Overrated, Below Par For Gamespot DONT LISTEN TO REVIEWER

Metacritic has the game at 90. I don't think it's only Carolyn Petit that found this game to be great.

I really enjoyed it as a unique and emotional experience. I'm a 40 year old straight male, but I was almost in tears at the end of this thing. I think everyone can understand feeling like an outsider at some point in their lives, not just homosexuals or whatever.

I was surprised how well they were able to tell the story just from notes and newspaper clippings lying around in the house, and the way they guided you through it so you read them mostly in the order you were supposed to.

I'm so sick of the way games are all becoming the same that I really enjoyed something unique like this. I would give it a 9.

I was so utterly bored with the story.

She falls in love with somebody who is moving away but in the end they run away together. Ho hum, like we haven't heard that story 200 times.

But because it's about lesbians it's supposed to be "progressive" and "daring."

It isn't told very well either. It's just audio logs. One of the most important and basic rules of storytelling is "show don't tell", exposition is lazy.

So we have a cliche story poorly told. That would be 100% fine if the gameplay was good. Games are about gameplay after all. There have been plenty of great games without combat.

Here's the problem with the gameplay: There isn't any. There are no puzzles, nothing to figure out, nothing that utilizes the interactivity of the medium. You just click stuff and have exposition dumped on you.

I'd rather play a game about the dad, his writing career was much more interesting than Sam's story.

Crap 5/10, barely worth the 90 minutes it takes to beat.

I have to say that I agree with the the sentiment here.  I've been coming to gamespot as my primary source of gaming news for.. over a decade, perhaps? and this has put the final nail in the coffin. I've felt for a long time that things were spinning out of control here but I stayed around because I was used to the format and the people here. However, now I feel like there is an agenda here that I don't care to be a part of. I'll be looking for a new gaming website. These guys are bullshit.

I have to say that I agree with the the sentiment here.  I've been coming to gamespot as my primary source of gaming news for.. over a decade, perhaps? and this has put the final nail in the coffin. I've felt for a long time that things were spinning out of control here but I stayed around because I was used to the format and the people here. However, now I feel like there is an agenda here that I don't care to be a part of. I'll be looking for a new gaming website. These guys are bullshit.

no_luck

There's nowhere to hide, really.

The whole games journalism industry, and to a lesser degree the games development industry, have just become a soapbox for Tumblr feminists and social justice warriors to cry wolf at.

Games are moving away from being good games and moving towards becoming shitty "interactive experiences" that have awful gameplay but "good" stories. The irony is that games like this, Bioshock Infinite and The Last of Us actually have pretty awful stories, but the standards are so low that people praise them to no end.

The only gaming board that has a remotely good view on video games is four chan's video game board, but there you have to deal with a mountain of shitposting.

Video games are dying.

It's hilarious that you can't even say the name of that board here. The gamespot boards are sheltered as hell. I only come here because my other boards are nsfw and I'm at work.

I have to agree, overrated, not to say it was bad, I found the game quite enjoyable and the story was fine.

But as far as gameplay was concerned this was the simplest form of follow the breadcrumbs Ive ever experienced. Not one single difficult moment, a-b-c-d-etc...

This is a very basic yet well executed form of interactive storytelling; I'd recommend picking it up on a steam sale for a few quid, at £13 some people might find it a bit too pricey. Im happy to have supported the devs tho as what they did here was a break from the status quo and we need more of this kind of thing to stop my favourite medium from going stale.

Yeah, I just finished it, and although I would give the developers a lot of credit for telling a very original story(for a game) and they also did a good job of creating a very eerie atmosphere.

I enjoyed it, but it only took about 2-3 hours to complete and to be honest there is no real gaming involved, it's really just a interactive story.

9.5 / 10 is a bit of a slap in the face to 100's of better games that have scored much lower.

I would give it a 7/10 mainly due to it being a very different experience from most games.

i think if anyone has had the main theme of the game spoiled...(which i did by simply looking at reader reviews on this site)....they shouldn't waste their money on this.

It isn't told very well either. It's just audio logs. One of the most important and basic rules of storytelling is "show don't tell", exposition is lazy.

Big_Red_Button

That's crap. Some of the most interesting movies and books tell stories through diaries or anecdote. It might not be your cup of tea, but sometimes not showing can actually be -more- powerful. Reservoir Dogs is one of the best heist movies of all time and they never show you the heist. The ear cutting scene is one of the most memorable and that's -also- not shown.

-Byshop

[QUOTE="Big_Red_Button"]

It isn't told very well either. It's just audio logs. One of the most important and basic rules of storytelling is "show don't tell", exposition is lazy.

Byshop

That's crap. Some of the most interesting movies and books tell stories through diaries or anecdote. It might not be your cup of tea, but sometimes not showing can actually be -more- powerful. Reservoir Dogs is one of the best heist movies of all time and they never show you the heist. The ear cutting scene is one of the most memorable and that's -also- not shown.

-Byshop

I'd be interested to see the ages of people and what they thought of the game. I'm 40 and loved it. The reviewers that rated it highly are older too. I think if I was younger I wouldn't have had the patience for it, and I would have wanted action. Now I'm just laid back when it comes to gaming. I sometimes prefer a game where I can play for a few minutes, then go off and do something else away from the computer, then come back, etc. Not to say I don't like action games as well, but something different is certainly welcome.

There are lots of games where you roam around an abandoned place piecing together a story.  It's almost a cliche.  This game is different because that's all there is.

The story is definitely not original.  I wouldn't give the game a 9.5, but there's plenty of room for opinion.

the game doesn't even launch on my Steam, crashes on startup. I just wasted a good $18 on a crap game. Even if it launches for me one day, I'd still rate is as abysmal. If you want my advice, get Guacamelee! Very good price for a very good stable game. 

The sheer rampent stupidity going on in this thread is heartbreaking.

I agree with you but thanks to torrents and wise friends I know where to spend my money. In this terrible economy we must support only games that are worth it.

You should check out reviews to get a first imperession but only trust what other gamers say about games not the reviewers. Especially the ones in mainstream media. None of them are in touch with reality.

The 6.3 the gaming community gave this game is the correct score. I hope you will be more careful from now on.

You are totally right. This nazi-gay era is destroying everything.They are now reaching games also. Soon games like GTA won't exist because those freaks think they are too violent against women.

I did not like Gone Home, too short for the price, the updated version has gotten better with that secret room, I downloaded it

from this torrent site bit.ly/L2fO1D

I think there's definitely an age gap with this one. I'm 35 now, and was 17 at the time depicted in this game so I was the same age as Sam. I thought this game was brilliant. The story was fairly simple, but I don't see how anything about this game could be considered cliche. What other game is like this in any way? It's not perfect, it's very short, the graphics and camera motion isn't as polished as higher-end games like Far Cry 3, but the concept is absolutely brilliant. I hope that there are other games in development that can tell a story in the way Gone Home does. For it's shortcomings, I think 9.5/10 is spot on, just because the concept is such an innovation. It was only 2 hours or so, but I thoroughly enjoyed that time. It shows that games can take on a whole new medium, they don't all have to have an attack button.