with barrels? What are you referring to?

(I also don't understand that somehow, despite the fact you claim the storytelling is rote and there's no mental busywork to be found, you still managed to play for almost three times longer than I did. Quite a feat)

I disagree on spoon-feeding , rather than play to the medium's strengths, Gone Home is just more reading presented in a less straightforward manner. But in the end, there was not much mental busywork to be found that wasn't just simply reading things in order. (Because it's not even ambiguous enough where it worked for more than 2 seconds)

The physics I was referring to was what others referred to, picking up objects

?? Did I miss something big because I don't recall this being suggested at all? The only thing I can think of that comes close was the pirate story Sam wrote, but that was written before she met Lonnie.

Must have been Sam then.

Or maybe it was because it required reading into information that was of no pressing immediate importance in the furtherance of the immediate storyline, and was instead a side thing to be looked at in context when later attempting to piece together all the rest of the family narratives?

The rest of the family narratives are all pretty mediocre yet far better than the main narrative. I'd argue people miss it because of poor design that pretended to be smart. Yet the moment you think about it, it's quite obvious, and even if it wasn't quite obvious, there's no reason to care due to the lack of characterization, likability of characters, impact,etc. Your reaction to some might just be "Oh. That sucks, yeah."

And besides that, this isn't much in the way of environmental story-telling, since it's things you read and things you look at directly, some novels could be organized in a similar manner. This isn't really something that did anything with the medium, in my opinion.

 

[Jintor]

I think maybe then it's just indicative of how little anybody does anything with the medium re: environmental storytelling. Dark Souls as you outlined is the only games that jumps to mind in terms of exploration of a 3D space that tells a tale in an interesting way, and even then I would argue that - for the most part, and of course considering that storytelling is not really Dark Souls' focus - it doesn't do a very good job of showing the player that a story even exists, let alone tell it.

Stripped of the 'worst game ever', 'absolute atrociousness', 'irredeemable trash' and 'could never possibly be art' hyperbole, your criticisms of the game design at least are more or less the same as mine except they bothered you a hell of a lot more than they bothered me.

 

[Shaneus]

Oh see, I originally wrote this in a way as to not spoil the game for people interested in it, but I'm sure it's fairly obvious how milking the homosexual relationship the game is centered around for as much drama as possible is exploitative and terrible, and I've heard numerous criticisms on how many people doubt if the FullBright Company has ever met lesbians. That's why it's ignorant and patronizing.

Let's see these criticisms.

 

[Chris Remo]

Oh see, I originally wrote this in a way as to not spoil the game for people interested in it, but I'm sure it's fairly obvious how milking the homosexual relationship the game is centered around for as much drama as possible is exploitative and terrible, and I've heard numerous criticisms on how many people doubt if the FullBright Company has ever met lesbians. That's why it's ignorant and patronizing.

I'd be curious to see these "numerous criticisms," because two of the people who worked on Gone Home are gay women—and one of those women makes up 25% of The Fullbright Company itself.

 

[TetraGenesis]

I'd be curious to see these "numerous criticisms," because two of the people who worked on Gone Home are gay women—and one of those women makes up 25% of The Fullbright Company itself.

Boom.


EDIT: It honestly would have taken KikiEars a 5 minute google to find that out on their own but I guess bold accusations and sweeping generalizations are more fun.

 

[snoopers]

Must have been Sam then.

What now ?

 

[CheesecakeRecipe]

I've never seen anyone take Gone Home to task for lack of realism in the portrayal of the homosexual relationship between Sam and Lonnie.

I'm super curious to see these complaints myself.

 

[Sibylus]

As another LGBT woman myself, I found the story really touching, personally.

Spoiler

And the bulk of KikiEars' complaints shallow and reactionary, hysterical tripe, to be frank.

 

[ZombieSupaStar]

Played thru the game just now in about 74 minutes. I loved it, I would love more games in this style. Having played so much shoot bang games it was a nice change of pace. I admit towards the end

Spoiler

I felt dread going up to the attic, I am glad they didn't go with suicide as the end result

Are there any other games with this kind of story to them? I have scratches: directors cut, but haven't played through it yet.

At the end I just wanted to hug my daughter. Except ........I don't have a daughter (yet?). I should probably work on getting a g/f first....

 

[ekim]

Something is coming... A ghost DLC maybe?

