Gone Home is just incredible. Before playing it, I'd heard what the game was about in very few words, and I thought it was just going to be an adventure game about 90s nostalgia. I was wrong.

The game follows a woman as she returns to her family home after spending some time studying abroad. Having never lived in this house before, she walks in to find it empty, and immediately discovers a note left by her younger sister, apologizing for not being there to see her, claiming it was impossible. And so, the older sister, who is mostly silent, explores this odd house she never lived in, searching for further clues from her sibling about what transpired in her absence.

Gone Home is a quintessential experience of environment storytelling, and an example of how games can tell the same story much differently than linear mediums can. More than just finding the younger sister, it's a game about walking through these odd halls and rooms yourself, in a house that, initially, seems so foreign and scary, but gradually begins to open up to you; about learning about the houses' inhabitants, their likes and dislikes, their habits, not from being told directly, but from finding pieces of their lives strewn about.

All of this -- the picture it paints in your head of this typical American family -- enhances the central narrative thread told through the sister's notes, which is such a beautiful and heartfelt story.

Definitely one of my favorite narrative-driven games. I love it.