Gone Home Reviews

I tried to play this but the FOV is not wide enough, even turned as high as it can go. It gives me a headache in 5 mins. I've tried playing it on the Steam Deck, TV and my PC and it didn't make a difference.

A simple short story game where you walk around your empty house after a vacation. Where is everyone? Search through diaries/notes/etc. to find out. No real hard puzzles here, just a walking sim story. Price when bought:$5 Rating-4.5/5 Recommend?:Loved it.

Indie game to love. GAMEPLAY The game mechanics are pretty simple, and intended so, as a discovery game. You wouldn't play this game for this. You go around the house, (re)discovering the story of a lesbian couple. STORY This is what you are here for, the story of a lesbian couple. Look into their struggles as a queer couple in modern days, and find out what happened. It also gives womens rights vibes, and you'll see why while playing the game. QUEERNESS As mentioned, it's about a lesbian couple, so it's can't be any more queer. Ok, i guess it could be more queer but this is fine. I won't spoiler any further, so go play the game, and support the small team, as we need more queerness in games.

A short but powerful experience that will definitely get you feeling some type of way about your childhood and adolescence. You're looking at an indie game listing on Steam, after all.

TL;DR, No Spoilers: This is a quite short (<2 hour) walking sim. Not horror at all, but decently suspenseful and atmospheric. I'd characterize the mood as a solemn, but ultimately hopeful romance. Narrative is serviceable enough, but on the shallow side. I struggle to justify the current $15 price. For $5-$10, I think I could recommend it more enthusiastically. For <=$5, it's an easy buy. Semi-spoiler review: This is a gay (lesbian) romance told through from the perspective of a an adult daughter/sister returning home to a slightly creepy, dark, & empty mansion, searching for clues about where her family has gone. It's a bit creepy, but there's no jump-scares or other serious frights. Point-and-click throughout, with very minor puzzle elements. Life is Strange is the low-hanging fruit for comparison, but that game had more choice and interactivity (plus a different mood); this game is basically on-rails and much shorter, so I don't think that comparison is particularly apt except for the themes. Nevertheless, Life is Strange is my gold standard for lesbian romances in video games, as it likely is for many people. I'm gay (albeit, a man) and can appreciate a nice queer romance story, but this fell pretty flat for me, saved mostly by the low-ish cost of entry. This game came out in 2013, a time when this sort of story was more subversive, and I think that the relative subversiveness probably carried it in those early years to an audience with little representation. I really appreciate what this game stood for in that different era, but I honestly don't think the story has enough complexity or depth to hold up in the current year of 2025, at least not from my perspective. When it's core premise is no longer counter-cultural the way it use to be, there's not much else here to spark thought. It's still relevant, sure, but other media has addressed these particular topics with much more nuance in the intervening decade+. For the right person, I think this can still be a special experience, but I'd wait for a sale unless you're absolutely starving for a game with the aforementioned themes. I'm "recommending" this game given Steam's binary review scheme, but consider this a "wait-for-sale" recommendation.

I'm quite easily spooked and the generally eeriness kept me slightly on edge the whole time, which was nice, but I am unsure how to feel with the pay off at the end. I had a pretty good time but I don't know how to feel. I think for a an hour and a half experience it was worth it. As much as I want to unlock some of the other achievements, I just don't see me playing the game again sooo. Idk. And I sure love my achievements. For the price I don't necessarily think it's worth it but I got it on sale for like 99 cents. I'm putting yes for recommended but honestly I really only recommend it when it's on sale.

I wasn't sure if I should recommend this game, but I liked the story and enjoyed playing it. So in the end, I gave it a thumbs up. The only thing I could complain about is that the game is way too short. I started and finished it in under 100 minutes without rushing through it.

Loved it, makes me wonder about the very nice personal letters and correspondences and whether they were real. Awesome story

As a gay, this was terrible. As a gamer, this is incredible. Don't play without tissues and alcohol.

"I'm sorry I can't be there to see you, but it is impossible. Please, please don't go digging around trying to find out where I am. I don't want anyone to know." [i]Gone Home[/i] is a first-person exploration video game developed and published by The Fullbright Company. [b]Story[/b] 7th June, 1995. 21 year old Katie Greenbriar returns from overseas to her family's new home in fictional Boon County, Oregon. She finds place empty, with many items still in moving boxes and a note on the entrance door from her younger sister Sam to not investigate the mansion to find out what happened, leading Katie to do exactly that. [b]Gameplay[/b] As simple as it can get, and easy to figure out from above section. In Gone Home you explore the mansion to figure out what happened with...well, everything. Move around the house, investigate and interact with objects, discover ways to progress and unlock more parts of the building until you reach the truth (or simply end of the game). In the house you will find messages, notes, texts, plus plenty of usual daily items you can pick up, rotate, and throw around if you fancy making a mess. Some will be picked up and put into your inventory! Additionally in your journal you will be able to re-listen any messages you discovered and it has a map in case you get lost. [b]Playtime, replayability, other modes[/b] Gone Home took me a bit longer than an hour to beat. Said playtime is quite flexible, game can be beaten in less than a minute but if you will take your time exploring and reading, you might even squeeze out 2-3 hours out of it. You can give it another go thanks to modifiers that change certain aspects of the game but most importantly due to additional "Commentary Mode", where you get behind the scenes access to hear from developers about certain aspects of how game was developed or few humourous references. [b]Impressions[/b] Gone Home was a decent experience all things considered. Solid non-linear exploration and narrative blend in great, which doesn't come as surprise because same can be said about Bioshock 2 Minerva DLC that developer of this game was working on before. Search around a house for clues, information about our family, and main spearpoint of the story that is related to our sister Sam, freedom of exploration given to us, all of this was very well made and immersive all together, mashed nicely with detailed 90's mansion setting that for older players might awake some sort of nostalgia, and will allow to immerse in game a bit further. Another positive surprise is how eerie game is sometimes. This should be somewhat expected with game taking inspiration from urbex (urban exploration) so storm, squeaky doorways and occasional footsteps here and there keep you on the edge when reading and walking. Didn't mind it though, served as a nice way to keep player attention to what is going on. Voice acting deserves a special shutout as Sarah Grayson that is voicing Sam poured out her heart and soul for this one (further evident by audio logs from Commentary Mode), doing one wonderful work. Speaking off, extra points for said mode. What can I say, I absolutely adore that stuff. Modifiers are okay but let's be real there is just not a lot of things you can modify in such small, short game. Now unfortunately I have to throw the story into mixed bag. As much as I appreciate game focusing on [spoiler]LGBT Themes[/spoiler] and how it portrays them, as I've read comments from both pro- and anti- people to said subject who were really open and very positive or got their entire opinion/viewpoint changed thanks to this game, I'm afraid it also "tunnel vision-ed" the overall narrative. Whole mystery with family gets sidetracked into being a mere "optional" investigation as we dive into only individual problem which while being well made as I said before, does leave a bit sour taste with the rest. Nonetheless, can recommend Gone Home. Not the most emotional or impactful walking sim that I've played but it does convey nice message in an hour so that's a pretty good achievement. [b]Final words and conclusion[/b] You can purchase Soundtrack DLC to further support developers! Short and simple yet on point with emotional, non-linear narrative it provides, Gone Home is a title you can spend your evening on and not regret it. Feel free to check out [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/31947302/] my curator page [/url] for more reviews!