A lot of it has to do with the fact that so many game critics feel the need to praise this game, because failing to might make them seem like ignorant philistines. In that respect, Gone Home is Emperors New Clothes: The Game.
Not Really That Groundbreaking...
Despite being held in contrast to the moronic FPSs this industry is flooded with, Gone Home has more in common with the genre than it would like to admit.
Think about it. A typical level in Halo would involve you moving in a linear fashion from area to area. Each new area gives you some dudes to shoot, while Cortana and your other friends read you various plot points over your headset. Sometimes you have to loop around places, or back track,
Gone Home works just like that, except instead of shooting dudes, you look for letters and other clues as to what your family's been up to this past year. Sam telepathically narrates exposition into your head while you read old letters and passive-aggressive family memos.
The game isn't very subtle about its plot. Sam beams the important stuff straight into your head, while the minor plot-lines of your parents are spelled out in hard-to-miss documents.
The Plot is Stupid
The story is that Sam was supposed to be waiting for your arrival, except at the last minute she got a call from Lonnie, who has decided to go AWOL. They decide to take your moms jewelry and all the VCRs and make a run for it.
BUT! Before hitting the road, your sister decides to:
-Leave her diary (that she wanted you to read) in the attic.
-Leave the key to the attic inside a secret room that only she and Lonnie knew about.
-Leave the directions to the secret room on a desk in a room on the east side of the house.
-Lock the door that leads to the east half of the house, so that the only way to get over there is a detour through the basement.
-Lock the door to the basement.
-Leave the key to the basement in a locker in her room.
-Rip the combination to this locker in two, and place the halves inside hidden wall compartments.
(I'm half pulling this from memory, and half pulling from a walk-through, so there might be a mistake up there...)
She does all of this knowing full well that you have never once been in this house. Not only that, but after wasting so much time setting up this elaborate scavenger hunt, she leaves a note telling you that she's left, that you shouldn't go looking for her, and that THERE'S NO TIME TO EXPLAIN WHY SHE'S GONE.
Sam Greenbriar is the dumbest character of the year.
Price Point
$20 for a game that barely lasts two hours? And you though FF:ATB was a highway robbery...
Visuals
The graphics are just bad, even for an indie game.
Rape Culture
There's a torn out, crumpled up diary page hidden in the house. In it, Sam details the time Lonnie forced herself on her in the middle of the night while Sam was sleeping. Lonnie is 18/19 in the game, but Sam is only 17. Age of consent in Oregon was, and still is, 18 years.
That's rape. Rape is wrong, but this fact seems lost on both the developers and Gone Homes lunatic fan-base.
