(PC Game)
Gone Home is a PC game released in August 2013 published and developed by The Fullbright Company. The trailer looked pretty awesome to me.
For reference here's a link to the trailer on Youtube:
This is their Promotional Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMDaMK-9Tzc
This is the Launch Trailer (posted by The Fullbright Company): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5KJzLsyfBI
First, note the difference between the two. Now, note how creepy and scary the promotional trailer looks. It looks like it'd be a nice, scary game to play on a dark night doesn't it?
You could not be more wrong. This is one of the worst cases of bait & switch I have ever seen. Yes, I know that sometimes game developers make promises with their games that they can't always keep but this is different. This is promising you one game and giving you another.
And, what's worse, it is overpriced. It took me 3-4 hours to complete it with a slow-ass computer. If it had been running properly it would only have been 2. If I had straight-up followed the story of it, maybe a half an hour. And all of this for $19.99. Luckily, I got it on Steam when it was on sale for $2.99 because if I had paid full price for this I probably would be a goo-pile of Luna because I would have exploded.
Let me give you the 'story' (and spoiler warning):
The game starts out with your (Katie) phone call home to tell your parents that you'll be arriving home a day earlier than planned. You mention that you're excited to see the new place since they moved after you went abroad.
Arriving home in a thunderstorm you find the door ajar and a note on it from your sister, Samantha (Sam). The note tells you that she can't be there and not to come looking for her because she doesn't want anyone to know where she has gone. Intriguing.
You go in to find the house completely deserted. No mom and dad either. Hm.
You can literally interact with nearly everything in the house which is cool. For like a minute. Until it just gets annoying when you're trying to figure out what you actually need and what you can just play with. I do applaud it though because maybe a better game creator can actually do something with all of this interactivity. Yeah, that inventory we were shown? Nope, you don't get one. Sorry.
Continuing on with the story:
You get the story by picking up letters, memos, tapes and such. Mostly from and about your sister Sam but also about the two other characters, mom and dad. I'll get their story out of the way first because theirs is the shortest. Dad is an author whose first three books about a time-traveling hero did pretty well for a time but now are not. So he's 'reduced' to writing technology reviews on such nifty things like laserdiscs (the story is set in 1995) and it appears he gets to keep what he reviews which isn't too shabby to me. Anyway, he's not very good at it because he gets too detailed about it. He seems to be pretty depressed about it judging from notes to himself and a lot of booze lying about. Some of his depression may stem from living in the house itself. The house was a legacy left to him by his great-uncle. There are hints at "something" having happened. More on that later. Nearing the end of the game things are looking up for him though because he's got an offer from a small publishing house to re-issue his books and his wife is encouraging him not to give up on the manuscript that he's been working on.
Mom is a Forest Ranger who has been tasked with a large controlled burn and has a new colleague to help her with it. This colleague and her start getting friendly and, from some notes to and from an old school friend, they seem to be getting a little flirty. Ranger Rick invites her to see a band at a local club (or something similar) so Mom's all jazzed about the possibility but her friend warns that she may be reading too much into it. In your parent's room you find some condoms hidden in Mom's drawer (EW) and the clothes are all tossed around. Could there have been a fight? Mom also gets an offer to be promoted because of her outstanding Rangering abilities. You kind of get the impression that she's holding off because she has a crush on her co-worker. And that's about it for Mom's story. There's no affair because Ranger Rick was engaged and just saw her as a friend. You find his wedding invitation to Mom on the fridge with the 'Not Attending' box pretty aggressively marked and also aggressively written on the calendar. When you find the calendar you realize that Mom and Dad have gone off on a couple's retreat to try to mend their marriage. Whew! Thought that might get interesting there for a minute! Glad the makers avoided that!
So, that wraps up Mom and Dad. They're not home because of the retreat and are due to be home the day you originally were scheduled to be.