 

[commissar]

Cool, I like commentaries :]

 

[vladdamad]

Criticisms

I actually agree with a lot of what you wrote here, although I wouldn't be as harsh. I feel like the game is more manifesto that a piece of good storytelling, and while, unlike you, I think that the gameplay mechanics are fantastic, and I would like to see more games utilise this kind of environmental storytelling, I would agree with you in that the main plot is bland and cliche. I also agree that it was poorly written and a lacking in subtlety (although I guess this fits for the diary of a teenage girl?). What I want is another story told in the same way, the devs have a massive amount of potential.

 

[derExperte]

50% off on Steam for the next 48hrs.

 

[Forensic Scene]

50% off on Steam for the next 48hrs.

Yesssss

 

[dreamfall]

Something is coming... A ghost DLC maybe?

Ooooo!

I hope it is something Halloween-esque! The game really reminds me of Fall for some reason- was going to revisit it this weekend.

The game was so rad!

EDIT: AH, the soundtrack & commentary. SO goooooood!

 

[Larsa]

Played through commentary mode, which was really great and interesting and...good. This is the GOTY-est GOTY.
Now I have to buy myself a GH:OST.

 

[Zach]

So tempting at $10... if only someone would give me a nudge...

 

[GravityMan]

50% off on Steam for the next 48hrs.

This is what I was waiting for. Just bought it.

 

[Mzo]

Same here. Perfect price, installing.

 

[stuminus3]

Played from start to finish last night. What an incredible experience. The ending was perfect because

Spoiler

it's not at all what you'd expect (or even what the game leads you to believe).

Very bold, very refreshing.

 

[Jibbajabbawockky]

Bought this today and just got through it. Remembered it had gotten a bunch of glowing reviews and since it was on sale, figured why not?

Kind of a frustrating game. On one hand, I really liked a lot about the game- the way they play with your expectations and the way you piece together the stories of the people in the house were great.

On the other hand, the stories never really engaged me that much. I can appreciate why they resonated with some people that liked the game, so I'm just kind of disappointed they didn't resonate too much with me. I just kept waiting for the story to kind of bump up beyond keeping me mildly intrigued and it never really did. Finding the various artifacts and letters and things to piece together the stories was great but at the end I kind of wish the stories you were piecing together were more interesting. Not necessarily more dramatic or less mundane but just more interesting.

I guess the game kind of broke down a bit for me once I realized

Spoiler

it wasn't going to be anything remotely scary. In the beginning I was thinking it was at least going to be a bit of a mystery and the spooky atmosphere would keep up. Getting the lightbulb to blow after picking up the crucifix was great! But after they had the fake out with the red hair dye in the bathtub I knew the game was just trying to mess with your expectations of this as any kind of scary/horror game. Which is fine, but I just wish they had offered instead was a little more emotionally engaging to me than what basically felt like the plot to any number of chick flicks.

I really want to like this game but the ending just mostly had me shrugging my shoulders. I can totally understand why some people loved it and I kind of wish the story had that same effect on me, but it just sort of fell a little flat after the game did all it does in kind of subverting some expectations.

 

[timetokill]

Got this on sale, and I'm glad I did because at its length and lack of replayability (for me) I would probably be a bit disappointed paying more than $10.

That said, I did enjoy the game. It's interesting reading the thoughts in here because I really knew nothing going into this game, and I never had the slightest hint that it was supposed to be scary. I didn't even know about the "ghosts or not?" thing.

The rest of my thoughts (spoilers abound!):

Spoiler

I didn't pick up the crucifix so I guess I missed that bit, but the other stuff never really made me jump. And the music tapes being so loud really crushes any possibility of scares, for me.

Anyway, it became apparent pretty early on that it was going to be a story told pretty much straight-up so I just got relaxed and had fun exploring. It was cool to see stuff pieced together, but it was also hard to shake the "theme park" feeling of it all. Things were closed off in such a way that it was more linear than it really had to be, and I felt like I was being pushed along a tour more than exploring my family's house.

High points for me were the voice acting (GREAT work there), the music, and the attention to detail. I liked being able to just zoom in on things and look at the details, and that, in spite of the progression through the house being extremely guided, you are pretty free to look around or not at your own pace.

That said, I did feel like I wasn't a real person in some sense, as I was looking at paint cans and stuff that didn't really matter, wondering if there would be a clue or something. I thought about how crazy I must look going through this house picking up each and every thing. I was surprised my character didn't call out any names, for instance.

