Critical Play of Gone Home
Gone Home:
Developer: The Fullbright Company LLC.
Platforms: Xbox, Playstation, Nintendo Switch, PC, iOS
Gone Home had an interesting title, so I decided to play it for my critical play. This game is available on many platforms, including iOS which is not always the case. I wanted to switch things up and decided to play this game on my phone. This is not my first time playing a walking simulator, so I had some expectations coming into this critical play. In this critical play, I will discuss how walking tells the story.
How Walking Tells the Story
The game starts off with a call to your mom that ends up going to voicemail. In this voicemail, you are explaining that you will be taking a late flight and will take a shuttle home. After that voicemail, you find yourself at the front door of the house with your bags. It is a stormy night and your house seems to be empty. You are free to walk around and explore anything that is in sight. For example, you can open cabinets, open doors, closely inspect items by rotating them, turn on the lights, and look at your baggage to figure out your name. You can interact with pretty much everything in the game. Once inside the house, you find a journal that has a note in it. The note is read out in a little girl’s voice, and she explains what it was like when you were gone. You also learn why you were out of town. Next, you continue to walk around the house and find more notes. At some point, you run into a locked door. This is where I ended my gameplay.
Based on the initial gameplay, there are a bunch of questions that are unanswered. For instance, where is everyone, why is this door locked, or what do all of these notes mean? These are all questions that I was asking myself as I was walking around the house. The game’s narrative is filled with mysteries that I wanted to be solve. I could not stand not knowing the answers to things. As a result, I continued to walk around the house and search for answers. I went through cabinets and drawers in hopes to find answers. The fact that the game is filled with mysteries is what made me use the game mechanics to keep walking around and searching. The mystery is the story, and solving the mystery adds to the story. To solve the mystery, I must walk around and explore the house. The combination of the mystery and the ability to freely walk is what draws players into the game. This is a perfect example of how mystery and walking sim support each other.
