Gone Home

Developer: The Fullbright Company
Available on: PC, OSX, Linux, PS4, Xbox One
Play time: 2 hours
TL;DR: Cry Try Buy

 

The basic premise of Gone Home is innocent enough: after an year away, you come home to an empty house, and try to figure out where your family is by piecing together clues from the stuff lying around. But as you rifle through your family’s personal belongings, you realize that you’re learning far more about them than you initially intended. Uncomfortable secrets are revealed and the guilt initially felt at accidentally uncovering them is offset by the need to find out exactly what has been going on while you were out.

This is a game about how we take things for granted, and the player experience itself is no exception: constant hints about the house’s dark history will leave you guessing until the last minute whether there’s a supernatural element to the story or not. Do not expect a tidy resolution at the end of your journey; family troubles aren’t so easily explained away and forgotten. In that way, Gone Home is a game that quite successfully hits very close to.