mikemariano

Gone Home from The Fullbright Company

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This game has me torn because it is simultaneously some of the most breathtaking world building and storytelling I've ever seen in a game and yet I think it still has to cheat a fair amount in order to be narratively coherent.

 

Beyond the fact that all this family's secrets are detailed and hidden in various letters in various drawers (which, while WAAAAAAY preferable to audio logs, still feels pretty damn video-gamey), we don't actually experience what Kaitlin experiences because she only actually finds the diary at the end. Given that the motivation to uncover all these secrets is primarily to find the next morsel of Sam's story, I don't know if Kaitlin would actually go through such lengths to explore every inch of the house in her situation, having so little to go on. But I guess a second playthrough, now knowing the full story, would be required to really judge that. I can't recall exactly what information in the story is given in what way, so it's hard for me to say.

 

I'd love to see a mod or patch of this that removed all of the journal entries, see how playable that sort of playthrough would be.

 

 

EDIT: Also, I'd love to see a playthrough someone who has not been prompted at all as to what kind of game it is. In mine I immediately started systematically opening and searching every drawer, knowing it was that kind of game. But in real life Kaitlin would first probably wander around the house, calling out to her parents, trying to figure out the lay of the house. I wonder at what point it would dawn on someone that an intricate domestic drama is there to unfold in letters and folders and newspaper clippings.

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I've actually been thinking of the meaning of video game-isms a lot since I finished this game. I guess realistically, a real-live person wouldn't act the same way Katie did, but it would really be the same game if you weren't able to methodically make your way through the house, looking for clues. To me, it's kind of like criticizing a horror movie when the main characters don't just automatically leave the obviously haunted house -- if they did, then there wouldn't be a movie.

 

There's some differences between a movie following typical horror tropes and what Gone Home is doing with its video game-y mechanics, but I think the principle remains the same. Maybe a game where you didn't have access to as many personal notes about the parents' issues (personally, I thought that the parents' notes were perfectly balanced to what you would realistically expect to be scattered around someone's house) or a game where you could discover Sam's notes in any random order would be more realistic to what would happen in real life, but then it wouldn't have nearly as effective of a story.

 

If the video game mechanics further the story, then I don't have a problem with them being present; my only issue is when the mechanics start to actively work against the type of story the game is trying to tell (see: Bioshock Infinite). 

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I think asking why people don't leave a haunted house in a horror movie is a valid question. And often, the reasoning is the same as why Katie doesn't go out and look for Sam: scary storm outside, no reliable transportation, safest place to keep warm is inside. My problem is that the narrative told in the diaries eventually put me at a distance with the protagonist, as the narrative arc felt more clearly to be a video game arc, and I saw myself reaching the end of the story.

 

I guess I wonder what this same game would be like without the overt (to an extent) and hand-holding (to an extent) narrative arc. I feel like this is a hugely important game (like the other 0451 games it references), but one that we may look back at and see the seams a lot clearer, the way I felt going back and playing Bioshock 1 recently, or when I go back and play Deus Ex now.

 

Again, I'd want to play it again to really be confident with how I feel.

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I'm comfortable with the level of "gaminess" in Gone Home.  I don't think the Fullbright group was out to completely change the idea of games as we know it, but there are definitely steps toward changing how they can be made and played.  If the whole game didn't have ANY of the sort of things we'd expect from a video game, then I think it would be a little off putting.  To sort of expand on what Argobot was saying, imagine you found all the journals up front, as a real life person might do in a similar situation.  Then you wouldn't get the slow unfolding of a very personal story, the gradual discovery of how this person was feeling, what she was experiencing, and why it motivated her to do what she did.  If everything had been given to you all at once, it would have been a very different story, or at the very least a very different experience.

 

As an aside to this, I went though the game a second time with the "all lights on" and "all doors unlocked" modifiers and it was indeed a very different experience.  Even though I knew the bulk of the story, I found a few more journals I didn't my first time.  Naturally, they were out of order so I had to integrate them into my knowledge of Sam in a different way than I did when it was linear.

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I really like the game a lot, it's not that I'm uncomfortable with the level of gaminess. It's just that the farther you get from typical tropes and genres of gameplay, the more those kinds of things stick out, especially upon reflection.

 

I still think that Portal is the only game I've ever played that has a perfectly told video game narrative, that both feels inherent to the medium and doesn't have any cheats. And it's been a couple years since I last played through that, so I may be wrong there.

 

Also, this story captures high school romance/friendship/awkwardness the best. The minute details of the courtship of Sam and Lonnie are easily the best part of the game.

