221. Gone Home (The Fullbright Company, Playstation 4, 2016)

The popular story behind Gone Home's development is that, fresh off a less combat-focused Bioshock 2 DLC, a handful of developers felt like they could make a whole game just about wandering around interacting with stuff. I'm sure the real story is a bit messier than that, but either way we arrive at Gone Home: a video game about a girl who comes home from a trip to Europe only to find her house empty, and you spend the game figuring out what transpired since she left.

I'm purposely being cagey with the plot details because that's pretty much the reason to play Gone Home, since actual gameplay-wise there is very little going on. The main loop involves entering a new room, stumbling around for the light switch (For a game from the Fullbright Company, it sure is dark), then seeing what interesting stuff you can find in the room that either moves the plot forward or provides the background worldbuilding. There are so many objects to check out, though pretty quickly you can tell what is going to be story-related and what is just another soda can.

This sounds very simple in theory but the real gem is the pacing, by which I mean both the beats of the story in how it twists around to make you question what is happening, and also the actual flow of the house and how it's built to keep you engaged in exploring it. Plus I love a game that can do its thing, have room to breathe, and still wrap up nicely in about 2 hours, so if it has to be mechanically simple in order for that to happen, so be it.

I will say as someone who is currently trying to buy a house, I found the Gone Home house to be quite ridiculous, both in its huge size as well as its confusing layout (who would actively want a house with this many extra rooms? why is the kitchen so small but the staircase so large? why is there a room in front of the front door?) At one point you find an invoice from an electrician that claims that all the wiring in the house is to code, which was laughable given its age and clearly antique light switches.

My favorite thing, compared to a game like #87 Dear Esther, Gone Home feels much more personal and relatable, like it came from someone with a distinct voice, which is something that is unfortunately rare in popular video games. I also love that it takes place in a real time in the real world. None of this 20XX stuff or even Liberty City stuff, you want to be in Oregon in 1995, here you go. Looking back after I finished, the story itself was nothing groundbreaking, but Gone Home really keeps you wrapped up in its minutiae if you're willing to go exploring.

4/5, a nice down-to-earth video game, and the second game that has made me cry this year (after game #168, Wattam).