This review contains spoilers
Spoilers only discussed at the very bottom
Note - this review is largely based off of recollections from years back over a fresh playthrough, and while some footage was rewatched on YouTube, ultimately take the rating with a grain of salt.
Gone Home is a title I’ve been wanting to reflect on for some time now, my reasons having less to do with its gameplay and more to do with what it represents: a capsule of an era long gone, when the Internet was growing, gas remained cheap, and neighborhoods seemed a lot more friendly.
I’m of course referring to the 90s, a period of history that, despite not garnering as much reverie as its decadal forebear, deserves the same level of nostalgia all the same. Fans who’ve listened to the Smashing Pumpkins’ 1979 can affirm to how accurately it captured the mood millions of kids felt at the time: the end of the Cold War signaled World Peace; the Dotcom Revolution hailed the City of Tomorrow, and the lack of social media meant no growth-stunting of youth.
Nonetheless, it goes without saying that this is all under rose-tinted glasses. Adults and older teens who lived through the 90s will tell you things were far from perfect: tragedies like Waco & Columbine were occurring at an alarming rate, the War on Terror was arising with Desert Storm & OKC, and need I even say anything about the Neo-Lavender Scare?
Taking that backdrop into consideration, Gone Home is unique in that its set in a relatively-realistic version of 90s America, its contents intermixing the good & the bad for the sake of nuance, which is a tactic I feel a lot of games caked in the past deliberately fail to achieve -- they’re so interested in either depicting the best or worst of times, that you rarely get an accurate glimpse of what society was actually like back then.
Don’t get me wrong, Gone Home is filled with plenty of nostalgia (an aspect I’ll be delving into shortly), but I bring up the nuance point as a partial warning to any nostalgihacks expecting unadulterated praise from the devs- this is not that kind of title and will only leave you disappointed. Nor is it a thriller, a problem that contributed to Gone Home’s negative reception(+) and which is entirely on the dev’s shoulders - anyone who saw that launch trailer years ago would not be mistaken in believing there was something sinister about the adverted mystery, and the fact that Fullbright’s marketing department had no qualms over misleading millions of gamers is disgusting and inexcusable.
Regardless, that prelude has no bearing on the actual product, which I have no problem recommending albeit without some warnings for consumers: first, that Gone Home is a very short game. At release, Fullbright charged $20.00 for a title that provided, at best, 3-4 hours worth of content, and while they’ve since dropped that tag to $15.00, it’s still an unreasonable amount in ratio to the raw entertainment value on hand.
The second, arguably more important, point, however, is that Gone Home has an intrinsically niche appeal brought about by its aforementioned backdrop, meaning those folks who didn’t live through the 90s in full will absolutely be lost amidst the endless easter eggs & references abroad….a quandary I admittedly found myself in. See, I was born in ‘95, and while the trends, cultures, and paraphernalia of the decade seeped well into the early-2000s, the fact is there were a lot of facets I missed out on via being too young to remember them: facets that Gone Home gleefully replicates in its recreation of Middle America circa 1995. The premise is you're a young woman named Katie who’s returned from a trip to Europe only to find her family house abandoned and a note from her sister Sam(++) telling her not to look for her.
If that sounds like the perfect set-up for a mystery, it’s because it is, though you won’t be doing any real investigating courtesy of Gone Home being a walking simulator. No, instead the general gist of the game consists of exploration in search of several letters Sam left behind detailing what transpired during Katie’s travels and, as you may expect, this is where the bulk of Gone Home’s appeal rests in - the ability to literally peruse a carbon copy of what a house adorned in 90s pop culture looked like at the time.
Graphically, Gone Home makes use of the Unity engine, which does render its aesthetics uncannily-similar to other walking sims ala Dear Esther and Layers of Fear. However, by no means were the devs lazy, as, objectively-speaking, Gone Home is a dang good-looking game, its contents combining nostalgia with an inherently-moody framing. You guys remember that feeling as a kid whenever you’d walk around your house in the middle of the night whilst everyone else slept? Where it seemed like every floorboard creaked, every bump thudded, and every hum was a ghostly wail? Well, that’s the kind of ambience you get here- it’s not that anything is particularly scary, but more that there’s an unsettling atmosphere as you explore the many apprised rooms of the Greenbriar abode. One of Fullbright’s greatest achievements is hitting that balance between homeliness and unfamiliarity - as Katie is returning to a place both known and unknown to her, so too are fans taking a journey back to an era they both know and don’t know: memories tell them that things were better, but reality dictates there was more to it than that.
