Gone Home

Format: Pc (2013) 

Developer: The Fullbright Company 

Categorizing Gone Home as a video game feels like a small crime. This is easily another excellent piece of evidence to throw into the case of video games as art. Just as I found Dear Esther to be a brief, but poignant and beautiful interactive novel dressed up as interactive visual media so too does Gone Home tempt me. 

With promises of 90s nostalgia (a fine way to increase tension by eliminating modern communications), Gone Home features a protagonist returning home to find an empty house and thus begins exploring her home to discover where her family has disappeared too. Played through a first-person perspective, nostalgia-fiends should find exploring Gone Home’s house an absolute joy with so many references and nods to the era to discover. 

I’ve read complaints of a lack of action and false advertisement from disgruntled players who have neglected to read the product description, those who expect a horror-fuelled haunted house or any kind of threat should steer clear. This is a story concerning teenage isolation and to say any more would do a disservice to the creators. 

At fifteen pounds one may consider Gone Home to be slightly overpriced (I purchased it in a Steam sale) but at the same time a Blu-ray movie costs the same amount of money, lasts roughly as long, and features commentaries (as does Gone Home.) For an experience that can potentially move and resonate on a level that most video games will never reach, I feel even at full price the product is justified. 

Purchase with an open mind only. I did and I fell in love.