 

EDIT: I mentioned the 0451 thing, did anyone else automatically assume that was the combination for the filing cabinet? I guess the way I justified it narratively was that Farenheit 451 was Katie and her dad's favorite book and guessed it, before seeing the combination written elsewhere later on.

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Regarding the Uncle:

If you enter the room near the safe you find it to be very dark and filled with spider webs, and I am pretty sure it contains the only light bulb in the house that doesn't work.  This makes it difficult to spot the two items that you can actually find in the room.  One seems to be related to the prohibition but I don't think it makes any clear references to Oscar (other then being found in his home).  The other is a wooden toy horse.  Perhaps I am reading into this a bit much, but this is what I take away from the discoveries.  The horse was Terrence's toy he had brought over for Thanksgiving dinner, 1963, because he is a kid and, whatever, that's what kids do.  Shortly after getting his measurement recorded by Oscar he was taken into this back room and abused, he also lost his toy at this time.  This left scars on both Oscar and Terrence so the room was never tended to which explains the poor shape we find it in in the present day and the reason the toy was never found before now.  Even the room before it, where we find some of Sam's items is in poor shape with a loose sink and a cabinet that wont close.  I may be off because we find Oscar's safe in the hallway connecting the two rooms which is an odd place for someone to store their possessions if they appear to want to ignore that part of the house, but maybe that was the best place to put the safe from a game design standpoint.

 

A chilling idea, but not an impossible one. I hadn't thought of connecting it like this, thanks.

 

On a related note, anyone have any ideas what this is about:

 

http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/920145406082401127/1293EC6EAE1A93086B17B6E1A2EAAC609329CC0A/

Specifically, why it's walled up? I'm inclined to think that it leads to a tunnel that was at one point used for smuggling liquor considering the note found in there.

 

Finished the game a couple hours ago, and while I loved execution, I didn't find Sam's story line interesting. I really liked little details about it, but I found myself thinking more about the parents and Uncle Oscar. Specifically, I wish I knew more about the mom. This may all be due to the fact that I found myself relating more to Daniel than anyone else (ha!). That being said, I'm really glad someone covered a story like Sam's. Cheers to the team. Excited to see what their next project is.

 

As some of you have already covered a lot of the little details I liked, I'd like to mention this one:

The short story of Captain Allegra's First Mate being turned into a woman. I had read the one where Capt. Allegra and First Mate fought the ghost king first, so I was surprised when I started reading this and the gender pronoun used to describe First Mate was different. The story then goes on to explain the change and I found it really endearing that Sam was changing her creative pursuits to reflect her own life.

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Gone Home confirmed to take place in the same universe as Bioshock?

 

I don't know about that, but I like to pretend that the Morley brand cigarettes mean that Gone Home and the X-Files are in the same universe.

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I'd love to see a mod or patch of this that removed all of the journal entries, see how playable that sort of playthrough would be.

 

This is in the game already!  There's an option to turn off voiceover when you start a new game.  I'm curious what happens at the end when you select this....

 

Glutton:

http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/920145406082401127/1293EC6EAE1A93086B17B6E1A2EAAC609329CC0A/

Specifically, why it's walled up? I'm inclined to think that it leads to a tunnel that was at one point used for smuggling liquor considering the note found in there.

 

 

Me:  Yeah, I think they're bringing in a bootlegging during American prohibition backstory as an excuse for all the secret spaces in the house.  And possibly the child molestor in the house is a good excuse not to have removed all the secret passageways into bedrooms.  I feel gross now....

 

Regarding the missing VCR's--- Are those gone just because Terry is constantly hooking up and then returning laserdisc players etc. as he reviews them?  Or

were they fancy high-end items that were worth enough for Sam to take with her to hawk as she runs away?  [As in, "Sorry for the missing stuff?"]

 

Another minor complaint/question---

I feel like the presence of a small Michigan publisher interested in conspiracy-theory fiction got the militia vibe message across well enough.  I think actually naming the guy "Kaczynski" was overkill?  Unless I'm missing something?  Are they trying to imply that the unabomber's brother was publishing Terry's novel or something?

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Glutton:

http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/920145406082401127/1293EC6EAE1A93086B17B6E1A2EAAC609329CC0A/

Specifically, why it's walled up? I'm inclined to think that it leads to a tunnel that was at one point used for smuggling liquor considering the note found in there.

 

 

Me:  Yeah, I think they're bringing in a bootlegging during American prohibition backstory as an excuse for all the secret spaces in the house.  And possibly the child molestor in the house is a good excuse not to have removed all the secret passageways into bedrooms.  I feel gross now....

