It’s not necessarily where she’s gone, but why.Īs you explore - looking at letters revealing your father’s younger years as he struggled to find a publisher for his books or stories written by your sister in elementary school that show the seeds of a troubled soul - you begin to unravel the history of Sam's growth from child to woman. A note on the inside door from 17-year-old sister Sam suggests she’s left the house for a reason she doesn’t wish to explain, and it’s this first ominous clue that leads you through the domain you once called home in search of why she's disappeared. But no one is seemingly there to greet you. Played entirely in first-person, you enter the story’s titular residence as Katie, the 21-year-old eldest of the Greenbriar family who has just returned from an extended backpacking trip in Europe. There are clues that point to past disappointments, childhood awakenings and the pressures of becoming an adult. As you move from room to room, opening drawers and looking in closets, you uncover more and more details that show that not every family unit is intrinsically happy. Think of it as an interactive museum, only this one is littered with letters from loved ones, 'riot girl' cassettes and incidental details that paint a picture of a believable and - more importantly - relatable family. Instead, Gone Home offers the chance to unravel a mystery, one piece at a time, as you explore a house you once called home. It’s a game where you won’t actually do that much ‘gaming’. There aren’t even any enemies or dangers (unless, of course, you’re petrified of storms raging outside and the occasional flickering light). There are no puzzles to solve or platforms to leap to and from. An experience that strips away so many of the systems we’ve become enthralled to over the years. Much like Limbo, Her Story and so many other indie titles, Gone Home has become a touchstone in games development. With Firewatch also on the horizon, it seems fitting the first proper example of this genre should be the one that helped popularise it in the modern gaming era.
So it’s fitting that something as niche and avant-garde as the 'walking simulator' is strolling onto a new platform, finally offering a brand new kind of experience in mobile form. We’re all happy at how well Nintendo Switch is performing - not just because we’re obvious Ninty fans, but because such success has opened the door to a much wider and diverse range of titles than any other platform in the Big N’s history.