Also, about the red dye... my wife has been trying all sorts of hair dye colors recently so I never for an instant thought it was blood. I guess I should have? Anyway, I thought it was funny to see that people thought it was. Just shows how relaxed I was, I guess.

Finally, thank god they didn't go with the suicide angle at the end. I know they were hamming that bit up hard in the preamble to the attic so I was all set to be angry if they actually did it. It didn't really feel like they had "earned" a suicide, narratively, and I'm glad they chose the route they did.

Anyway, good stuff, and a nice compact experience that I'm glad I played.

 

[Auskeek]

I listened to a Crate and Crowbar Podcast (derived from the PC Gamer UK editors) not too long ago, and there was some sort of discussion on voiceovers in video games (not sure if this was the exact topic, can't remember it too well), and out of nowhere with no warning, they blurted out this (spoilers, paraphrased)

Spoiler

"the voice over, the sister is [speaker hesitates] a memory??", and at this point I yanked my earphones out and was fuming because I thought the game had been spoiled for me, jumping to the conclusion that the sister somehow dies. After being assured by a friend that this wasn't a spoiler, I decided to go play the game for myself. At the point where you walk up to the attic, I was certain that this was a sad suicide story, and the ending genuine a surprising and rewarding conclusion.

 

[Angry Fork]

Just got this during the steam sale, saw it on the front page and had no clue what this was but the trailer looked interesting and I saw it was written by someone who did Bioshock 2/Minerva's Den I'm a huge fan of the Bioshock series so I got it.

Can't say enough about how much I loved it. Teared up at a couple parts, the most emotional points for me were

Spoiler

the journal entry about the last day together as well as saying sorry to Daniel when he came back.

I'm so glad a game like this was made. I'm going to look into the work of whoever was involved and follow them.

Hope more people enjoy this in the future and if anyone is planning on getting it I recommend playing it all in one shot. I can't imagine cutting off halfway then coming back the next day to finish, it would kill the momentum. If any of the writers/designers see this thread just want to say how much I loved it, thanks so much for the hard work and I hope you can do more in the future on another game with this kind of exploratory story/atmosphere.

 

[Lime]

I finished the game just now and I applaud Fullbright for doing a really well-executed job and that they primarily covered a topic that is rarely, if ever, even mentioned in video games - it was so refreshing to experience and I hope they inspire others to strive for something like that as well, both indie and AAA. And Chris Remo did a great job with the mellow guitar work, but he probably already knows that plenty

Some of the criticisms I have is that the setting is kind of unreal, like if the house, the family's social status, the mother getting a promotion, the father lucking out with publisher contracts, the family's wealth, etc. were taken out of a 90's sitcom. I don't know, it's just harder for me to feel that such things are part of the real messy world - everything about their lives just felt really safe and rich if you know what i mean.

Meanwhile, the mechanical aspect of the game isn't particularly innovative or ground-breaking and it seems weird to conceptualize a returned sister as rummaging through the entire house without saying a word (I'd personally just enter the house, drop off my stuff, grab something to eat and turn on the TV or read something instead of going through every single room and picking up every single item).

In general, My opinion of the game pretty much echoes Boghost's sentiments. He is really on poin in terms of the game's failings, while also appreciative of its ambitions.

But, I'm so happy that Fullbright strove to do something different and I think they did a very good job with the experience they wanted to create. It's not a groundbreaking game, but it is a well-crafted and thematically different sort of game - and I really appreciate that.

 

[border]

Some of the criticisms I have is that the setting is kind of unreal, like if the house, the family's social status, the mother getting a promotion, the father lucking out with publisher contracts, the family's wealth, etc. were taken out of a 90's sitcom.

What made you feel like the family was really wealthy?

 

[Lime]

What made you feel like the family was really wealthy?

The size of the house, among other things. Maybe I just come from a different social background and/or country, but the family didn't seem to have many troubles financially - Sam has her own car, Katherine is able to afford visiting multiple countries on one trip, the house is enormous, and we are never shown any information that the family members are in need of anything materially or financially.

I think pretty much most people agree with the interpretation that they're upper-middle class.

 

[border]

You realize that they actually inherited the house, right? It's not meant as a sign of their wealth.

