Curious to hear everyone's thoughts on this game.

Gone Home finally went on sale at GoG for $5: https://www.gog.com/game/gone_home

No way was I going to pay full price for it after hearing all the criticisms about the game, much less after watching a few Let's Plays of it on YouTube; then again, I think asking $20 for a downloadable game is kind of cocky anyway, especially one of this length.

Still wanted to play the game myself, though, and be able to explore at will.

But all I can say about the game at this point is "WWWOOOOOOWWW" ...

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...the controls are RRREEEAAALLLLLLYYY SSSLLLOOOWWW (imagine someone talking in slow-mo). Not just the walking (and no run button either), but just looking around is really slow, too, and I hiked up the control sensitivity in the options all the way. And no, I don't notice the game lagging at all, either, it's just part of how it was designed. I'm able to play Slender: The Arrival on my machine without it lagging, anyway! (P.S. Slender: The Arrival was a piece of crap; boring, outdated-looking visuals; at least it ran smoothly; also: Run Button).

I don't know how anyone would be able to finish Gone Home in under an hour, if you only move around so slowly.

That said, I'm having quite an amount of fun, taking every moveable object in the house, and tossing it in a pile I'm making in the front hall, at the foot of the stairs! Also, I'm leaving on all the lights and faucets! I can see why this was nominated for "Game of the Year" in 2013! :3

I rather enjoyed Gone Home for what it is, but I understand why many were disappointed by it.  Curious about the slow movement thing... I don't recall having any problem at all with that.  Now Everybody's Gone to the Rapture?  THAT game I saw people complaining online about it and thought "it can't possibly be that bad" and I think it was actually worse than I imagined.  And yes I'm aware of the alleged run button.

I adore Gone Home. I felt it was an absolutely beautiful game and it actually made me cry at one point, and I'm not much of a cryer. But it is very much a short story told with some walking to keep you occupied, kind of like Dear Esther. As it happens, I adore that type of game (loved Firewatch too) but I could understand people being let down if they came for the gameplay. It's a walking sim.

For me, narrative games are really coming into their own and Gone Home is one of the best. I'm bored with combat, have no patience for stealth games and I'm just getting increasingly less comfortable with playing killing people. But I love the immersion that games bring and so these narrative games are perfect for me. Actually I'm really enjoying a new one now called The Solus Project. It actually has gameplay, mostly around survival, but also has a lot of trekking around and letting the events unfold. Not as strong narratively (it's not trying to be) but wonderfully atmospheric.

The major controversy surrounding Gone Home was that it purported (in its advertising) to be a horror mystery when it wasn't (or maybe it was just the game journalists who presented it that way?) If it hadn't been for that, people probably wouldn't have felt as angry, disappointed, misled, etc., if it hadn't been for that, if everyone was more forthcoming about it being a narrative experience. Probably didn't help that it cost a whole $20, either.

I loved Dear Esther.

If you have a PS3, know how to get it online to PSN, and have $10 to spend for an experience that may only last you about 1.5-3 hours, I'd recommend:

Datura: https://store.playstation.com/#!/en-us/ … m-ga-15981

Okay, there's no video preview of the game on PSN's website, but honestly, I wouldn't even look it up on YouTube, either.

If you enjoy walking sims with some quick-time events sprinkled throughout, and don't mind spending the $10, you'll probably enjoy Datura.

I wouldn't go into the game knowing much else about it than what I have to say here, because I went into it blind, and the mystery surrounding everything was part of the immersion and enjoyment for me.

The game feels very ethereal, and more so than Dear Esther, though there's not a single line of spoken dialogue in the game, there are objectives you must complete to progress through the game, and discovering what those objectives are, is part of the game; my advice, just fiddle around with everything you can!

The game was clearly designed to be used with the PlayStation Move, but I don't have the Move, and got by just fine without it; though having the Move certainly adds another dimension to gameplay, for example, actually grasping a door handle the way you'd grasp one in real life (so the Move kind of added a VR element to it).

It also made use of whatever PlayStation calls their camera, because if you have that connected too, it gives you a picture of yourself after "the ride" (like most amusement park roller coasters!)

The soundtrack for the game was also pretty good too, especially the game's main theme, "Las," and the soundtrack's even available to download for free!

Suffice it to say, however, that I never would've discovered this game if I hadn't spent a few hours simply flipping through PSN's catalog of downloadable titles, because none of the gaming news outlets I read ever had anything to say about this game.

All that said, I thought Datura was an evening well spent.

Thanks for the recommendation. I'll look it up and check it out!

I just see these games as being like the MacVenture titles or Maniac Mansion. You really have to dig the aesthetics to even consider them. Even then, nowadays, I could probably get the same effect from watching a lets play instead of buying/"playing" the game.