 

Damn. Everything just keeps coming back to that. :sad:

 

For the voyeuristic (well, the more voyeuristic, I guess):

The entry that your character stops reading:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=169942060

 

I was looking at my phone as I picked it up and only got to read the first few words. Really enjoyed the list of possible fuck-places at the end. Oh, teens.

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I'd love to see a mod or patch of this that removed all of the journal entries, see how playable that sort of playthrough would be.

Unless I'm misunderstanting you, there's already a modifier to do this.

 

e: oh, there was a new page, oops.

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Finished it and loved it...

 

I was really amazed at the way the tooltips represented Katie's thoughts.  Has this been done before?  It feels like such an elegant solution to the player/character divide.

I hated this. I wish Katie had spoken or something. 95% of those tooltips I missed because the bulk of items in the game have nothing special in them. It should've been a separate mechanic from item labels.

I think Katie's actions are totally realistic for the situation. Her sister is gone and there's a massive storm out there. She could either forget about it (it's only her sister, meh) or try to find out what happened. Remember that the parents are on a trip and cannot be contacted. I'm sure you could play the game following just clues about your sister's life, not reading the stuff your parents left behind.

And like someone mentioned, just making sure that the spooky lights at the attic door don't lead to her corpse is reason enough to scour the house for the key.

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I think video game logic is that this is an adventure game, and if you scour the environments more clues will turn up that will reward you with more journal entries, allowing you to piece together what has happened.

 

I think real life logic would involve desperately trying to get that attic open and, upon failing that, making a plan to find your sister once the phone lines come back, the storm ends and you're able to actually do something. I don't think real life logic would assume that all the answers to your questions would literally be spelled out in a journal addressed to you in the attic which can only be opened after following a paper trail that's been scattered like bread crumbs throughout the entire environment of the house.

 

And there's no real reason to assume she's dead. She says that she stole a bunch of shit from the start. Runaway note + missing VCRS = She ran away, is not in the house.

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I mean it's highly possible that I am conflating "one would not do" with "I would not do", and that a second playthrough will fix all my issues with Kaitlin's logic. But while I was playing I definitely felt more like I was searching for things that would activate journal entries and open up other areas than actually getting info about why Sam wasn't there.

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Oh, also: "Nintendo Street Fighting tape" made me laugh. And what kind of VHS tape can record all of Gone With The Wind but only 3 episodes of the X-Files?

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And what kind of VHS tape can record all of Gone With The Wind but only 3 episodes of the X-Files?

 

Check the shelf--- they were buying two different sizes of tape.  Also, most VCR's could record at different speeds with different video quality.

 

I really loved how the labels of the x-files tapes showed decreasing enthusiasm... The first tape, they have the episode titles.  Second tape omits episode names but still lists the episodes 3, 4, 5 individually.  After that they just go 6-8.  I think my parents' basement has a stack of Buffy tapes with the same property.

 

The VCR's are actually missing due to licensing issues... when the Fullbright company finish negotiating the rights to include a full season of the x-files, the VCRs will be patched back in.   :)

 

Sam mentions "missing stuff"... is there anything else visibly missing from the house that would be pawnable?  A SNES is gone...

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Sam mentions "missing stuff"... is there anything else visibly missing from the house that would be pawnable?  A SNES is gone...

Don't forget Terry has a miserable job of reviewing high end stereo equipment.  In the TV room there's an open box which supposedly contained a Pioneer combination CD/Laserdisc player, yet to my knowledge the unit can't be found in the house.  On the typewriter in his office, he mentions the retail price of the unit as nearly $1000, making it something very much worth taking for a couple of runaway teens.

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Don't forget Terry has a miserable job of reviewing high end stereo equipment.  In the TV room there's an open box which supposedly contained a Pioneer combination CD/Laserdisc player, yet to my knowledge the unit can't be found in the house.  On the typewriter in his office, he mentions the retail price of the unit as nearly $1000, making it something very much worth taking for a couple of runaway teens.

 

I assumed that was at least one of the missing VCR's.  I'm curious which TV it would've been hooked up to though.  Sam quit taping X-files a year ago so maybe the VCR never got hooked up in the TV room, and this is where the laserdisc was.

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On a related note, anyone have any ideas what this is about:

 

http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/920145406082401127/1293EC6EAE1A93086B17B6E1A2EAAC609329CC0A/

Specifically, why it's walled up? I'm inclined to think that it leads to a tunnel that was at one point used for smuggling liquor considering the note found in there.

 

Oh wow, I couldn't even notice that because the room was so dark on my monitor, creepy.

