• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Gone Home |OT| I ain't afraid of no ghost!

On the Terry/Oscar subplots.
-Terry's books are all related to a secret agent going back in time to fix what happened on the day that Kennedy was assassinated, November 22nd, 1963
-In the room with the safe you can see some measurements of Terry's height; the tallest one being November 22nd, 1963.
-In Oscar's letter to his sister he says he has done something horrible and that's why he has become a hermit.
-My theory is that Oscar molested Terry on the day JFK was killed.
-More evidence is the way that Oscar's letter to Terry is worded. He mentions how Terry's writing is related to his psyche and very close to him. This makes the letter even colder.
-The destroyed portrait of Oscar
-The basement is pretty much totally untouched after the family has been living in the house for a whole year. Kinda like they're afraid of it.
-The resolution to the subplot being the success of the reprinting of the books giving Terry the confidence to grow his fictional character and work through what happened to him as a child.
 

Kurdel

Banned
Did anybody else see the PHAEDRUS idle thumbs reference?

Of course it's a Phaedrus!

I was openly weeping by the end.

Same here. I was planning on playing Payday 2 with a buddy but I just went to bed instead, to think about all of the game.

The thing with these games, is you get what you invest in them. I know it's not everybody that can let their guard down, and leave themselves open to be touched by a video game, but it was such a beautiful story.
 

Valtýr

Member
Just beat it. Thought it was amazing until the goddamn thing just ended out of nowhere at the two hour mark and
completely retcon'ed the story for no reason
.

Pretty sure I did everything except
open the safe in the basement
.

First 114 minutes: A+
Last 2 minutes: Triple F minus

I feel bad saying this because the devs did a really great job and the concept was sweet, but IMO there's no way in hell it's worth $20.


I'm curious about what exactly you thought was being retconned?
 

aeolist

Banned
I find it quite ridiculous how people focus on the price vs. length. There is enough information to warrant a second playthrough, and then you will have spend at lease 4 hours on this game.

I have bought 50 euro games which I stopped playing after way less than 4 hours because they were too boring. Gone Home is quite the opposite to boring.

I still find it intriguing why all the VCR's are removed from every room in the house..

i think there's a note from sam to her dad at one point apologizing for the stuff that she took, maybe she grabbed some electronics to sell?
 

megalowho

Member
I find it quite ridiculous how people focus on the price vs. length. There is enough information to warrant a second playthrough, and then you will have spend at lease 4 hours on this game.

I have bought 50 euro games which I stopped playing after way less than 4 hours because they were too boring. Gone Home is quite the opposite to boring.
I think it's more a value proposition thing than time=money specifically, along with many other recent small team standouts coming in at $15 or less at launch fueling perspective. I respect that they went for what they felt their work was worth and great word of mouth will sell more copies, but coupled with the inevitability of sales it's not an impulse price point for many, even those interested in the concept.

That being said all the positive impressions are winning me over and I'll likely play through tonight. Ducking out of here until then, black bars everywhere!
 

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Also, I think stuff like this and Dear Esther (which shares a lot of similarities) are properly on the fringe, if not beyond, of the classical interpretation of a "video game". I don't necessarily think they're ground breaking or revolutionary, but they eloquently drive home that point that the "interactive medium" casts a wide net. Much in the same way that I think Dear Esther is very much true, proper "virtual poetry", I think this is a virtual story that really doesn't warrant the criticisms and analysis associated with most work of this medium we're familiar with.

It's really very far removed from what 99% of this forum discusses, and is hard to even rank or put on the same page as anything else. It's a different beast in the same way not film follows a strict set of rules beyond simply being a motion picture.
 

IronRinn

Member
Speaking of screenshots, did anyone get the note in the
servant's quarters? The one with Sam writing about her and Lonnie kissing in bed or whatever? I don't think it's like smut or anything, probably more innocent than that but just curious about what they actually had written down on it before Katie went 'nope'.

Here you go:
Kind of took me out of the story a bit
as I was kind of ticked that I couldn't read it in its entirety. Luckily the Steam community is good with this kind of thing.
 

IronRinn

Member
On the Terry/Oscar subplots.
-More evidence is the way that Oscar's letter to Terry is worded. He mentions how Terry's writing is related to his psyche and very close to him. This makes the letter even colder.
-The destroyed portrait of Oscar

Not sure what you're referring to here. Is it the note critiquing his work that was attached to a book in the basement? Because that was from Terry's father. I never found the photo but someone else in the thread mentioned that the cut out person was Terry's father as well. I definitely could have missed some stuff though.