Now for Sam. Sam is pretty much the main character. Mom and Dad's story we find out strictly through notes but Sam's we get through tapes and all of her notes to Katie are narrated by voice-over. And I should warn you right off the bat that I don't like her. I'll try to be unbiased but can't promise anything. I loathe this girl that much.
We start her story with her talking about her first day of school and how nobody is talking to her. She eventually finds out that the house she lives in is known around town as 'The Psycho House'. Which sounds interesting at first but it's just because when their great-uncle lived there he locked himself in and became a recluse. No mass murder or anything cool like that. Sorry.
Sam is having a hard time fitting in but notices a girl named Lonnie who she sees sometimes in a military looking uniform. Finally Lonnie approaches her and asks if they can hang out because she's always wanted to see 'The Psycho House'. So, she comes over and her and Sam play Nintendo and hang out. You get evidence in Sam's room that she is interested in girls and also that she and Lonnie have been shoplifting together. Lonnie invites Sam to a concert in the city. Her parents say no and Sam informs them that she is 17 and can go anywhere she pleases in her car. That her parents probably gave her because she has a job at The Chicken Shack (or something like that).
So, she goes and her and Lonnie kisses her and Sam realizes that she likes it a lot. Lonnie comes over the next day feeling embarrassed and guilty and afraid that Sam won't want to be friends anymore but Sam quickly assures her that she is fine with it and that she cares for Lonnie too.
They are soon spending every minute together but Sam is also getting in trouble at school for passing out Grrrl Power fliers and comic books that she and Lonnie have made. Lonnie also gets in a fight because someone scrawled graffiti on Sam's locker alluding to the girls' relationship. Her grades are also dropping.
Lonnie tells Sam that she will be leaving for the Army right after graduation and Sam is crushed. Lonnie says she's dreamed of being in the Army since the age of 12 and that's why she's part of the ROTC program (hence the uniform). Sam is a bit heartbroken by it and wonders what they should do. Lonnie suggests they just have fun and enjoy being with each other and try not to think about it too much.
Sam's parents also find out about her real relationship with Lonnie and try to tell her it's just a "phase" and that she'll grow out of it. They don't forbid her from seeing Lonnie however but they do tell her that they can't have the door shut while Lonnie's over and they're alone (which, to me, is pretty fair).
Lonnie and Sam have been ghost-hunting all over the house trying to make contact with Oscar (the great-uncle) but it's just for fun. Sam also gets accepted into a creative writing course with a full scholarship because she's such a good writer.
Lonnie has also started singing in a local band and on their last night together she dedicates a song to Sam who loses her shit completely and starts crying and saying how she can't live without Lonnie and basically drama-ing all over the place. With her parents at the retreat Lonnie and Sam spend their last night together at Sam's house (it's also implied, to me anyway, that it is also their 'first time' together).
When Sam awakes she's all alone. Lonnie tries to call the house but misses Sam both times. The third time Sam answers it at the last minute and Lonnie tells her that she couldn't go through with it and got off the bus and wants Sam to get all the money she can together and come pick her up. "And just...drive".
THE END
There is also a sub-sub-plot about Dad's Uncle Oscar. When Dad was 12 Oscar did "something". Something bad enough to be ostracized by his family and which led him to lock himself away in his house forever which led to it being called 'The Psycho House'. I have a feeling that it's either supposed to be that he was a drug addict or that he molested Dad. Or both. You find a letter to his sister asking for her forgiveness and telling her that if she can't forgive him then he will never again step foot outside. You find this in a safe that contains syringes from a pharmacy and that contains opioids and in the room is a growth chart of Dad that stops at 12. So, draw your own conclusions because this is never explained fully.
No ghosts, no creepiness. It's a coming-of-age story, basically. It's basically an interactive book. Which is really funny to me that it gets so much praise for this when I remember a while ago certain games (*cough*Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly*cough*) got a lot of flack because a bit of the story was told through notebook and diary entries. Funny, huh?