But of course, it’s the knick knacks everyone will be most curious about, and boy oh boy, are you guys in for a treat. Despite my late bloom, I have fond memories of many objects & media commonplace to the 90s, and those of you who actually lived through it uncut will have an even greater time here due to Fullbright’s artisans going all out. I won’t delve into too much detail given that this wonderful blog post already did the deed for me, but to provide a general overview, you’ve obviously got the big ones (SNES’s, video cassettes, X-Files) contrasted against a surprising number of smaller ones (Groove Magazine, Magic Eye pictures, etc…), all of which remain beautifully-textured and, most importantly, accurately-colored -- like the 80s did with neon, 90s products were rife with vibrant colors & catchy logos: if minimalism is the domineering strain behind corpo marketing today, whatever the opposite was, was the nexus for 90s promos (take a look at Pepsi and NBA logos for proof of this), and Fullbright consequently deserves immense praise for successfully emulating that style the many times they utilize proxy brands in lieu of real-life products (SNES cartridge art, board games, fake zines, and so forth).
Needless to say, Gone Home’s visuals manage to put you in this frame of time, their contents further accentuated by Chris Remo’s somber score. Given the gap since I played the game, I can’t tell whether or not the music cues were organically-interwoven into the title, but what I can say is the score itself is well-done, if a little repetitive: low guitar chords making the brighter tracks all the more distinct.
SFX, again, is hard to talk about without reexperiencing the game in its entirety (a prospect I do not have the time, nor patience, for), but YouTube playthroughs definitely indicate it to be on the conservative, though competent, side, the bulk of it deriving from Katie’s footsteps, some object interactions, and the pounding rain outdoors.
I’ve saved voice acting for last because it goes hand-in-hand with the story. See, despite controlling Katie, Sam is very much the protagonist here, and Sarah Grayson’s performance from the narrated missives stands as one of the most absorbing portrayals I’ve ever had the privilege to witness. It’s a shame her talent has been restricted to Fullbright titles as her ability to simultaneously nail that teenage turmoil, pondering, and excitement we’ve ALL undergone when exposed to new stimuli & experiences is not only exceptional, but inherently lends Sam’s story a magnetic appeal.
Unfortunately, I have to keep reverting back to my earlier warnings as, while Sam’s personal tale is easy to follow, it does lose something when divorced from its historical backdrop(+++). There are other critics who’ve brought up the ending as a legitimate form of criticism, an aspect I am sympathetic to, though it, too, deserves a retrospective(++++).
Ultimately, if you like walking simulators, you can’t go wrong playing Gone Home - with a few minor puzzles, a captivating narrative, and a unique setting, it definitely stands above its genre compatriots. Just keep in mind its short length and the fact that it boasts an inherent nicheness, no matter how hard the devs may have tried to render things universal.
NOTES
+Talking audience rating as obviously critics enjoyed the game. But yeah, if you know what the content is about, you’ll realize where a chunk of the hate probably derived from….
++Sadly no My Sister Sam jokes, though I suppose that was technically an 80s show (Rest in Peace Rebecca Schaeffer).
-There are additional subplots to glean about Katie's father and mother should you look closer....
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SPOILERS
+++Sam being a closeted lesbian is made doubly tense when you consider how violently homophobic the 90s were. Not only was Matthew Shepard (RIP) the most infamous victim of several lynchings that went on, but anti-gay bigotry in general was so great that the Clinton Administration (i.e., the elected government of the socially-liberal Democratic Party for you non-Americans) passed multiple socially right-wing initiatives including DOMA (banning same-sex marriage) and “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (barring openly gay individuals from serving in the Armed Forces).
++++So the finale a lot of folks probably expected was finding Sam’s body in the attic, your sister having committed suicide over her life’s frustrations. Contrary to what the apologists say, I think this would’ve absolutely made for a haunting & memorable ending (not to mention outright daring by walking sim standards). That said, I understand the reason Fullbright went with a happier coda was out of a desire to avoid falling prey to a trope called “Bury Your Gays” which, as the name implies, entails LGBT characters meeting with tragic endings in fictional works.
Besides, given how depressing the world already is, perhaps going with a less-bleak future ain’t the worst idea.
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Note - this review is largely based off of recollections from years back over a fresh playthrough, and while some footage was rewatched on YouTube, ultimately take the rating with a grain of salt.