Edit: Huh, actually, it seems like you might be right:
https://twitter.com/GoneHomeGame/status/368260700277202945 I thought Oscar might have been a pedophile from the letter/newspaper clip combination but I didn't make the connection with Terry.

Edit 2: Heh, nice little Easter Egg someone found: http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/613900632002438640/3682B40D3270C8DFF42D60EF4EE2E162AD0ABE3D/
 

Empty

Member
Here you go:
Kind of took me out of the story a bit
as I was kind of ticked that I couldn't read it in its entirety. Luckily the Steam community is good with this kind of thing.

thanks for this. i got annoyed too as i picked it up and didn't read any of it as i was still listening to that rooms audiolog and wanted to wait till it finished, then the game put it down for me and wouldn't let me have another look without me knowing what it's about.
 

jettpack

Member
Also Zero mirrors. ZERO MIRRORS. had no idea that the Greenbriar family were all vampires..

just kidding, i know why they didn't put them in. It would have taken way to much work to get Kaitlin's character model to look good all the time, no reason to add ways for the game to mess up. Also real time reflection is hard and taxing and other solutions don't look as good.

Still its interesting. no mirrors. I only noticed when
she mentions looking in the mirror with Lonnie and I saw that there wasn't one.
I'm going to believe they are all just vampires, but then again maybe it's because I've been watching to much Buffy.
 

chris121580

Member
I was so swept up in the game but I didn't even notice no mirrors. I wonder if they thought seeing yourself in the mirror would take away a little bit of the immersion
 
I was so swept up in the game but I didn't even notice no mirrors. I wonder if they thought seeing yourself in the mirror would take away a little bit of the immersion

That or they felt like it wasn't worth having to create and animate a model for Katie when it really wasn't important (especially considering there are no other character models either).

The only reason I even noticed was because of that one journal from Sam (which, by the way, was maybe my favourite for what will be an obvious reason once you run into it).
 

Zornack

Member
Also, I think stuff like this and Dear Esther (which shares a lot of similarities) are properly on the fringe, if not beyond, of the classical interpretation of a "video game". I don't necessarily think they're ground breaking or revolutionary, but they eloquently drive home that point that the "interactive medium" casts a wide net. Much in the same way that I think Dear Esther is very much true, proper "virtual poetry", I think this is a virtual story that really doesn't warrant the criticisms and analysis associated with most work of this medium we're familiar with.

It's really very far removed from what 99% of this forum discusses, and is hard to even rank or put on the same page as anything else. It's a different beast in the same way not film follows a strict set of rules beyond simply being a motion picture.

I don't think Gone Home is that far removed from other video games.

Imagine a level of Bioshock Infinite with no combat. What are you doing? Running round looking at the environment, picking up audio logs, interacting with whatever objects are interactable and getting as much story from the world as possible. That's pretty much Gone Home in a nutshell. When you remove combat/puzzle solving/the usual gameplay loop from a story driven first person game you get this.
 

IronRinn

Member
Honestly, I really think the
Terry/Jan/Rick and Terry/Oscar sub-plots are a better argument for the storytelling in this game than the main, Sam/Lonnie plot which mostly amounts to collecting audio-logs. Whereas there is incidental information the player you can find that perhaps enhances the latter, the two former are told almost exclusively through found objects that do not directly relate their story, or their place in that story, to the player.
 

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
I don't think Gone Home is that far removed from other video games.

Imagine a level of Bioshock Infinite with no combat. What are you doing? Running round looking at the environment, picking up audio logs, interacting with whatever objects are interactable and getting as much story from the world as possible. That's pretty much Gone Home in a nutshell. When you remove combat/puzzle solving/the usual gameplay loop from a story driven first person game you get this.

Yes, except in BioShock it's deliberately paced downtime between other traditional elements...like the shooting. The point isn't that Gone Home does things removed from the medium, it's that the work itself focuses exclusively on a set of elements that are rarely not just the cornerstone, but the basis for an entire experience. Like Dear Esther. It is the "game", not just part of it.
 

Kade

Member
I don't think Gone Home is that far removed from other video games.

Imagine a level of Bioshock Infinite with no combat. What are you doing? Running round looking at the environment, picking up audio logs, interacting with whatever objects are interactable and getting as much story from the world as possible. That's pretty much Gone Home in a nutshell. When you remove combat/puzzle solving/the usual gameplay loop from a story driven first person game you get this.

