Gone Home reflection
“Gone Home“, Wikipedia the free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gone_Home#/media/File:Gone_Home.png
Coming back from Europe, Katie informs her family she will soon be home but when she arrives, nobody seems to be there for her. Alone, immersed in the dark, in front of a locked door, I slowly look around me to find a way to enter. Rain pouring accompanied with thunderstorms, I am slowly intimidated and hesitant in advancing. As I open the creaking door, suspense builds up and I become startled and nervous for what is to come next. I am intrigued to find no furniture which only feeds my curiosity in trying to understand what happened. Thunder resonating in the whole house, I slowly advance through the house and find messages from Sam.
Learning that she had a rough start in her new high school and that she is interested in a girl, Sam tries to reconnect with Katie through her journal. What was also interesting was to have Sam read it to us, the tone really influenced the text, we could almost feel her emotions. As a consequence, I also felt involved on a personal level. By looking through the whole house and searching through personal items, I felt plunged in their lives, especially Sam’s. While she is sharing her struggles and her thoughts, we can relate to her in many ways and thus we can develop empathy for her.
The date shown at the beginning of the game. June 7, 1995 and specific items such as cassettes and large televisions contribute to the setting of the time period in which the game is established. Furthermore, the time period is maintained throughout the game by making Sam’s relationship with Lonnie harder than it can possibly be today as we can sense that her parents feel much more concerned for her. In addition, we can find references specific to the 90s such as X-files.
Sam’s creativity can be seen from her composition books where she draws which may display just how much Sam and Katie are opposites. While Katie’s trophies are displayed in the living room, there is no sign for Sam’s achievements. Furthermore, we can slowly begin to piece together that their parents’ marriage is falling apart as we find several books about couple’s therapy. In addition, we can realize what people can face where they moved in a new house. The fact that we learn that people define this house as the “psycho house” only troubles us more and feel uneasy.
Overall, I lived a new experience through this game as I developed empathy for the whole family. As the story was unfolding, I could relate to all the character’s struggles which made them almost come to life.
