(played on Linux via GOG)
I don't usually spite buy games. Today was an exception.
A discussion on a Discord server about "walking sims" (which included the hilarious claim that GOD OF WAR RAGNAROK IS A WALKING SIM) led me to learn about the origins of the term and how it was used to deride Gone Home in specific. I actually didn't know about this or about this game at all, and a quick search showed it was on GOG for just over a dollar. So I got it.
I wanted to know what the fuzz was about.
I was not ready for this.
To be honest, I spent a good part of the game dreading the game. I'm more than used to the shitty devices a lot of stories that allege to have queer themes use, and I was ready for a serial killer to show up. For the father to lose his composure. For a hate crime to happen.
And I think that's precisely the beauty of this game. I entered scared, but the house we visited... is normal.
It's the normalcy of a decaying marriage that could go either way. The normalcy of a kid playing Street Fighter, getting into punk, making zines, discovering herself. The normalcy of a home half built, slowly unpacked. Even the paranormal elements are mundane at the end of the day. And so is, sadly, the homophobia.
But I was so ready for this game to twist the knife, right at the end... and it didn't. Sam did what felt right. And I hope she finds happiness. I know she will.
I don't think I can do this game justice just with words. The way it uses the framing device of games in the horror genre primes the reader for something that ultimately doesn't happen. But in doing so, it also lets us open to explore the lives of an otherwise mundane family, and understand it.
It is beautiful. I cried at the end.