Gone Home has the benefit of lacking any win and lose states, stats or abilities so that alone makes it a lot different than the scenario you described in Bioshock. If they tried something like that, having the ability to pull out your gun, vigors and the UI elements like HP and salts would ruin it all. It also wouldn't be the primary/default/only player state like it is in Gone Home and eventually you'd go back to killing everyone.
 

jettpack

Member
That or they felt like it wasn't worth having to create and animate a model for Katie when it really wasn't important (especially considering there are no other character models either).

The only reason I even noticed was because of that one journal from Sam (which, by the way, was maybe my favourite for what will be an obvious reason once you run into it).

yeah, that's gotta be why. just not worth the time and effort. and yeah, that's the same time i noticed.
 

jettpack

Member
Yes, except in BioShock it's deliberately paced downtime between other traditional elements...like the shooting. The point isn't that Gone Home does things removed from the medium, it's that the work itself focuses exclusively on a set of elements that are rarely not just the cornerstone, but the basis for an entire experience. Like Dear Esther. It is the "game", not just part of it.

yeah, but I mean Steve Gaynor's Bioshock lineage is So immediately apparent. audio logs, collecting objects, gating in a small open level, finding lock combination codes. it's all bioshock tools just enhanced.
 

Dinosur

Member
Valtýr;76674887 said:
I'm curious about what exactly you thought was being retconned?

The entire game was leading you to believe Oscar's ghost was in the house (or at least something supernatural) even leading all the way up to the second to last room where Sam and Lonnie had the pentagram seance. I also don't think it was much of a leap to assume Sam had killed herself in the attic and discovering her body was going to be the tear-filled end to your mysterious journey.

The game spent two hours trying to make you uneasy with those concepts (and awesomely so), then you find the final couple journal entries in the attic and it's just "oh lol nevermind we ran away together and none of this meant anything we were just yanking your chain in a video game."

I went in completely blind so it's not like I was expecting Amnesia or anything, but the game spent 99% of its time really trying to convince you something unsettling was going on then it was all just undone or thrown under the rug in the end.

All that retroactively ruined the game for me. The only positives I could list now would be the awesome 90s nostalgia and how fun it was piecing together the branching webs of the subplots.
 

DaBuddaDa

Member
Gone Home has the benefit of lacking any win and lose states, stats or abilities so that alone makes it a lot different than the scenario you described in Bioshock.

When you're in a quiet part of Bioshock where you're just exploring the area around you, and you're not in a combat situation, there are also no win/lose states (you can't die by examining the wrong painting on the wall), stats are meaningless, and so are your abilities (except for perhaps traversal).
 

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
I knew nothing about the game going in, and absolutely did not have that interpretation.
It seemed extremely obvious to me that any supernatural element was obviously fictional and simply driven through the inquisitive minds of Sam and co, the story instead far more grounded. Sam having killed herself in the attic was never, ever said, but instead drawn from the player's own attempt at piecing together a situation they don't fully understand yet. And that was largely what the entire narrative was trying to do; drip feed you info, and let you come to your own conclusions progressively, playing off your expectations with each new piece of evidence.
 
Is anyone else getting stuttering while playing? I have a Radeon 7850 and an i5 3570, and playing with the graphics settings doesn't get me anywhere.
 
The entire game was leading you to believe Oscar's ghost was in the house (or at least something supernatural) even leading all the way up to the second to last room where Sam and Lonnie had the pentagram seance. I also don't think it was much of a leap to assume Sam had killed herself in the attic and discovering her body was going to be the tear-filled end to your mysterious journey.

The game spent two hours trying to make you uneasy with those concepts (and awesomely so), then you find the final couple journal entries in the attic and it's just "oh lol nevermind we ran away together and none of this meant anything we were just yanking your chain in a video game."

I went in completely blind so it's not like I was expecting Amnesia or anything, but the game spent 99% of its time really trying to convince you something unsettling was going on then it was all just undone or thrown under the rug in the end.

All that retroactively ruined the game for me. The only positives I could list now would be the awesome 90s nostalgia and how fun it was piecing together the branching webs of the subplots.

See, I love the way the game subverted your expectations. Pretty much every other single video game in existence contains supernatural elements. Gone Home felt different and refreshing precisely BECAUSE it was so grounded.
 

Kade

Member
When you're in a quiet part of Bioshock where you're just exploring the area around you, and you're not in a combat situation, there are also no win/lose states (you can't die by examining the wrong painting on the wall), stats are meaningless, and so are your abilities (except for perhaps traversal).

