Gone Home: digging through the dirty laundry
The first seconds of Gone Home made me regret playing it at night, for the game instantly created a spooky atmosphere. In fact it reminded me of another game, Slenderman, a game that took away my sleep for many nights. Thus I turned on all the lights in my room and wrapped myself in a blanket before I could continue. However as the game progressed, no monsters, cursed dolls or slender people jumped out of the closets. Instead what the game was full of was the dirty laundry of a family living in the house.
The game kicks off with a woman calling her mother and saying she will come home late from the airport. It took me a while to understand that the whole game is presented from that woman’s perspective. She returns home (I guess this is why the game is called Gone Home), only to find it empty. However as she goes around she sees small pieces of evidence that show what happened while she was away. The final picture does not seem bright at all. Each member of her family has a lot going on and there is a huge question whether the ‘family’ even still exists. The members do not seem to care for each other and are caught up in their own business which turns the game from scary to bitter and sad.
The sound effects and poor lighting do a great job of creating an uncomfortable atmosphere. However as you get used to it the excitement withers away. After a few rooms the only thing that kept me going was the question: will I find a corpse of her sister somewhere in the house? Yet nothing as atrocious appears within the game. Thus after a while all you do is examine various items that belong to family members and put together a picture of what happened while the woman was away.
Overall I would say that this game has a great start as it creates a lot of confusion and a great spooky atmosphere. Yet this does not last long and the process of going through the game becomes repetitive. I would say that the most interesting point made by the game was the showcase of how much our personal belongings represent our lives. Of course most of the items found in the game were diaries, journals and recordings, which gave a pretty easy explanation of the situation. However there were many small things that help create the big picture and putting all of them together made me feel like a detective. However I at the same time felt uncomfortable in intruding the other people’s business and learning all of their dirty secrets. Thus I would say that if you like puzzles and watching Keeping Up With The Kardashians, this game is for you.
