The release of Gone Home in August of 2013 caused a ripple in the video game industry, with critics and gamers alike buzzing about a unique and interactive story game on the PC. Two and a half years (and a cancelled console port) later, and The Fullbright Company has finally managed to bring Gone Home to PS4 and Xbox One. Gone Home: Console Edition succeeds at maintaining the simplistic gameplay and effective storytelling of the PC version while bringing the revolutionary title to new audiences.
Full spoilers for Gone Home will be discussed in this review. If you have not yet experienced Gone Home for yourself, go do so. It is an experience worth having on your own first. Then come back and join us as we explore the ins-and-outs of The Fullbright Company’s extraordinary game.
[Spoiler Warning]
The story behind the making of Gone Home is just as fascinating and, arguably, just as important as the story the game itself shares. Some necessary history: Steve Gaynor, Karla Zimonja, and Johnnemann Nordhagen met at 2K Marin working on Minerva’s Den, a DLC single-player expansion for Bioshock 2. After working on Bioshock Infinite with Irrational Games, Steve Gaynor moved back to Portland, rented a house with Zimonja and Johnnemann, and thus began The Fullbright Company, their new development team named after Gaynor’s old developer blog. [For a full interview with Gaynor on the history behind The Fullbright Company and Gone Home, check out Kinda Funny’s podcast here]
This raw dedication to small team game development paid off. On August 15th, 2013, The Fullbright Company released Gone Home, and the game was a critical success, receiving many 9.5s and 10s from big name organizations such as IGN, Polygon, and Giant Bomb. The game’s success became a boon for The Fullbright Company, and the team later added additional content such as a commentary mode (which also, thankfully, appears on the console edition).
In March of 2015, the planned console port of Gone Home was cancelled after producing company Midnight City closed their doors. However, in December of 2015, The Fullbright Company surprised everyone by announcing Gone Home: Console Edition. The team had shown their intense dedication to the world yet again, having taken it upon themselves to port Gone Home from PC to PS4 and Xbox One. This port includes an upgrade to the game engine from Unity 4 to Unity 5 and enhanced controls for a handheld controller.
But enough history. Gone Home: Console Edition has arrived on living room consoles everywhere, bringing the atmospheric and stunning story to brand new audiences two and a half years after its initial release. Gone Home tells the tale of the Greenbriar family as Katie Greenbriar explores their empty home in Portland, Oregon. Katie has returned home from a year long trip in Europe to find her family’s home abandoned. Through simple yet effective game mechanics the player explores the four floors of the house to piece together, not only where her family has gone, but the dramatic tale of Katie’s younger sister, Sam.
The ways in which Gone Home excels are evident from the start. The game relies on simplicity and elegance in its structure and concept. The plot progresses only as the player pieces together the story through clues and audio journals narrated by Sam. Different parts of the house open up for exploration in intelligent ways so that the story progresses correctly, but it always feels as though the player is in full control of discovering the story. There is no combat, no expansive menus, not even any other in game characters. The entire game is built around discovering the story.
The story, the heart and soul of Gone Home, is a double-edged sword. In one aspect, the story of the game is revolutionary and thought-provoking. Plot A delves into Sam’s developing sexuality and homosexual relationship with a girl named Lonnie. Setting the game in 1995 was a brilliant choice for two reasons: 1) It eliminates most electronic communicative devices from the equation, allowing the player to take in the story organically through written notes (among other means), and 2) it means that Sam’s homosexuality brings about major problems within the Greenbriar family. Her parents don’t approve of her sexual preferences, flat-out denying the reality of the situation.
Plot B explores Sam and Katie’s parents and their tumultuous relationship. The audio journals really only give insight into Sam’s personal story, leaving the story of mom and dad to be discovered through physical clues such as letters from family friends, marked dates on calendars, pamphlets regarding couples retreats, and even a used condom. Though nothing is ever explicitly defined, a few things are clear: Terry (the father) is a struggling writer burdened by a difficult relationship with his father and a failing marriage with his wife, Janice (the mother), who may or may not be cheating on Terry with a co-worker. Piecing together the issues within the family without written or audible affirmation is a fulfilling treat through the game’s 2 hour run time.
