Gone Home is an interactive short story of about an hour and a half. During that time, you are Katie who has just returned home from Europe and finds nobody home. So she explores the family mansion, to find out where her parents and her sister are. The graphics are nice enough, sound effects are ok and the voice acting is not bad either, which is a rare feat for indie games. But the story is what an interactive story is mostly about, of course, and unfortunately that's where Gone Home will be severely lacking for most people.

I don't want to spoil the story for people who may want to experience the story for themselves, but I can say that the story is a huge disappointment if you get your expectations from elements like 'a huge mansion to explore', 'an empty house', 'mystery: where is everyone?' etc. It's nothing like what you'd think. There are no unexpected twists in the story and there is nothing supernatural going on or anything like that.

The description for the game on the Steam page contains some quotes from reviews. One of the quotes mentions that the story of Gone Home is a love story. So that's no spoiler either, it's in the product's description. The story is indeed a teenage love story like you might have seen in an After School Special from the late 20th century. I don't mean that in bad way, there is nothing wrong with After School Specials, it's just so you know what to expect and who the target audience is.

If you think you might enjoy a teenage love story being told while you explore every room of a mansion, you should still be careful before deciding to purchase Gone Home. It's a completely linear experience and the interactivity required is very limited, so there is no reply value whatsoever. Moreover, the whole experience only takes an hour and a half.

So we should really talk about the price here. That isn't easy, though, because money is subjective: to some people, €20 or $20 means practically nothing but for other people, that's half their monthly budget for gaming. I usually tend to recommend buying games if they're on sale when I personally think they may be a bit overpriced for the value they actually offer. But in this case, I think it's safe to be blunt and say that pricing a short novel (emphasis on 'short') with extremely little content at €20/$20, is nothing less than a complete rip-off. I think I personally paid around €3.5 for it and I still feel that I paid a bit too much for what I got.

For people who are sure they won't want to experience Gone Home for themselves, I'll tell you the whole story just so you'll see what I'm on about in this review. So needless to stay, HUGE SPOILER coming up... Well, where is everyone? The parents are away on a weekend trip and the sister has run away from home with her lesbian lover.. Even for an After School Special pitch, the producers would have said: "Hmm ok, it's an interesting start for a story but what else is going on?". To which Gone Home would reply: "Nothing else. That's it. And that will be 20 dollar/euro please."

Far too short for the money

Atmostphere and graphics: very good
Story: OK (some people will really like it, some won't at all)
Length: a few hours, a little more if you want to solve everything

Call it a nice 90's-era walking simulator with a little bit of story and puzzles thrown in. Don't pay more than a few dollars for it, maybe $5 if you're really into 90's America references or you want to take a chance on a game with no pre-conceived notions.

Well, I am not usually the one to write bad reviews for anything. Unless, the product or service is blantantly horrible. That being said: I bought Gone Home with the intention of feeling a story that would in the end leave me - philosophically and psychologically - fulfilled. My verdict: The game did not do much for me. The music is atomospheric and reminiscing, besides that I don't really have anything good to say about this game. In short, the game builds up to a very weak climax while attempting - and failing - to look nostalgic.

While the atmosphere is good, the whole story felt way too predictable and cliché to entertain (me) for 1-2 hours. As a Walking simulator (dull gameplay is a given) the mundane plot is it's only selling point.

This review contains no spoilers.

The tags on this should have warned you from the beginning, but just in case: this is not a game, it's another "walk around and explore everything, eventually leading to a conclusion" type of experience. Gone Home has a main story that unfolds in linear fashion as you explore the surroundings, and also a lot of background detail that tells you more about these people you never interact with. All the characters actually have quite a bit of backstory, not just the one the story focuses on, and it's easy to miss all the little hints and clues that tell you everything there is to know about this world, so it's not quite as linear as your movements.

However, that still doesn't mean it's worth $20 at full price; there's just not enough substance to justify it. At $4 on sale, you could go for it if you really like these kinds of harmless, non-twitchy explore type interactive experiences. If you're open to it, and you like thinking about fictional people and what their lives could be like, well, you might even get your money's worth. The hard decision for me is whether I recommend it, and I'll have to go with "no". It's not terrible by any means, it's a charming little slice of life experience, but it's awfully short, and the emotional and narrative payoff is really too paltry. If I'd read this as a story or watched it as a TV show, I wouldn't have walked away satisfied, and dressing it up as a game doesn't change that.

Atmosphere is good, prepares you for something stupendous (complete with Satanic references, what look like blood stains, etc.), and comes up with a lame love story. Like seriously? It's sappy, vapid, and as emotionally deep as a pen cap.

What's especially ironic is the main character's father in the game is taking a reaming from his own father as well as from his employer for being a terrible author; it's almost like the author of this game's love story is mirroring his own failures as an author through the game's father's subplot, which you (the player) glean from conspicuously dropped letters all over the house that end up being 100% irrelevant to the boring love story.

The climax of the love story you can see coming from a mile away. There's nothing to surprise you at all in this game.

I wouldn't even recommend this to lesbians who experienced young love; chances are your own stories are so much deeper and more multifaceted than this laughable excuse for a drama.

To open: This is not a $20 game. Do not get it for $20. You will be disappointed and I wouldn't even blame you.

That out of the way, this is story-driven exploration game with you coming home after a year away in Europe to your house being totally empty, and you simply explore it to find out why through collecting notes. Some give narration from your younger sister, a punky late-teen trying to find her place in a new school without her older sister.

This game is well made overall. The house is put together in a realistic way, the voice acting is genuinely without being cheesy, and the music is pretty good (if 90's grrrl punk is your thing). I think most people would agree on these point. The main issues of contention come from 2 things: price/time, and appeal.

Price per hour of gameplay is pretty poor, unforgivably so at full price. It takes 1.5-2 hours to play - wait for an appropriate sale for that playtime if you're interested. It'll allow for a much more genuine experience.

Appeal is more complicated. This game achieves a certain atmosphere that many simply cannot or do not wish to connect with, and that's fine.

Do you like the mid-90's? Do you like punk music? Do you like stories about high school girls learning about their values and what's important to them? Do you enjoy "showing-not-telling" narrative style and piecing a story together yourself? Do you like teen romance? Do you like exploration games?

If you answered "no" to many of the above, probably give this a pass. I enjoy this game, and I have a lot of affection for the story, but it isn't so good that it'll convert someone who dislikes the concepts it's built upon. That being said, for those who are exploration game fans with an interest in the mid 90's vibe and coming-of-age stories, pick this up if you see if for a good price. It's a neat story with straightforward gameplay.

Yeah yeah yeah.I had finished this game in 1.6 hour(93minutes) it's so good.:DDDDDDD

Got it for 4 bucks during the sale, and I feel like this is a more just price fot what you're getting.
I can't say the game is bad, but rather misleading - plot suggesting a mystery house with a dark past, secret passeges, satanic references, emergency weather situation and all that. I went in expecting a spooky dark story, maybe some scares here and there, yet got quite the opposite by the end - a teenage love story.
It wasn't a bad way to pass a couple hours, but I would like to see something a bit more advanced from the devs next time.

PS: $5 for the soundtrack is a bit too ambitious. I wouldn't recommend getting that at all.

I just sat down and played this game in one sitting and I am so glad I did. It's such a wonderful story! Definitely recommend it!