Gone Home is a title I’ve been wanting to reflect on for some time now, my reasons having less to do with its gameplay and more to do with what it represents: a capsule of an era long gone, when the Internet was growing, gas remained cheap, and neighborhoods seemed a lot more friendly.
I’m of course referring to the 90s, a period of history that, despite not garnering as much reverie as its decadal forebear, deserves the same level of nostalgia all the same. Fans who’ve listened to the Smashing Pumpkins’ 1979 can affirm to how accurately it captured the mood millions of kids felt at the time: the end of the Cold War signaled World Peace; the Dotcom Revolution hailed the City of Tomorrow, and the lack of social media meant no growth-stunting of youth.
Nonetheless, it goes without saying that this is all under rose-tinted glasses. Adults and older teens who lived through the 90s will tell you things were far from perfect: tragedies like Waco & Columbine were occurring at an alarming rate, the War on Terror was arising with Desert Storm & OKC, and need I even say anything about the Neo-Lavender Scare?
Taking that backdrop into consideration, Gone Home is unique in that its set in a relatively-realistic version of 90s America, its contents intermixing the good & the bad for the sake of nuance, which is a tactic I feel a lot of games caked in the past deliberately fail to achieve -- they’re so interested in either depicting the best or worst of times, that you rarely get an accurate glimpse of what society was actually like back then.
Don’t get me wrong, Gone Home is filled with plenty of nostalgia (an aspect I’ll be delving into shortly), but I bring up the nuance point as a partial warning to any nostalgihacks expecting unadulterated praise from the devs- this is not that kind of title and will only leave you disappointed. Nor is it a thriller, a problem that contributed to Gone Home’s negative reception(+) and which is entirely on the dev’s shoulders - anyone who saw that launch trailer years ago would not be mistaken in believing there was something sinister about the adverted mystery, and the fact that Fullbright’s marketing department had no qualms over misleading millions of gamers is disgusting and inexcusable.
Regardless, that prelude has no bearing on the actual product, which I have no problem recommending albeit without some warnings for consumers: first, that Gone Home is a very short game. At release, Fullbright charged $20.00 for a title that provided, at best, 3-4 hours worth of content, and while they’ve since dropped that tag to $15.00, it’s still an unreasonable amount in ratio to the raw entertainment value on hand.
The second, arguably more important, point, however, is that Gone Home has an intrinsically niche appeal brought about by its aforementioned backdrop, meaning those folks who didn’t live through the 90s in full will absolutely be lost amidst the endless easter eggs & references abroad….a quandary I admittedly found myself in. See, I was born in ‘95, and while the trends, cultures, and paraphernalia of the decade seeped well into the early-2000s, the fact is there were a lot of facets I missed out on via being too young to remember them: facets that Gone Home gleefully replicates in its recreation of Middle America circa 1995. The premise is you're a young woman named Katie who’s returned from a trip to Europe only to find her family house abandoned and a note from her sister Sam(++) telling her not to look for her.
If that sounds like the perfect set-up for a mystery, it’s because it is, though you won’t be doing any real investigating courtesy of Gone Home being a walking simulator. No, instead the general gist of the game consists of exploration in search of several letters Sam left behind detailing what transpired during Katie’s travels and, as you may expect, this is where the bulk of Gone Home’s appeal rests in - the ability to literally peruse a carbon copy of what a house adorned in 90s pop culture looked like at the time.
Graphically, Gone Home makes use of the Unity engine, which does render its aesthetics uncannily-similar to other walking sims ala Dear Esther and Layers of Fear. However, by no means were the devs lazy, as, objectively-speaking, Gone Home is a dang good-looking game, its contents combining nostalgia with an inherently-moody framing. You guys remember that feeling as a kid whenever you’d walk around your house in the middle of the night whilst everyone else slept? Where it seemed like every floorboard creaked, every bump thudded, and every hum was a ghostly wail? Well, that’s the kind of ambience you get here- it’s not that anything is particularly scary, but more that there’s an unsettling atmosphere as you explore the many apprised rooms of the Greenbriar abode. One of Fullbright’s greatest achievements is hitting that balance between homeliness and unfamiliarity - as Katie is returning to a place both known and unknown to her, so too are fans taking a journey back to an era they both know and don’t know: memories tell them that things were better, but reality dictates there was more to it than that.