True but I like knowing that I can't kill myself by setting myself on fire with Devil's Kiss. I like to be detained as much as possible when I am exploring.
 
Is anyone else getting stuttering while playing? I have a Radeon 7850 and an i5 3570, and playing with the graphics settings doesn't get me anywhere.

I have a 3570k and a 670 and I got a good deal of stuttering.

I missed the
cross, apparently. That would have freaked the shit out of me. I was constantly on edge the whole game :lol
 

jettpack

Member
The entire game was leading you to believe Oscar's ghost was in the house (or at least something supernatural) even leading all the way up to the second to last room where Sam and Lonnie had the pentagram seance. I also don't think it was much of a leap to assume Sam had killed herself in the attic and discovering her body was going to be the tear-filled end to your mysterious journey.

The game spent two hours trying to make you uneasy with those concepts (and awesomely so), then you find the final couple journal entries in the attic and it's just "oh lol nevermind we ran away together and none of this meant anything we were just yanking your chain in a video game."

I went in completely blind so it's not like I was expecting Amnesia or anything, but the game spent 99% of its time really trying to convince you something unsettling was going on then it was all just undone or thrown under the rug in the end.

All that retroactively ruined the game for me. The only positives I could list now would be the awesome 90s nostalgia and how fun it was piecing together the branching webs of the subplots.
You thought she killed herself? jesus christ, my mind didn't go there at all. I knew there were nothing super natural in the game ahead of time but I don think it mattered because despite that all of the Oscar stuff still spooked me out anyway. The light went out in the basement right when I grabbed the crucifix and i totally jumped. But anyway yeah, I just assumed Sam was gone for some reason or another at the beginning, It didn't feel to me like the game was leading me to believe that Sam killed herself. I thought the ending was set up perfectly with the messages Lonnie left on the machine.
 

Sober

Member
You thought she killed herself? jesus christ, my mind didn't go there at all. I knew there were nothing super natural in the game ahead of time but I don think it mattered because despite that all of the Oscar stuff still spooked me out anyway. The light went out in the basement right when I grabbed the crucifix and i totally jumped. But anyway yeah, I just assumed Sam was gone for some reason or another at the beginning, It didn't feel to me like the game was leading me to believe that Sam killed herself. I thought the ending was set up perfectly with the messages Lonnie left on the machine.
In the moment
you might concerned about Sam feeling suicidal ('sleepy in the attic', etc) but when you look at it afterwards it really was to fuck with the player's expectations, considering the first thing you read was that note from Sam which clearly did not even remotely sound like a suicide note.
 

Valtýr

Member
The entire game was leading you to believe Oscar's ghost was in the house (or at least something supernatural) even leading all the way up to the second to last room where Sam and Lonnie had the pentagram seance. I also don't think it was much of a leap to assume Sam had killed herself in the attic and discovering her body was going to be the tear-filled end to your mysterious journey.

The game spent two hours trying to make you uneasy with those concepts (and awesomely so), then you find the final couple journal entries in the attic and it's just "oh lol nevermind we ran away together and none of this meant anything we were just yanking your chain in a video game."

I went in completely blind so it's not like I was expecting Amnesia or anything, but the game spent 99% of its time really trying to convince you something unsettling was going on then it was all just undone or thrown under the rug in the end.

All that retroactively ruined the game for me. The only positives I could list now would be the awesome 90s nostalgia and how fun it was piecing together the branching webs of the subplots.


Well, interesting.
At no point during the game did I feel that the "ghost" subplot was actually about ghosts. I saw it as kids being kids. I never thought the game was implying there would be ghosts or that the girls would get wrapped into a ghost story. In fact I never felt the game was pushing the ghost elements as the main story you were meant to attach yourself to. It was a single part of a large narrative meant to show their relationships development.
 

jettpack

Member
In the moment
you might concerned about Sam feeling suicidal ('sleepy in the attic', etc) but when you look at it afterwards it really was to fuck with the player's expectations, considering the first thing you read was that note from Sam which clearly did not even remotely sound like a suicide note.

yeah, absolutely. The only time I thought something bad might have happened was when I saw the red hair dye in the bathroom and thought it was blood for about three quarters of a second. and then I saw the bottle and was like oh.. blood doesnt come in bottles.. that must be something else. lol
 