 

[Lime]

Of course, but that doesn't detract from the interpretation that the family doesn't seem to be in any troubles, as well as the aforementioned examples of wealth, e.g. TVs in several rooms, a kid's own car, one being able to go on long European trips, etc.. I think it's pretty uncontroversial to state that they're upper middle class.

 

[Jake]

The family surely has at least some money, maybe from the dad's first successful novel. The mom has a government job whose pay is ambiguous, but the dad seems to be making ends meet writing magazine reviews. The feeling that I got is that the family spent the '80s financially well off, but took up the "inherit this mansion" offer because they were having to tighten the belt as dad's surprise successful novelist career was not panning out.

 

[border]

Gone Home actually started as an Amnesia mod

If you have a copy of Amnesia, you can download the prototype of Gone Home to see exactly what it's like.

 

[border]

Of course, but that doesn't detract from the interpretation that the family doesn't seem to be in any troubles, as well as the aforementioned examples of wealth, e.g. TVs in several rooms, a kid's own car, one being able to go on long European trips, etc.. I think it's pretty uncontroversial to state that they're upper middle class.

I grew up later in the 90's, but I had friends with stuff like that even though they only had 1 working parent who never went to university. These friends still got a car when they turned 16 or 17. They still had 2-3 television sets -- usually one in living room, one for kids to play videogames on, one in the parents' room. One friend's dad was a car salesman, and they still had all those things and a pool in their backyard. Now granted, all these kids with cars didn't have very good cars and they usually had to hold down a job to make insurance payments.

None of that stuff is really a sign of affluence in the early 90's USA.

Kaitlin's year abroad is less common, but plenty of kids do a "backpack through Europe" thing after high school or college. When you stay in hostels extended European vacations are not all that expensive.

 

[rbanke]

I played this last night and really enjoyed it. I have to say there was not a single bit of 'spookiness' about it though, it was just as if I was exploring my house. I feel like that is due to Gary Whitta & Brad Shoemaker on the Tested podcast & Bombcast specifically saying that

Spoiler

the game uses tropes to try scare you but never actually does anything to you which removed any feeling like something bad would actually be happening. I also never heard any weird sounds or saw a crucifix that keeps getting mentioned, it was basically walk around and look at stuff. no creepy sounds, abnormal effects or anything.

. That said, I loved the story and ending.

 

[AliceInJam]

Completed the game in about 2 hrs tonight, and I have to safe I am a bit disappointed.....we'll actually a lot disappointed. Going into the game, the potential was through he roof, but soon it unraveled into a teenage angst story with no surprises, twists, or any imagination whatsoever. The house itself seemed like it might have been one of the best parts of the game, exploration wise, but almost immediately turns into simple room closet, room closet design with papers to read scattered about. I don't know, maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if the story they had to tell was better told, or maybe just more impactful. As it stands now I probably wouldn't recommend this to,anyone, there are better ways to spend 2 hrs.

 

[GillianSeed79]

So whenever I play this game, my entire laptop crashes like it's overheating or something. I've been playing Stanley Parable fine, but I play this game and it nukes my laptop. It's not really graphically intensive. I guess I should do the whole compressed air thing to clean out my PC, but I honestly can't get through 30 minutes of this game without my PC just dying. Any suggestions?

 

[jakomocha]

Well it has been spoiled to me that the girl is a

Spoiler

lesbian

and I just bought the game today. With that being something that is slowly built up to throughout the whole game, is this game still worth playing or does knowing that ruin the whole experience? I'm really upset that I had that spoiled to me.

 

[Sibylus]

Well it has been spoiled to me that the girl is a

Spoiler

lesbian

and I just bought the game today. With that being something that is slowly built up to throughout the whole game, is this game still worth playing or does that ruin the whole experience? I'm really upset.

I figured it out within the first... four clues or so, it isn't a super-important twist you're missing out on.

 

[jakomocha]

I figured it out within the first... four clues or so, it isn't a super-important twist you're missing out on.

Okay thanks. It did seem really predictable from the first 3 or 4 journals anyways. And I still need to discover why no one in the family is in the house so I have that “plot twist“ to look forward to.

 

[rbanke]

Well it has been spoiled to me that the girl is a

Spoiler

lesbian

and I just bought the game today. With that being something that is slowly built up to throughout the whole game, is this game still worth playing or does knowing that ruin the whole experience? I'm really upset that I had that spoiled to me.

I'm not sure if you played it yet, but that was something very apparent to me early on. It shouldn't have an effect on your enjoyment of it.