gone home is not the pinnacle of interactive fiction but it's still a pleasant way to spend an afternoon in 2022. that said, i can't think of any games in its approximate genre that are like, unequivocally better than gone home, but i haven't played them all

steve gaynor is a freak though

my Gone Home love was largely a result of it being so disappointed with Bioshock Infinite and driven so insane by how much that game was adored, that I was utterly transfixed by a game that had all the immersive sim stuff that seemed to be leaving the genre while also being a story about the gays that I connected to. it's so much less fresh now, and its flaws easier to see. the dimensions of the house are complete nonsense and not in a cool way, the game is kind of devoid of style, lots of what it's about is shallow.

but yeah, these days we're four Arkane games deep, Firewatch happened, NITW and Disco Elysium happened, every game has gays and it's cool to hate Bioshock Infinite. not even getting into the Steve Gaynor stuff, we don't need gone home lol

buy gone home