But of course, it’s the knick knacks everyone will be most curious about, and boy oh boy, are you guys in for a treat. Despite my late bloom, I have fond memories of many objects & media commonplace to the 90s, and those of you who actually lived through it uncut will have an even greater time here due to Fullbright’s artisans going all out. I won’t delve into too much detail given that this wonderful blog post already did the deed for me, but to provide a general overview, you’ve obviously got the big ones (SNES’s, video cassettes, X-Files) contrasted against a surprising number of smaller ones (Groove Magazine, Magic Eye pictures, etc…), all of which remain beautifully-textured and, most importantly, accurately-colored -- like the 80s did with neon, 90s products were rife with vibrant colors & catchy logos: if minimalism is the domineering strain behind corpo marketing today, whatever the opposite was, was the nexus for 90s promos (take a look at Pepsi and NBA logos for proof of this), and Fullbright consequently deserves immense praise for successfully emulating that style the many times they utilize proxy brands in lieu of real-life products (SNES cartridge art, board games, fake zines, and so forth).
Needless to say, Gone Home’s visuals manage to put you in this frame of time, their contents further accentuated by Chris Remo’s somber score. Given the gap since I played the game, I can’t tell whether or not the music cues were organically-interwoven into the title, but what I can say is the score itself is well-done, if a little repetitive: low guitar chords making the brighter tracks all the more distinct.
SFX, again, is hard to talk about without reexperiencing the game in its entirety (a prospect I do not have the time, nor patience, for), but YouTube playthroughs definitely indicate it to be on the conservative, though competent, side, the bulk of it deriving from Katie’s footsteps, some object interactions, and the pounding rain outdoors.
I’ve saved voice acting for last because it goes hand-in-hand with the story. See, despite controlling Katie, Sam is very much the protagonist here, and Sarah Grayson’s performance from the narrated missives stands as one of the most absorbing portrayals I’ve ever had the privilege to witness. It’s a shame her talent has been restricted to Fullbright titles as her ability to simultaneously nail that teenage turmoil, pondering, and excitement we’ve ALL undergone when exposed to new stimuli & experiences is not only exceptional, but inherently lends Sam’s story a magnetic appeal.
Unfortunately, I have to keep reverting back to my earlier warnings as, while Sam’s personal tale is easy to follow, it does lose something when divorced from its historical backdrop(+++). There are other critics who’ve brought up the ending as a legitimate form of criticism, an aspect I am sympathetic to, though it, too, deserves a retrospective(++++).
Ultimately, if you like walking simulators, you can’t go wrong playing Gone Home - with a few minor puzzles, a captivating narrative, and a unique setting, it definitely stands above its genre compatriots. Just keep in mind its short length and the fact that it boasts an inherent nicheness, no matter how hard the devs may have tried to render things universal.
NOTES
+Talking audience rating as obviously critics enjoyed the game. But yeah, if you know what the content is about, you’ll realize where a chunk of the hate probably derived from….
++Sadly no My Sister Sam jokes, though I suppose that was technically an 80s show (Rest in Peace Rebecca Schaeffer).
-There are additional subplots to glean about Katie's father and mother should you look closer....
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SPOILERS
+++Sam being a closeted lesbian is made doubly tense when you consider how violently homophobic the 90s were. Not only was Matthew Shepard (RIP) the most infamous victim of several lynchings that went on, but anti-gay bigotry in general was so great that the Clinton Administration (i.e., the elected government of the socially-liberal Democratic Party for you non-Americans) passed multiple socially right-wing initiatives including DOMA (banning same-sex marriage) and “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (barring openly gay individuals from serving in the Armed Forces).
++++So the finale a lot of folks probably expected was finding Sam’s body in the attic, your sister having committed suicide over her life’s frustrations. Contrary to what the apologists say, I think this would’ve absolutely made for a haunting & memorable ending (not to mention outright daring by walking sim standards). That said, I understand the reason Fullbright went with a happier coda was out of a desire to avoid falling prey to a trope called “Bury Your Gays” which, as the name implies, entails LGBT characters meeting with tragic endings in fictional works.
Besides, given how depressing the world already is, perhaps going with a less-bleak future ain’t the worst idea.
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2 Comments
@SPICEBAG - thanks brother, that means a lot, though I obviously couldn't provide the BEST interpretation given that I was very young myself during this period, glad you got something out of it haha. Curious what the 90s was like where you grew-up? You shared no similar pop culture with us yanks?
SPICEBAG
57 mins ago