Let’s be clear as crystal here, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the presentation is without flaw. I had complicated thoughts about Gone Home’s narrative, but reminded myself that I can’t rightfully think of a game that functioned explicitly as a coming out narrative before it. Gone Home approaches the topic with a degree of empathy that was and still is remarkable for the medium. While other games before it may have featured LGBTQ content, it was not necessarily a primary focus. But we’re dealing with videogames here, a medium not necessarily known for mature, sensitive subject matter. On a surface level, this plot is not revelatory. Sam is a lesbian experiencing her first true taste of romance and as we begin to understand her relationship with her paramour Lonnie, it becomes clear that she has run off and left her family behind. The moratorium for spoilers on this game has long since been broken and talking about it requires that we examine the ways in which developer Fullbright handles the game’s central plot. Each offers a voice over from Sam that slowly brings the situation into focus, all the while guiding you through various subplots. With little more than the threat of something ominous, the invocation of basic horror tropes, and devilishly subtle conveyance, players will find themselves magnetically drawn from one plot relevant object to the next.
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If there is one singular thing Gone Home is an absolute case study in, it is how to properly design a game space. The family manor looks ransacked cable boxes are stolen, bedrooms left in disarray, all while an oppressive darkness hangs within the house. A note on the door from your sister, Sam, begs you to – please – not look for her. You arrive at your family’s new home in Oregon on a July night in 1995. You play as Kaitlin Greenbriar in Gone Home, recently home from a European vacation. Each room held a new piece of a larger puzzle and a new answer to the question: what happened? A father obsessed with righting an unspeakable wrong, a mother lost in the throngs of infidelity, and a daughter struggling to finally love someone else and allow herself to be loved.
Picking through the treasures and garbage of the Greenbriar family was engrossing, voyeuristic, and painted pictures of family teetering on the edge. Exploring the mansion on Arbor Hill took me less than three hours when I first did so back in 2013, rummaging through drawers and examining every loose knick knack in painful detail. Moment for moment, I don’t believe I’ve gotten more out of a game than Gone Home.
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