On the Terry/Oscar subplots.
-Terry's books are all related to a secret agent going back in time to fix what happened on the day that Kennedy was assassinated, November 22nd, 1963
-In the room with the safe you can see some measurements of Terry's height; the tallest one being November 22nd, 1963.
-In Oscar's letter to his sister he says he has done something horrible and that's why he has become a hermit.
-My theory is that Oscar molested Terry on the day JFK was killed.
-More evidence is the way that Oscar's letter to Terry is worded. He mentions how Terry's writing is related to his psyche and very close to him. This makes the letter even colder.
-The destroyed portrait of Oscar
-The basement is pretty much totally untouched after the family has been living in the house for a whole year. Kinda like they're afraid of it.
-The resolution to the subplot being the success of the reprinting of the books giving Terry the confidence to grow his fictional character and work through what happened to him as a child.
This is pretty much the way I read it, but I think the uncle
had been abusing Terry for years before, as evidenced by all the other height markers. The secret passage nearby also comes out directly into a small bedroom, which would give the uncle very easy access without anyone else knowing. You could also infer that some of the stuff in the safe is related (such as the morphine) since it's so close to the height markers. I'm pretty sure the letter about Terry's first novel is from his father, not the uncle. The uncle leaving the house to Terry makes sense if you see it as trying to pay him back for the suffering he'd caused.
 

Dinosur

Member
Valtýr;76697731 said:
Well, interesting.
At no point during the game did I feel that the "ghost" subplot was actually about ghosts. I saw it as kids being kids. I never thought the game was implying there would be ghosts or that the girls would get wrapped into a ghost story. In fact I never felt the game was pushing the ghost elements as the main story you were meant to attach yourself to. It was a single part of a large narrative meant to show their relationships development.

I guess I can concede that maybe it was more an issue of what I wanted to happen instead of what was actually happening.

I don't think anyone could try and claim the game wasn't at least attempting to make you think creepy stuff was going on though.

- Crucifix lightbulb
- The two televisions being left on, one off-air and the other a severe weather warning
- The missing VCRs (which could be explained when Sam said she had to take some stuff)
- All the Oscar stuff, I mean come on
- Location based ambient sound effects (hearing the typewriter typing before you walk into the green house / the attic stairs sounding like they're being closed once you pick up the first note / etc.)
- I'm fairly certain some hallway doors closed even if you left them open
- How the house started to age (for lack of a better term) around the halfway point. You get into the basement with all these relics from the 60's, turn a corner and you're in a frickin' Servant's Quarter

So that being said, yes, I did spend a good amount of time spinning in 180's and staring down hallway stretches hoping to see something, hehe.
 

Ledsen

Member
So within 15 mins of starting I found
the bottle in the writing room, after which I read the crumpled pages, the writing becoming more and more unintelligible as Terry (presumably) got more and more drunk, a mediocre writer unable to overcome his lack of inspiration.
All this without a single moment of exposition. And so I declare this game "Amazing". Well done, Hot Scoops. The student has truly become the master!
 

jettpack

Member
I guess I can concede that maybe it was more an issue of what I wanted to happen instead of what was actually happening.

I don't think anyone could try and claim the game wasn't at least attempting to make you think creepy stuff was going on though.

- Crucifix lightbulb
- The two televisions being left on, one off-air and the other a severe weather warning
- The missing VCRs (which could be explained when Sam said she had to take some stuff)
- All the Oscar stuff, I mean come on
- Location based ambient sound effects (hearing the typewriter typing before you walk into the green house / the attic stairs sounding like they're being closed once you pick up the first note / etc.)
- I'm fairly certain some hallway doors closed even if you left them open
- How the house started to age (for lack of a better term) around the halfway point. You get into the basement with all these relics from the 60's, turn a corner and you're in a frickin' Servant's Quarter

So that being said, yes, I did spend a good amount of time spinning in 180's and staring down hallway stretches hoping to see something, hehe.

lol, yeah thats fair. It was deliberately spooky and atmospheric and it totally worked.
God, the crucifix light bulb bit was excellent. I knew there were no ghosts in the game and I was still spooked.
 
I feel awful for posting this, but I have no idea where to find the
code to Sam's locker
. I know that it has to do with
hidden panels on the walls
but do I really need to search the entire house?
 

Empty

Member
I feel awful for posting this, but I have no idea where to find the
code to Sam's locker
. I know that it has to do with
hidden panels on the walls
but do I really need to search the entire house?

the
panels
should be marked on your map (press m)
 
Well, I managed to
trigger the ending without getting into any of the other locked rooms. Did I miss something pertaining to the secret panels? I didn't see them on my map.
 
Top Bottom