Review - Gone Home (Spoiler free)

I'm a role-player at heart. When I play a game that casts me as a character – even one that doesn't meet my definitions of a role-playing game – I tend to enjoy it most when I get into the head of that character. This is really just an extension of the basic need to suspend disbelief, of course, but asking me to dictate the character's actions places me in a role-player mindset.

First and foremost, my enjoyment as a role-player comes from experiencing the world around me. I can enjoy the competitive skill-based element of an RPG, but the victory means far less if I don't care about the stakes. I definitely enjoy crafting and exploring an interesting personality, but there are few RP experiences more frustrating than guiding a well-crafted and interesting persona through a dull story and/or nonsensical world. By contrast, I can happily use my character as little more than an avatar through which to visit an entirely new world and explore every detail of an environment where anything could be possible.

Video games are equipped to bring that world to life in a way that no other form of RPG does. To actually see and hear the world in question and experience the pivotal events in real time is as awesome as a really good film adaptation of a novel. To have the entire world prepared for you in advance and no need to share the limelight with others is a luxury few other RPGs will afford you.

The downside, of course, is the fundamentally limited nature of a pre-built world. There's no fun in exploring if you won't find anything off the beaten path (except maybe a new type of random monster encounter). Bethesda games like Oblivion and Fallout 3 are among my favourite games ever because you can find actual people and stories in areas that the main plot does not dictate you must go. Yet even these can only afford to furnish an empty building with two or three interesting props, telling a story effectively but briefly.

Gone Home is a game that is dedicated to pushing the world-exploration feature of gaming to its limits in the most intimate detail possible. The concept is simple – amidst a powerful storm in 1995, you arrive home after a year abroad to find the family home unexpectedly deserted. There is a note on the door implying that there is a serious reason for this unplanned state of affairs, but no full explanation. The entire game thereafter consists of exploring the domestic Marie Celeste left behind by your loved ones in an attempt to piece together what has happened to them. In the course of this, you can pick up basically any object in the environment – and there are hundreds if not thousands of them waiting to be discovered. 

The sheer minimalism of this game has left some questioning whether it is actually a game at all. If they'd built this thing in the real world (which would almost have been possible) it would be labelled an 'experience' or an 'art installation'. There is no competitive element and little that requires skill. What there is is an finely crafted narrative experience that is definitely worth having – providing you have the right mind for it.

Gone Home is a game that will move you and make you care – if you let it. Gone Home is a game that will creep you out if not outright scare you – if you let it. But with so few actual pieces of overt theatricality built into the game, getting your head into it is a task you must fulfil for yourself. Being sufficiently immersed to care what has happened to all your character's loved ones and afraid of what might be down the next unlit corridor is something you have to manage without a cinematic cutscene or a weapon to point at the darkness. This isn't a game you play casually, power through or do whilst multi-tasking – it's a game you stick your head in for as long as you can, then quit until the desire to know the answers drives you back to it.

That's not to say the developers haven't done their work to engage you. This game has been thought out meticulously to the last detail. The house is a large old mansion, with a serious number of rooms and the potential for hidden secrets. However, your family only moved there after you left – leaving you unfamiliar with the environment and limiting the amount of stuff that has yet been unpacked to a workable (if very large) quantity. The targeting prompt has also been designed to bridge the gap between the character's knowledge and your own – with targeting familiar items resulting in prompts like 'It's Mum's old work mug' and 'It's that book Dad wrote'. The prompt also changes in reaction to some items – which helps to characterise you given that almost all of your own stuff is still boxed away.

As a mystery game, Gone Home obviously has less replay value than a lot of titles. I therefore recommend that you force yourself to take the play-through slow. The house is brilliantly designed to make your imagination run wild and learning the truth will close off the uncertainty with a gratification that is best delayed. I got two days out of the game by being methodical and taking notes on everything I found – but it's easily possible to complete in one or two hours if you are more focused on the stand-out items. The open-world approach actually makes it possible to complete rather prematurely if you find keys in the 'wrong' order – my advice would be to explore the basement and beyond before venturing into the attic.

To be critical, the game could probably have sustained more major plot threads. Gone Home succeeds on novelty – if this form of gaming becomes a genre, the next big title will have to be far more elaborate. However, each thread is developed in unprecedented detail – I'm still finding new items that keep altering my interpretation of old ones. I'd love to talk about my reaction to the ending, but I'm honestly unwilling to spoil the sense of mystery that will enhance your experience so much.

Obviously, a game like this has plenty of space for indirect character development. Different priorities might hand the title of 'best female character' to other contenders as diverse as Clementine, Samus Aran or even GLaDOS, but it should be mentioned that Samantha Greenbriar is almost certainly the most thoroughly and satisfyingly characterised woman in the history of video games. Ironic really, since the excellently portrayed adolescence shows that she herself is still developing as a person.

The price has been a sticking point for many user reviews and it's not surprising. For the same money, it is easy to find games that offer 10 or 20 times the number of play hours with more replay value than Gone Home has. Pick the right one and you'll also get a game with far more features, able to tell a powerful story whilst also providing skill-based action and a spectacular visual feast. On the other hand, the price doesn't really seem excessive for the amount of genuine artistic effort that has gone into crafting this product. Gone Home is a game you splurge on because you want to have the awesome and thought-provoking experience it provides and on that basis I recommend it. If you do decide to buy it, go for the direct sales rather than Steam - $20 works out as less than £15 and the direct buy includes a code to unlock it on your Steam account whilst leaving you with a game that'll run without Steam being online. Console releases are coming, but this is a PC game originally.

Final Score: 8/10. It ain't Portal, but this short game deserves a look.

Best Item: Sam's Reproductive System Worksheet (Music Room). Hilarious and characterful.

Worst Item: Although it advances some ideas, I could have done without the contents of the hidden panel opposite Sam's room.