Gone Home

    Gone Home, an adventure title in which you get back home and have to investigate why nobody's there.

    A brief demo:

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    for those who never heard of it, it is made by the core members who made the Bioshock 2 single-player DLC.

    Since there are several indie games being shared lately, and I don't find this by searching, thought this deserved some attention too.

    I've never been into adventure games, but for some reasons in the last few years i'm getting tingled by some that are coming out.

    «Yesterday our friend Jack Hayden (aka SNAKEBOMB of Snakebomb Comix http://www.snakebombcomix.com/) lent us his afternoon to do a playtest of Gone Home! We had a great time gathering his feedback on the game in its nearly-complete form (and taking copious notes!) The game just got that much better for having him play through.»

    Apparently, it's almost done! 8-)

    This looks pretty cool, I'd be interested in playing this, it sounds like a similar idea me and a mate had for an indie game

    Yeah been playing it a bit, don't think I'm far enough to really get how it's gotten so many great reviews tho, but I kinda dig it. Easing back and slowly looking around

    Just finished it, it's a pretty cool experience. It definitely requires a lot of patience, especially in the beginning, but I really respect them for taking their time and letting you slowly find out more and more info and piece together what's happened in the family. And without spoiling anything, then I can definitely see why a lot of reviewers say that this stands out in being an actual mature game, at least in the US.


    Wish it had MP tho

    It was awesome, best experience I've had in quite a while.

    So very intimate and personal, the environment story telling is both brilliant and touching.

    I finished it. I didn't like it. The story and narrative felt shallow and contemporary rather than meaningful and interesting. Everything got overshadowed by just one of the family members really, the rest were mundanely revealed by the end. Like Mazy said, this is probably "mature" for american standards, but it is really not putting anything on the table than providing a look into contemporary society from a perspective of a single family. I wish I could say it would be on par with American Beauty in that sense, but sadly it isn't. It provides no insights into human nature or anything else than a shoddy narrative without moral.


    I wish I could get my money back.

    Quote from Sentura

    I finished it. I didn't like it. The story and narrative felt shallow and contemporary rather than meaningful and interesting. Everything got overshadowed by just one of the family members really, the rest were mundanely revealed by the end. Like Mazy said, this is probably "mature" for american standards, but it is really not putting anything on the table than providing a look into contemporary society from a perspective of a single family. I wish I could say it would be on par with American Beauty in that sense, but sadly it isn't. It provides no insights into human nature or anything else than a shoddy narrative without moral.


    I wish I could get my money back.


    Wait, why does it HAVE to put anything to the table? Why would it have to give insights about human nature?It's a slice of life, you follow the maturing of girl going from childhood to womanhood with whatever that entails. But more than that, it's all the backstory with the rest of the family that was interesting, putting the pieces together, getting to understand and know people that you haven't even met.It never tried to throw me truths in the face like so many games do, it never tried to be more than was it is and it never tried to teach me big life lessons. But if you went playing it expecting to find a redefinition of your beliefs in humanity, well then, you played it wrong.

    You know that most works of art, even some classified as bad at least provide a moral to a story, right? Like a hidden message that's supposed to make you understand at least something about why you were listening/reading the first place, right? The narrative in this game has none. Saying it shouldn't be deep is obnoxious, every story needs a moral to function, otherwise it's pointless. I think we can agree that the narrative in this game is the main focus, right? So we're focusing on something that is pointless.


    This is my frustration, spelled out. A slice of life is mundane, that's why people don't tell stories as slices of life, but rather as epics with suspense and idealized characters. They're role models of virtue for people. Everyone already lives their own slice of life, and while a change of perspective is nice, when that happens, it too does carry a moral usually - in this case, it does not.

    So you can kill my ass but i watched walkthrough on YT and i love this kind of games but i dont get such high scores

    The stroy isnt such strong and the game isnt ofering anything new and i was hoping for this to be a horror or some scary shit and . . .. .

    Does anyone here have played kinda old 2d point and click game called SCRATCHES ? very simillar to this but much better executed go and play it !

    Quote from Sentura

    You know that most works of art, even some classified as bad at least provide a moral to a story, right? Like a hidden message that's supposed to make you understand at least something about why you were listening/reading the first place, right? The narrative in this game has none. Saying it shouldn't be deep is obnoxious, every story needs a moral to function, otherwise it's pointless. I think we can agree that the narrative in this game is the main focus, right? So we're focusing on something that is pointless.


    This is my frustration, spelled out. A slice of life is mundane, that's why people don't tell stories as slices of life, but rather as epics with suspense and idealized characters. They're role models of virtue for people. Everyone already lives their own slice of life, and while a change of perspective is nice, when that happens, it too does carry a moral usually - in this case, it does not.


    I'm not sure how to respond to that. First of all, every story doesn't *need* a morale to be compelling or to just function. Some of my favourite movies are about people and characters.But also, saying this one doesn't have a morale is just plain wrong. It's personally the 1st time I play a game treating of

    Quote

    homosexuality as openly as this, and as subtly as this. It reflects the struggle of a young woman coming of age and how hard it is to get accepted when you're different. It's a love story, a darker story (the hinted abuse of the father by the uncle), the hinted extra-marital affair of the mom and the struggle of a family man. And in this feminist/anti-feminist climate, I appreciated to play a game that didn't try too hard but got it right.


    I mean if all those are not contemporary themes, I don't know what is.But I understand that you might feel cheated, it's not really a "game" per say, but it's definitely an experience anchored in the reality of our time...I also feel it's a tad expensive, but I sure don't regret my buy. Now back to shooting teens in the head in cod

    They are contemporary themes, but that does not automatically warrant the game as good for using them. Step back and look at American Beauty (the movie). It did everything Gone Home set out to do, and it did them right. The difference in medium really doesn't matter here as it is one narrative versus another. It chooses to push an agenda of meaningful narrative rather than simply presenting the player/observer with an intimate, but ultimately empty story of a runaway.


    And, I'm sorry, but yes, a story needs a moral to function. Having one without is pointless.

    I haven't played the game so I'm just doing "academy talk".


    As far as I can remember from my school days, morals are a cornerstone of fables.

    A generic story doesn't need one: when you read a biography (or watch that kind of movie) there's no moral, it should just tell you the life of that character, having a moral wouldn't be an accurate portrayal of it, you should decide if you like the guy or think he's a moron. Same goes for all those kind of "reportage" stories. Not sure if it would be appropriate to think to other genres of story in reply to your argument but i'm thinking to other material that (apparently to me) functions without a moral.


    I guess that more or less you can extract a moral from any story, but that would mean the moral is not the focus of the story (which is how I interpret your complaint on Gone Home), is something personal.


    I do agree that a moral makes a story more profound and meaningful, and it's something that I tend to think could make a lot of games stand out.

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