Gone Home is a first-person story exploration game dealing with a family gone missing.
Exceptional Learning
Great Characters
Great Music
Great Story
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Story & Themes
Gone Home is entirely story-driven. There are no puzzle or fighting components to the game. Katie, the main character, arrives home from a year abroad to an eerily empty house. The player must wander through the house and try to find out what happened to the family—Mom, Dad, and younger sister Sam—by interacting with objects and documents in the house. Sam has left letters and voice recordings relating her struggles to Katie.
Gone Home is thematically heavy; Sam suffers from depression and struggles with her sexuality and blooming relationship with a friend, Lonnie. Family, young love, and teenage heartbreak (as well as the contrasting fading love between the parents) are powerful themes throughout the story.
Save Points
Players may save whenever they choose.
Difficulty
Gone Home is not hard to play, however it is not designed for young kids.
Heads Up!
Scary Imagery The game isn’t exactly scary, but it can be anxiety-inducing. Apple gave Gone Home a rating of 12+ and mentioned "Infrequent/Mild Horror/Fear Themes" in its description.
Sex & Nudity Sex is often discussed in Gone Home, but it is never shown explicitly. It is heavily implied that Sam has slept with her girlfriend, but the dialogue does not go into detail. The player can also read a high school class assignment which describes the human reproductive cycle. Apple gave Gone Home a rating of 12+ and mentioned "Infrequent/Mild Sexual Content and Nudity" and "Infrequent/Mild Mature/Suggestive Themes" in its description.
Strong Language Bad language (including the F-word) can be heard in music and also appears as written text. Apple gave Gone Home a rating of 12+ and mentioned "Infrequent/Mild Profanity or Crude Humor" in its description.
Substance Use Players can enter a home bar and pick up bottles of liquor, but there is no drinking or drug use in the game. Apple gave Gone Home a rating of 12+ and mentioned "Infrequent/Mild Alcohol, Tobacco, or Drug Use or References" in its description.
Conversation Starters
- Why do you think Sam’s parents thought of her sexuality as “just a phase?” Do you think sexuality can be a phase? Can it be a phase for some people, but not for others? How do you feel about the term “phase” in general?
- Do you think Sam was justified in lying to her parents? What do you think would have gone differently had she told the truth all the way along?
- How did Sam’s parents’ faltering relationship impact Sam’s life? Do you think she was aware of what was going on in their lives?
- Do you think Gone Home could be told today, now that we have smartphones and GPS tracking and social media? What about the story would change, and what would stay the same?
- Have you ever felt like Sam? Sam wrote letters to Katie, her sister, who wasn’t home at the time. She didn’t send the letters, though. Who would you have told, if anyone? Do you think writing things down can help deal with troubling emotions?
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