Sometimes
it is easy for me to forget what a young medium video games are. That
what will still define many of the best games of this generation will
not be how they push the boundary of what is possible, but how
smartly they work within its constraints.
I
initially bounced off Gone Home, perhaps because I went in with
expectations that it would be the former rather than the latter.
Games still struggle to provide worlds which feel inhabited, a issue
Gone Home handily sidesteps by creating a contriving a setting
conveniently empty of both humans and the most of the clutter we
bring with us.
What
Gone Home chooses to do with that empty space plays with many of the
strange expectation and tropes that have grown up around the idea of
being alone in old house, it's become weirdly normal when in this
situation to assume everything possess some sort of ominous
connotation. We don't consider that it is far more likely that lights
are left on by a lazy teenager than some paranormal force, that it's
red hair dye and not blood on the floor in the bathroom, and that the
sound and fury of the storm outside truly signify nothing.
That's
not to say this is a house without any ghosts, they just take a more
metaphorical form. As
I explored I kept encountering the after images of a family spread
out across space and time. The outlines of their personality into
focus one moment, and then blurring again as a new piece of
information makes me doubt my judgement again. Gone Home gives just
the right amount of information to encourage speculation, without
making its conclusions seem contrived. Rarely has a game done so much
with so little.
Of
course it wouldn't matter how cleverly put together, or smartly
constructed Gone Home was if it didn't tell a story that was
interesting or affecting. Thankfully (for me at least) it delivers
here, getting across much of the nervousness and uncertainty needed
to convincingly tell a tale of teenage love and angst.
It
does all this while pulling off a difficult balancing act, achieving
both the sense of inhabiting a very specific place in space and time,
and addressing core themes that relate to very universal experiences.
One
of the unique things about Gone Home is that the glimpses we get of
the relationship between Lonnie and Sam as we explore the house
reveal not a fully formed relationship, but those nervous moments
from before one begins, where we are all at our most vulnerable,
unsure of our own feeling and unsure if they will be reciprocated.
Over
the years video games have often treated us like some irresistible
lothario, and after playing gone home can't help but I wonder if the
template of romance the perpetuates within gaming culture is not just
one that is deceptive, omitting the loss of control, rejection, and
self-doubt that comes part and parcel of any real relationship, but
also actively harmful to it's players.
Bioware's
Dragon Age and Mass Effect have both always offered what seem to be a
tightly constrain vision of the whirlwind of emotions that surround
love and relationships, never exposing players to a moment where
their heart sinks in their chest, or risking saying anything they
cannot take back
It
feels like it took a very brave choice by the staff of Fullbright to
build the finale of Gone Home the way they did, letting people unused
to doubt to fear the worst, pacing itself so the player had time to
worry and let their anxieties build. In fact it's pulled off so
professionally that in when (spoilers!) those fears proved to be
unfounded, it doesn't feel contrived and instead provides a fleeting
glance of a moment of cathartic hope and acceptance between two
characters which by then I had come to be very fond of.
I've
seen many people say Gone Home isn't a game for everyone, and in some
ways they may be right in its unconventional pacing and narrative
style could be tough and off putting to people who have come to
expect mastery to be the central driving force of any gaming
experience. Its also a demonstration of the limits of w
hat can be
achieved today even by the most careful and thoughtful of creators in
video game. Still feeling closer to a piece of installation art, than
to a convincing facsimile of the real world.
However
in some ways none of that matters, Gone Home offers one of the most
universal narrative anyone has attempted to deliver in this medium.
Perhaps the best way I can sum up my feelings on the game is to say
that I think everyone will have a moment in their lives where they
would connect with the sort of emotions that lie at the heart of Gone
Home. That there is a great value in knowing others have experienced
the same doubts, anxieties, and vulnerability that come with allowing
yourself to open up to another person.
No comments:
Post a Comment