Gone Home Reflection

Gone Home is nothing like any game I have ever played before. When I play a game, I usually know the main quest of the game from the start. In Gone Home, however, the player is never directly told what the main objective of the game is. One simply has to find the quest for himself/herself using clues found in Katie’s (the narrator and the player) house. The game starts when Katie comes home from a trip to Europe.  The setting reminded me of the movie Clue. Katie’s house had a creepy setting in a sketchy mansion in the woods in the middle of the night. One major difference between Gone Home and Clue, though, is that Katie was alone. Sam, Katie’s little sister ran away, and Katie’s parents are on a trip to get marriage counseling.

A  difference between Gone Home and many other games I play is the games slow pace. When I plays games Call of Duty or The Fast and the Furious, the players are encouraged to move as fast as possible and to focus only on completing the task at hand. When I played gone home, however, I walked at a slow pace analyzing every detail ranging from the father’s works of literature to Sam’s punk rock cassette tapes. As I played the game I got to learn more and more about Katie and her family.

I especially enjoyed learning about Sam’s struggles to fit in and to hide her relationship with Lonnie. I was able to see Sam as a struggling teen, trying to fit in and receive comfort from anywhere she can. I think that Sam may really like Lonnie, but Sam is primarily using her for comfort. Sami seems to think Lonnie understands her, and that Lonnie will comfort her more than anyone else (especially since Katie has been gone for an entire year). Sam manages to hide this from her parents and in the end, runs away with Lonnie. Even though I see why she ran, I think it was a mistake. She met Lonnie less than a year ago and they have no way of surviving long term.  I also don’t know if Sam would stay with Lonnie once she could use Katie for comfort.  I hope Sam and Lonnie come back home in the near future. I enjoyed analyzing this game and look forward to examining more in the future.