The other two safe combinations are simply laying around next to the locked objects, and all the bananas and cereal boxes and pens you pick up never serve any greater purpose. That's the only thing that resembles a puzzle in the entire game. In the compartments you'll find the combination to Sam's locker which furthers the central plot, and in the passageways you'll get to where you'll need to go next in the house.īut.that's it. You discover a map that points out secret passageways in the house and secret compartments in the walls, and they become marked on your own map. In truth, there are only three main puzzles, a locked locker in Sam's room, a locked filing cabinet in your dad's study and a locked safe in the basement, all of which have four digit combinations. "I might need to use one later for something." But that's never the case. "I'd better keep track of where I can find a pen," I thought early on. I thought I'd have to solve puzzles within the house using the household objects I found.
I was expecting gameplay to be different here. Only a fraction of these objects have any significance to the greater plot, and most that do are obvious, like the aforementioned notes and letters. For some reason, the game gives you the ability to pick up literally any object in the house, from pencils to apples to books to board games to tampons. It's a mystery/puzzle game without all that many mysteries or puzzles. Though I love the concept of this game, the execution could use some work. Rather, the story Gone Home wants to tell is more ordinary than you might initially believe. Eventually, after enough of these, you learn to stop being scared, as nothing is going to ever jump out at you. As soon as you pick up a homemade crucifix, the lightbulb snaps out of existence above you.
You find a secret passageway in the house with some of Oscar's old things in it. I gasped when I entered a bathroom and found red splatters on the tub, but then I found a bottle of red hair dye on the ground and a note from my sister about coloring instructions. Even if it's a place you're familiar with, it's still spooky, and that's certainly the case in Gone Home.īut eventually you learn this is not that type of game. It effectively channels the feeling of terror you may have felt in your youth (or still feel now) when you're home alone in the dark. You enter the house during a thunderstorm, and for the duration of the game, the lights won't stop flickering. The kids at school call Sam the girl that lives in the "psycho house," and it's strongly hinted that your once beloved uncle did something very, very bad.Ī recurring theme in the Gone Home is that it's constantly masquerading as a horror game.
Lastly, the specter of your father's uncle Oscar looms over everything. Your father, who once wrote a book about a man who goes back in time to save JFK, is now writing crappy home theater reviews and there are a worryingly large amount of liquor bottles scattered around the house. Your mother, a forest ranger, has been making eyes at a new man in her department, as she tells her friend Carol in a letter. You'll check a few calendars and find that your parents are at a couples workshop retreat to get their marriage on track, and further exploration reveals why. There are a few side stories as well regarding other family members, though none have narration to accompany them. You get to hear how their relationship developed over the time which you were gone, and how it has affected Sam and your family and relates to her disappearance. Sam's story is about a 15 year old girl discovering her sexuality via a girl she meets and crushes on at school. Sam's story is the main plotline, and when you discover significant items belonging to her, a note passed in class, a photo, a concert flyer, you'll hear a voiceover diary entry from Sam addressed to you.
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