As enjoyable as that is, however, it’s the audio journals, narrated by Sam, that truly elevate Gone Home from being a great game to being a work of art. Sarah Grayson, the voice of Sam, and Chris Remo, the composer of Gone Home‘s atmospheric and dream-like score, weave a web of brilliant artistic performance across the canvas of the game. Grayson’s monologues shine through the darkness of the house like a beacon, always gentle, inviting, and successful in creating a real and visceral connection between the player and Sam. Remo’s underscoring is marvelous, causing the heart to ache at the truthful and innocent stories Grayson seems to share from her heart [You can listen to Remo’s ambient score here].
The final aspect of the story that demands to be recognized is how the ambiance and atmosphere of the game warps the player’s perception of the house and story throughout the entire experience. Few games achieve the same level of terror as Gone Home does when the lights suddenly shut off on you and thunder rolls as you stand alone in a dark stairwell. Remo’s soundtrack often cuts out to an eery silence, and a third subplot regarding the psycho uncle Oscar his ghost haunting the house keeps the players heart racing. The juxtaposition between horror and drama is Gone Home’s key to success: it opens the player up to receiving the full effects of Sam’s journey.
[Personally, as I slowly made my way into the dark basement, I was astounded to be struck with images of my old childhood basement as a wave of familiar childlike fear overcame me. It was in this moment that I truly appreciated Gone Home’s simple approach: to fill this beautiful world and story with ghosts or monsters would be to delude the game’s strongest asset: the ability to build such a visceral connection with the player.]
The downside of Gone Home, and arguably the only downside at all, is that the story is told in a time where some of the impact may be lost. The constant cloud of fear and foreboding hovers over the house, setting the game up for a dramatic and horrifying ending that never arrives. This, in and of itself, is not a negative aspect of the game, and may in fact be one of Gone Home‘s biggest strengths. The downside is that a lesbian relationship, a couple going through difficult struggles in their marriage, and a runaway punk teen are no longer particularly shocking or surprising. The game, outside of tricking you into thinking that something different or horrible may have happened, never really has anything unique or overly special to say.
However, that does NOT mean that the story of Sam Greenbriar is not worth telling. Gone Home is not only artful, but necessary in the way it demands change from the video game industry. Video games have come a long way from the days of Pong and the Atari. Gone Home is by no means the first game to explore the possibility within video games to express truly moving stories, but it undoubtedly takes the concept to a new level. Even if the story is not particularly unique or deep, it moves and affects people through the importance it places on itself, the masterful performances of the actors and artistic team, and the simple elegance of its gameplay.
The other standards by which games are judged and reviewed take a backseat to the story in Gone Home, but are exceptionally met nonetheless. The graphics, brought to life by the Unity Engine, are crisp and detailed. The sound design supports Remo’s soundtrack with gentle rain, the occasional terrifying lightning strike, and contextually resonant punk music [The punk music and bands featured in the game deserve a google search on your part, trust me. Check out The Youngins, who play the role of the game’s fictional band, here]. The gameplay itself is simplicity defined, yet it succeeds in serving the story and atmosphere, which is of the utmost importance. The controls are natural and instinctual, and never get in the way of your experience.
Gone Home: Console Edition also brings along modifiers and a commentary mode from the PC version. These modifiers, such as beginning the game with all of the lights on or with all of the doors unlocked, are excellent for players returning for a second visit to the Greenbriar home and wishing to search for things they may have missed the first time around. The commentary mode includes pop-ups throughout the house that the player can click on to trigger an audio track. These tracks of the development team describing their experience and secrets within the game add a real layer of depth to the project.
Gone Home isn’t necessarily a game in the traditional sense, but rather a visceral theatrical experience. The world that the Fullbright team has created is one which serves to tell an important story, even if the story lacks some depth and originality. The gameplay is elegantly simple, the performances are artfully portrayed, and the terrifying atmosphere effectively serves to guide the player to a resonant conclusion. Gone Home, without question, deserved all of the praise it garnered back in 2013, and Gone Home: Console Edition maintains the truth and heart of the experience while bringing it to new audiences.
A PS4 Code for Gone Home: Console Edition was provided by The Fullbright Company for the purpose of this review