 

Patrick: When I first loaded up the game I was tempted to walk upstairs and explore the parent's and Sam's rooms.  It seemed like most natural thing to do in this situation, especially at this time of night, but I didn't because I figured that the game wanted me to explore the ground floor first.  It's odd how they make the staircase so prominent when you enter the house if, story-wise, you should wait before going upstairs.

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Oh wow, I couldn't even notice that because the room was so dark on my monitor, creepy.

 

Patrick: When I first loaded up the game I was tempted to walk upstairs and explore the parent's and Sam's rooms.  It seemed like most natural thing to do in this situation, especially at this time of night, but I didn't because I figured that the game wanted me to explore the ground floor first.  It's odd how they make the staircase so prominent when you enter the house if, story-wise, you should wait before going upstairs.

I had no idea where the bedrooms were, but in retrospect, I guess most multistory houses have the bedrooms on the upper floors. I grew up in a one-story house, so I suppose that's why I thought it might be possible they were on the ground floor.

 

All that said, I definitely went into this game with the mindset that I should just explore everything thoroughly, and so I did. Definitely very video gamey, but I don't think in a bad way.

 

I'm curious if there are any secret compartments that aren't explicitly laid out for you. I never really looked on my own, beyond the cursory wave the crosshair (which was invisible for me, OF COURSE) over everything.

(edit: spoilering, better safe than sorry)

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I agree with Patrick's sentiment that the journals and all were a bit game-y and/or over-explanatory at points. That might be because for us Thumbs, this game has had a much longer "press cycle", allowing me to get much more excited about the unique elements about the game long in advance, mainly the environmental storytelling.

 

I remember Steve saying (on the podcast?) that you can play without the audiologs, and for some audiences, it would be better. I played through with everything default, but in hindsight, I wish I had left them off the first time, to make sure I was drawing my own conclusions. 

 

A good example is the pillowfort in the TV room. When I first came in there, and saw this otherwise neatly decorated room in a mess, with a pillowfort and empty pizza boxes and soda cans, it was made very clear that the parents left before Sam, and that she at least had a weekend to her self. I found it a great little set piece, and a perfect example of environmental storytelling. [showing, not telling.] Yet there was still a note from school that explicitly said "my parents will be gone, let's make a pillowfort and watch X-Files" or something like that, and I felt kinda dissapointed that they felt the need to point it out. 

 

 

 

As for how I first explored the house, I purposefully went around through each room giving them a glance, making sure no one was actually home (as most would do?). This proved both immersive and slightly jarring when I came to the upstairs bathroom, when...

You see the red marks in the bathtub. I assumed it was blood, thought "oh shit!", ran over there, and then noticed the bottle of red dye. Again an example of perfectly arranged scenery for me to have the exact train of thought the Fullbrights probably wanted to evoke. However, when I picked up the dye bottle, the audio log about it started playing. This was the first entry I encountered, and it was very confusing. Who was talking? Why? Did I find a message? Who is Lonnie? It took another couple of messages before I understood what they were, and only way later did I think of this entry in relation to the girl Sam had met.

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I hotseated this game with my brother this morning, and he naturally (without thumbs influence) assumed that there was some ghost shit going on in this game. 

 

Similar to the

dye in the bathtub

, I think the game is really clever with setting things up based on a players natural assumptions, like how you might assume

 

Terry is a conspiracy nut because of the billboard notes in his room, and then after further investigation you realize he just writes novels. Honestly I think the funnest part of the game is when you actually get to read the blurb for the jfk book.

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Well, it looks like I'm late to the game since everything I had to say about the game has already been said... except... I'm stuck. Which is pretty embarrassing.

 

I open the safe, the locker, the file cabinet, all hidden panels and I've read every note I could find... I expected to be able to visit the attic after visiting every other place, but alas, I must have missed something?

 

I really don't know where to go now... :|

 

EDIT: Oops, it looks like I missed a room, now I'm REALLY embarrassed!

 

EDIT EDIT: Now that I've actually beaten it, I have to say, I love how almost perfect 90's this game feels, except some illustrations that feel a bit off like the SNES covers. 

 

I also couldn't help but to giggle each time I found the "hidden" porn and at the couch fort, isn't Sam a little old for that? 

 

The game sure does "troll" you a few times with the horror angle, at the beginning the house is dark and feels abandoned and the only noise is a storm, you find your dad's office first and the X-files thing is such a red herring, the hair dye is a red herring but.... the light bulb in the hidden corridor EXPLODED then moment I examined the cross... it's still spookier than most "horror" games.

 

I have to know, does anybody know if Pewdipie played the game?

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