Should you buy Gone Home ?

[mendel]

Buy this if you...
...like stories.
...like to explore.
...like short games (1-3 hours).
Buy this on sale.
Don't buy this if you...
...are looking for challenges of logic or skill.
...are unsympathetic to LGBT issues.
...don't like teen drama as a genre.
These points address the most frequent complaints voiced on this forum.

[mendel]

Edited so all the points fit the mouseover text on the discussion index page.

[a razor named qualia]

"Game"

No.

Get Spec Ops: The Line if you like Stories, or short games (Easy is pathetically easy) and challenges.

It does everything Gone Home does, but better.

[mendel]

I played Spec Ops: The Line; well, about half of it because it got really bad story-wise.

Let's compare them.

Gone Home has (Spec Ops: The Line has)

• no violence (Shooting and more)
  
• no gore (burned bodies, mutilation, and torture)
  
• thunderstorm at night (sandstorm by day)
  
• parents and an uncle with issues (military commander with "issues")
  
• nonlinear play (linear as a railroad)
  
• free pace (pace set by game)
  
• hundreds of objects to interact with for immersion (only what is needed for the game/plot)
  
• 1990s athmosphere (2000s athmosphere)
  
• love (war)
  
• a gay relationship (don't ask, don't tell)
  
• well-drawn, moral characters (horrible, we just caused the death of hundreds of civilians, let's keep going and not question what we're doing)
  
• teen drama plot (action movie plot)
  
• nuances (clichés)
  
• lonely athmosphere (gets positively crowded at times)

Originally posted by Variant:

It does everything Gone Home does, but better.

I'd say Spec Ops: The Line does almost nothing that Gone Home does.
The exploration in that game is shallow and an unneeded bonus, while in Gone Home it is the focus of the game.

I hope my comparison enlightened your buying decision, if my original seven points didn't already.

[mendel]

I see the game is on sale again, so I hope this advice comes in handy.

[Hupples]

Originally posted by mendel:

Buy this if you...
...like stories.
...like to explore.
...like short games (1-3 hours).
Buy this on sale.
Don't buy this if you...
...are looking for challenges of logic or skill.
...are unsympathetic to LGBT issues.
...don't like teen drama as a genre.
These points address the most frequent complaints voiced on this forum.

This is a decent guide, but it would be better if you removed the "unsympathetic to LGBT issues" and "don't like teen drama as a genre" made them positive and added them to the reasons to buy.

[mendel]

Originally posted by Hupples:

This is a decent guide, but it would be better if you removed the "unsympathetic to LGBT issues" and "don't like teen drama as a genre" made them positive and added them to the reasons to buy.

Thanks for the compliment.

The reason that I didn't make these positive is that the game isn't really centered about either:
* The LGBT issues take a backseat to the general coming-of-age storyline, and if you're neutral to them you will still enjoy Gone Home a lot. You just won't if these make you see red and foam at the mouth thinking hateful thoughts about SJWs.
* There's much more in this story than teen drama if you take the time to explore and mentally add up the clues, because Terry and Janice have quite a bit of backstory as well, even if that isn't reflected in her daughter's journal entires; and then of course there's the house itself which evokes a lot of memories in those players who remember the 90ies.

So you don't have to especially like LGBT issues or teen drama to enjoy Gone Home, but if you react badly to them you won't.

[Cortex]

I came to this board only to read and have a kick out of one side throwing poop at the other. Tho from what I have seen, read and heard, this is more of an interactive story than a game, but that's just semantics and... not really worth arguing about.

[Hupples]

Originally posted by mendel:

Originally posted by Hupples:

This is a decent guide, but it would be better if you removed the "unsympathetic to LGBT issues" and "don't like teen drama as a genre" made them positive and added them to the reasons to buy.

Thanks for the compliment.

The reason that I didn't make these positive is that the game isn't really centered about either:
* The LGBT issues take a backseat to the general coming-of-age storyline, and if you're neutral to them you will still enjoy Gone Home a lot. You just won't if these make you see red and foam at the mouth thinking hateful thoughts about SJWs.
* There's much more in this story than teen drama if you take the time to explore and mentally add up the clues, because Terry and Janice have quite a bit of backstory as well, even if that isn't reflected in her daughter's journal entires; and then of course there's the house itself which evokes a lot of memories in those players who remember the 90ies.

So you don't have to especially like LGBT issues or teen drama to enjoy Gone Home, but if you react badly to them you won't.

However, people who like LGBT issues and teen drama will like it all the more for them being there and them being in the positive section would still allow people who dislike such things to know they are present. Also, despite there being other stories present, the LGBT issues are an important aspect of the bildungsroman which is the main story.

[mendel]

Whether or not Gone Home is a "Bildugsroman" can't be discussed without spoilers, nor is the the appropriate forum topic to do it in.
Suffice it to say that my description already implies that LGBT issues and teen drama are present, so I expect that players who like those will consider that when making their decision.

What I should maybe add is "buy this if you like a trip back to the 90ies", but that wouldn't actually be based on forum complaints. >.<

[Hupples]

Originally posted by mendel:

What I should maybe add is "buy this if you like a trip back to the 90ies", but that wouldn't actually be based on forum complaints. >.<

Being nostalgic about the 90s would help someone enjoy the game more than someone who is not nostalgic about the 90s.

[vandigeth]

I grew up in the 90s so I got something out of it on that end; however, the music tapes had terribad music on them lol.

[vandigeth]

Originally posted by Rambo First Blunt:

Originally posted by vandigeth:

I grew up in the 90s so I got something out of it on that end; however, the music tapes had terribad music on them lol.

If the game actually had good music on those tapes, i wouldn't be so mad. At least that would of saved it. Why couldn't they of had a bunch of 90s music really. The music on those tapes was so bad. They couldn't buy the rights to Hanson's DoWhoop or anything big in the 90s.

I agree, if it were genuine 90s music on those tapes then I may have been more forgiving. There had to be something they could get for the game, somewhere.

[vandigeth]

Originally posted by Rambo First Blunt:

Originally posted by vandigeth:

I agree, if it were genuine 90s music on those tapes then I may have been more forgiving. There had to be something they could get for the game, somewhere.

All they had to do is let me play Street fighter 2, and put Vanilla ice , Ice Ice baby on a tape deck. I would of been happy.

Haha, hellz yeah street fighter 2. :D Mortal Kombat would have also been an acceptable choice.

[mendel]

Originally posted by vandigeth:

I agree, if it were genuine 90s music on those tapes then I may have been more forgiving. There had to be something they could get for the game, somewhere.

There is genuine 90s music on those tapes: So we worked with Kill Rock Stars to license tracks from a couple of the most groundbreaking Riot Grrrl bands of the time: Heavens to Betsy and Bratmobile. Source: http://fullbright.company/2013/08/14/the-music-of-gone-home/

[vandigeth]

Originally posted by mendel:

Originally posted by vandigeth:

I agree, if it were genuine 90s music on those tapes then I may have been more forgiving. There had to be something they could get for the game, somewhere.

There is genuine 90s music on those tapes: So we worked with Kill Rock Stars to license tracks from a couple of the most groundbreaking Riot Grrrl bands of the time: Heavens to Betsy and Bratmobile. Source: http://fullbright.company/2013/08/14/the-music-of-gone-home/

Fair enough, but not ♥♥♥♥♥♥ 90s music lol.