Category: Student Posts

Gone Home was critically acclaimed upon its release. I remember reading the countless reviews praising its narrative and immersion factor, two particular traits in video games that I value quite highly. Often times I feel that as long as these two aspects are exceptionally executed, the actual gameplay can take on a secondary role. As a fan of Quantic Dream’s Heavy Rain and other narrative-heavy games with minimal gameplay, I thought playing Gone Home would heighten my love for this rare genre even more.

Instead, I experienced a narrative through the eyes of a character who makes no impact on the story whatsoever in a setting that felt slightly claustrophobic. Corridors and rooms and passages initially begged to be traversed and rummaged through, yet the payoff would be stumbling upon one of Sam’s numerous mixtapes, a colorful binder from the 4th grade, or perhaps a key to another passage or room. The lack of any substantial impact on the story’s resolution and the excessive “corridor crawling” make Gone Home feel less of a video game in a traditional sense and more of a passive and exploratory “interactive short story”.

I admire the game for its willingness to explore homosexuality and its associated struggles subtly without any explicit, forceful perspective on the matter. I genuinely cared for Sam and Lonnie’s relationship as it was essentially presented from its origin. The directional audio and soft lighting did contribute greatly to immersion. Yet I feel that Gone Home could have conveyed its message as well, if not better, through other media instead of shoehorning interactivity as a draw point. As an avid player, the game simply felt a bit too restrictive despite its earnest story and thus made for a slightly underwhelming experience.

Gone Home was my first game I have ever downloaded and played on my computer– I am much more of a console man myself– so even the process of downloading the game was difficult. However, once I got the game running I was all good. From the start screen I thought to myself “Oh no. This is going to be a horror game” For reference I do not do well with anything related to horror. When I started actually playing I sympathized with the character because one of my visits back to my parents house nobody was there. This initially gave me investment in the character and throughout the game I felt as if I became part of the game through the notes and letters left around the house.

With each new hint in the game I became more and more a part of it. When I encountered the hidden passageways I appreciated the setting of the game and it made the game seem even more real. The detail put into the build of the house is that of an actual house. The only portion of the game that bothered me was the time in the game. There was no time limits or any obvious time changes throughout the game, just the storm becoming slightly louder at times, so I felt like I was stuck in a moment. If the TV’s were showing a signal or music playing, I would have felt like I was progressing. The only times I felt as if time was flowing was when the audio played a voice or I read a note.

As far as being the only character in the game, I thought it was odd but I could appreciate how the developers of the game designed it. If there had been other characters, the tension created by being home alone would not have been near as intense. I enjoyed how I learned about myself, yes I said myself not my character, through the notes. I learned that my sister loved and could confide in me about things that she could not even talk about with our parents. Even though I did not learn much about myself from my parents, I learned the problems that were occurring in the family. Since I myself, not the character, am no longer living at home I really do not know what is going on with the family anymore and I am always playing catchup whenever I visit.

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I was surprised by how much I enjoyed playing Gone Home. Normally I am not a big videogame enthusiast but this game is different than my general idea of a videogame. When the game starts I am initially confused as to why no one is home to greet Katie when she arrives home from Europe. This detail and the note on the door from Sam create an initial allure to the game. When I first walk into the house I’m not really sure where to start because I don’t know what I’m what I’m looking for. To be honest at this point I looked up what the point of the game was, only to learn that there isn’t really an end goal as I had expected there to be. The creators of this game did a good job at adding mystery to the game with simple details like the stormy weather with occasional loud bursts of thunder or the random creaks that the house makes. There were many times when I actually worried there was someone else in the house and that something was going to jump out at me. The creators accomplished the goal of making the house creepy.

The choice to have Sam’s journal entries play when certain items are discovered or examined was a key part to establishing the story in the game. These entries help to explain everything that Katie finds as she examines her home and pieces together each clue. Although Kaitlin is the only character physically present in the game, her character profile is less established than Sam’s profile. It appears as though Sam is really the main character. We don’t know much about Katie except for the fact that she seems to be perceived as the better behaved child through Sam’s opinion. Sam’s transition throughout the course of the game seemed to play a major role in developing the story of Gone Home. As the game starts Sam is an insecure and confused child and by the end of the game she has become a reassured young adult. As the journal narratives begin I expected to be told the story of a young girl who feels like an outsider at her new school and struggles to find her place but it becomes a tale of finding one’s sexual identity. The creators of Gone Home were able to turn a predictable story in a semi controversial direction and make a much more interesting story.

Prior to playing this game I would have never considered a videogame to be a piece of literature. Gone Home as a very captivating story line and is able to insight emotion within its players. Gone Home has many of the same key components as a videogame which allows us to analyze it as a piece of literature which seems rare for a videogame. You can use literary tools such a setting, tone and characterization when discussing this game. It is interesting to see the connection between literature and videogames especially since that is exactly what this class is all about. I hope that we can continue to play more games throughout the course of this class that we can analyze in a literary manner.

Gone Home is a good game which combines “room escape game” and “plots game” together. The music and the sounds of light create a lonely and little scary setting. Also, the visual effects are both captivating and creepy. After I finished reading the green book(the last scene) on the second floor, I realized that I could have “win” the game in just a few minutes. However, the purpose of playing this game is not “win”, which means get to the final step. Instead, the core of this game is to discover the stories behind each person.

When I was dropped in front of a locked door in the beginning, the horrifying lightening, background music and setting made me think it was a horror game, in which maybe the family members have died in the house. Thus, I turned off the music and sound effects. However, as I picked up things and got more familiar with the setting, I started to consider it as a discovery game. Therefore, I was assuming that the end of the game is that the family members prepared a big surprise for Katie to welcome her back. As I stepped into the house, I barely see anything. I turned on the lights and found that I was locked out by doors on both left and right sides. So I was eager to find the keys to go to the next step and see what was going to happen. During the process of finding keys, I discovered letters, radios, and postcards. I started to forget my mission of getting through the game. Instead, I engaged in reading pieces of story and evidences of what has happened during the last year. The first-person perspective really had me immerse in the scenario. Through all the letters and pieces of evidence, I gradually knew the personality of all family members and stories behind them. The major story is about Sam, Katie’s younger sister. Sam found herself fall in love with a social girl, Lonnie. Sam’s parents were against the inappropriate relationship. And through the letters written by Sam and Lonnie’s photo in Sam’s bedroom, I saw that Sam was struggling with the society (including school, peers,and parents) and was wondering whether this relationship had a future. In the end, Sam eloped with Lonnie.

While the player plays as Katie, the story itself is really about Sam’s life over the last year. At last, I understand that the title of the game should be “GONE HOME”, rather than GO HOME. The harmonious  family was torn to pieces and GONE, maybe forever. Thus, what I learned from this game is that in our lives, we need to understand and forgive our family members, which leads to a long-lasting happy HOME.

 

From the title of the game to the ominous application logo, I thought for sure that I was going to find myself playing a horror game. Judging from the intro of the game, I didn’t think I was far off. Wandering on an old porch with a huge thunderstorm overhead, made me nervous that someone was going to jump out at me at any moment. The first note on the door didn’t make that fear disappear. Where had my sister gone? Was there a murder? What was awaiting me in the house?

As I walked into the house, the eeriness did not escape me (and didn’t until the end). One thing that really impressed me with this game is the attention to detail through sound.