Video games are like any other medium. Over time, people create new styles and everybody argues over whether it counts as a part of the medium. Hard as it might be to believe, there was a time when people would look at Picasso’s works and call them a waste of paint. Games have come under a similar sort of lens as of the last few years. Gaming has traditionally been about beating levels, conquering bosses, and with a few exceptions, violence. Designers are going to design new things, however. In the last couple years, designers have come about with a whole new genre dubbed “Walking Simulators”. These games don’t have combat, bosses, or challenge, some might say. Since their inception, people have been debating on whether these games are “games”. Gone Home is a game that has featured in these discussions more than any other, so let’s have a look at why.

How many houses that look like this aren't haunted? Zero, that's how many.

Gone Home tells the story of a small family living in Oregon in 1995. You play as Kaitlin, coming home after a trip through Europe. You quickly find a note from your 18 year old sister, Samantha on the front door. She tells you that she’s sorry she can’t be here to see you, not to go digging around trying to find where she is, and that she’ll see you one day.

The detail on the handwriting here is great. It looks like a teenager actually wrote it, and there's a lot of feeling in the writing.

You enter your house to find it complexly empty, dark, and silent. You play in first person, and there’s nothing you can do except walking, opening and closing doors/cabinets/etc., and picking up objects for a closer look. Games have been getting more advanced over time, so it seems odd that the mechanics are so simple, but there’s a genius behind it. Constraint breeds creativity, you see. When all you can do is walk around like in real life, you get into a real-life mindset.

This room is full of details that tell you about the family and uncovering them is engrossing.

As you progress through the game, you explore the house, learn about what your family has been up to while you’ve been gone. You learn everything from little newspaper clippings, letters, and hidden notes. It’s an amazing example of environmental storytelling, which is something that no medium can do as well as games. You unlock more parts of the house as you explore, finding keys and even the occasional secret passage. Before you know it, you’ve learned all about your family, solved the mystery, and the game is over.

Gone Home has atmosphere dripping out of its ears, and not just one kind. The dark house is at once inviting and terrifying. Remember being a kid and turning the lights off in the stairway then running up so the monsters in the dark couldn’t get you? Gone Home remembers, and it taps into these kind of childhood feelings about home.

You can bet your ass I sprinted through this basement until I found the light. Everyone dies in the basement in horror movies. I wasn't taking that chance.

There are other times when you’ll be laughing about finding your father’s porn magazines, or finding a sheet with Chun Li’s moves from Street Fighter. Other times you’ll just be filled with curiosity about what’s behind the next door, or what’s in your father’s safe. Like family and old memories, Gone Home helps you realize that things might not be how you thought they were.

Your sister has become a punk rock listening, zine-writing, staying-out-late rebel while you've been gallivanting around Europe.

Even though we’re not really Kaitlin, we feel how sometimes ignorance can be bliss, especially with family. I don’t want to spoil the plot for you because this is one of the few games where there’s not a lot there besides plot. The graphics are simple, but they’re clear they help the home feel like a home. Nothing in Gone Home takes you out of the game, like an inventory menu or pop up notification about controls. I’ve never played a game that’s as “unbroken” as Gone Home, and it’s something I think other games should strive to emulate.

So, the real question: Is Gone Home a game? Yes, it is, absolutely. It’s an interactive piece of entertainment, so I don’t think there’s anything else you could call it. Yes, there’s not really a lot in the way of challenge, but you could say the same about most of the Kirby Series. The lack of combat certainly didn’t stop games like Myst, so it shouldn’t bar Gone Home from “game” status. It’s not just a game, either; it’s a great game. I don’t know of another game that managed to create a mystery so compelling and enticing so fast, except maybe Amnesia: The Dark Decent. It has a powerful story, masterful use of tone and atmosphere, as well as intuitively designed mechanics. It’s not what we might have been used to, but neither was Picasso. As time goes on, it will be remembered as one of the best examples of a narrative in a game, as well as the epitome of environmental storytelling. I would be impressed to find anybody who doesn’t feel anything by the end of the Gone Home, even if they came into the experience planning to hate the game.

Worth Playing?

Yes. Gone Home is an emotional and heartfelt game with clever use of emotion and simple mechanics that pull you in. If you’re wondering what games as “art” look like, I would say that if Gone Home doesn’t qualify, its damn close, and more than worth your time.