What I hate the most (besides a lot of other things that I'll get to in a bit) is that this is presented as a 'happy' ending. Let me sum up the 'happy' ending: Sam ditches her creative writing course that is a full scholarship (and her dream). Lonnie ditches basic training, which is also her dream. Sam steals every piece of electronic equipment from the house (VCR's, Nintendo, the LaserDisc her Dad was reviewing) and maybe the car as well if it's in her parent's name, which it probably is because she's only 17. To just drive until they're basically out of money. Which will probably be in less than a week.
Overflowing with joy and happiness yet?
You can accuse me of trying to overthink it but for a game that apparently prides itself on 'realism' that is the realest outcome to these events. Besides the fact that they'll have to get some crappy job or come crawling home where I'm sure Sam's parents will be oh so thrilled about her stealing and pawning their stuff. I don't know much about the Army or how it works but I would assume there would be some kind of consequence to Lonnie bailing like that. I don't think it would be that she's A.W.O.L. because she hasn't even reached Basic Training yet but if she tried to rejoin I would think that she either wouldn't be able to or that there would be a waiting period of some sort. Like I said, I'm not really sure so if anyone out there knows and can correct me, please do. Also, Lonnie's deciding on this spur-of-the-moment doesn't really go with her character as it's presented. She consistently seems more mature than Sam (at times I forget that Sam is supposed to be 17 because half the time she sounds like she's 13) and more laid back.
I have a hunch that part of the wave of good reviews has something to do with the lesbian love angle. Hear me out. I have no problem with it. And if Lonnie were the main character I would be so much happier because Lonnie is just way cooler and laid back than Drama Sam. When she comes over to Sam's all embarrassed I just want to hug her. At least until the end when she basically decides to ditch her entire future. For Sam.
Anyway, the story is a little frustrating because there are no real obstacles. And the sexual orientation simply does not matter. Because this story would play out the exact same way no matter the gender. Swap it around any way you like: boy/boy, girl/girl, girl/boy. The story does not change. Maybe that was done purposely but to me, if you're going to go that way with the storyline, make it mean something. Have something to say about it, make it matter. Because, in the reality of the story, Sam and Lonnie's big 'obstacle' is their separation. Which is lame. Even the writers trying to make the parents sound like assholes by calling it a "phase" fails because they don't forbid Lonnie and Sam from seeing each other. The only steps they take are reasonable and would be applicable to a boy as well (such as making them leave their door open). I would do the same thing. I'll give my kid privacy and not snoop on them when they're alone but they're sure as hell not going to be having sex upstairs while I'm drinking my coffee. The only two major differences that would happen are the graffiti would probably be more slutshamey instead of orientation shaming. And Sam would be reading Playgirl instead of Playboy. Wow.
And the number one thing to piss me off: This is not the game we were sold. The previews definitely made it look like a horror/haunted house exploration but this is not it. I know I keep harping on that but this is false advertising. And if I had paid $20.00 thinking I was getting one game when I got bait & switched for another I would have demanded a refund. I also am not sure how they got away with using things that are flat-out copyright infringements to sell their own game but they did. Maybe that's why the change to the Launch Trailer because there are two things ripped off from the book and movie of The Shining and one thing ripped off from The Shining movie (Kubrick, 1980).
Ok, on to the game itself.
The graphics are nice, it's easy to interact with stuff. Well, presumably. My computer was really laggy so it would be hard occasionally to focus on stuff but that is my issue, not theirs. The voice acting was great. So my Sam dislike doesn't stem from how she was played. The ambient music was good and creepy. Too bad it and the thunderstorm went to a whole other game. The other music, however, is a different matter. During the game you find several tapes of music. Some are from a band that Lonnie and Sam both like and the other is from the band Lonnie sings for. Funnily enough, both singers sound the same. And, funnily enough again, they suck. The singing is terrible and if these songs make up the soundtrack that Steam is selling with the game then I actively encourage people to avoid it at all hazards.
So, there's my two cents for all it's worth. If you must play it for yourself then I encourage you to wait until it's on sale. Trust me. You'll be angry if you pay full price for a
Until next time!