Gone Home is a first-person exploration game developed by The Fullbright Company. Although it’s available on multiple platforms, I was surprised to find it cheaper on the Apple Store, so I bought it there and played it outside in a hammock. It felt like the perfect setting, since this game asks you to slow down and observe. It’s rated for teens and up—which I agree with, not because of any graphic content, but because its deeply woven narrative might go over the heads of younger kids.
From the very beginning, Gone Home establishes its core mechanic: it’s a walking simulator, more of a ludology game. Your only actions are exploring, picking up objects, and reading whatever you find. It reminded me a lot of the game I played last week, What Remains of Edith Finch, another walking simulator. But unlike that game, Gone Home doesn’t narrate every story element. You have to piece things together yourself, which made the experience feel more personal—even if it was harder at times.
Right away, you’re dropped in front of an unfamiliar house during a thunderstorm. There’s a note taped to the door from your sister apologizing for not being home, which immediately sets a tone of mystery.
Figure 1: Screenshot of the note on the door
After finding the key and stepping inside, I turned left and started exploring. Eventually, I came across a locked cabinet and assumed I had found my first real puzzle. I scanned the room carefully, reading every paper twice, thinking the code had to be nearby. But when I gave up and entered the next room, I found the code plainly sitting inside a book.
Figure 2: Screenshot of the code I found
Figure 3: Screenshot of where I need to input the code
That moment made something clear: Gone Home isn’t trying to challenge you with logic puzzles. Instead, the gameplay is built to encourage thoughtful wandering but it does make the game kinda too easy. The way you interact with the environment creates a strong sense of investigation. I enjoyed how the environment itself told a story. For example, one of my favorite moments was finding a note addressed to the father saying his books would no longer be published. It was lying right next to a bottle of apple juice, suggesting he didn’t take the news well.
Figure 4: Cabinet with drinks and note
The tone for most of my game play made me feel like this was a horror game. I was expecting something horrible to have happened to this family but the game played out differently that what I expected. As I read more of the entries, I saw it was more of a love story. A story about love, loss, and family. It ended gently, with a kind of emotional closure that caught me off guard. It was a beautifully woven narrative.
Figure 5: A pretty happy photo
Think about what accessibility barriers exist in Gone Home. Are there any accessibility features that try to mitigate these barriers? What seems to work about these features? What doesn’t work? I have a learning disability and mild dyslexia, which makes reading large blocks of text difficult. Unlike Edith Finch, where important story parts are narrated, Gone Home relies heavily on handwritten notes and letters. Sometimes, picking up a page only to find multiple paragraphs of dense writing felt overwhelming. The sister’s journal entries are read aloud, which was great, but that only covered part of the story. I would’ve appreciated a text-to-speech option for the rest. Better yet, I wish the game could read notes aloud as you continued exploring, so players like me wouldn’t fall behind or lose interest. Even if some pages are long, the option would make the experience more inclusive and far less frustrating.
