10 Small Video Games That Left HUGE Impacts

In Gone Home players take on the role of Katie Greenbriar, a young woman who’s just arrived at her family’s Oregon home after returning from Europe. At the front door she’s greeted by a note from her little sister Sam which begs Katie not to go looking for her.

From herein, players explore the empty home in search of clues which can piece together the mystery of what happened to your family. All players can do is examine various objects and read notes scattered throughout each room. And with no enemies to defeat or any way to fail the game, the extent of which Gone Home is a game in the conventional sense is datable.

What Gone Home is, however, is a riveting example of interactive and environmental storytelling which only a video game can achieve.

Exploring each of the incredibly detailed rooms tells players a lot about the family members who live there, with each discovery gradually painting a larger picture of what happened.

At the heart of everything is a surprisingly touching coming-of-age story which revolves around Sam, the culmination of which concludes her story on an emotionally resonating note that will stick with players for a long time to come.