During this Covid-19 crisis, videogame sales have skyrocketed. Confined to our homes, games are more meaningful than ever, and certain games, like Ring Fit Adventure, sold out in no time. Other hits in these months are the Final Fantasy VII remake and Animal Crossing, which has been described by many critics as the ultimate game during the pandemic. Walking and exploring these rich virtual worlds is particularly important during this lockdown, as Kagen also described in The Guardian. It allows us to experience new environments in a challenging time. Whether we move through the indoor spaces of Gone Home or The Stanley Parable, or lush environments like Journey, games dazzle. I spend my lockdown in the realistic New York simulation that is Spiderman, as well as different towns build by my friends in Animal Crossing.īeyond typical walking sims, gamers can turn to the Old West in Red Dead Redemption 2 or the vast landscapes in Breath of Wild. Virtual tourism has never seemed more meaningful.īut as I spend so many hours during Covid in my house, I also feel drawn to the concept of home, privacy, and identity. How does this walking sim mediate home, relationships, privacy and family? How does it narrate the queer experience? No game embodies these themes as intimately as Gone Home by The Fullbright Company, an indie classic that feels as relevant today as when it was first released by in 2013. You play as Kaitlin Greenbriar, a girl who has just returned home after a backpacking through Europe for a year. It is a starry night in 1995 as she returns home. Her parents have moved to a mansion that they inherited from the father’s uncle, Oscar Masan. Kaitlin, however, finds the house abandoned. This is already clear from the first letter that you find from your sister: ‘Please don’t go digging around trying to find out where I am. What I dont get is how her parents have also just disappeared without an explanation. I don’t want mom and dad anyone to know.’Īs you explore the house, you find objects that are linked to the past of your family. What happend to the parents I just finished the game and found out that you as play as Katie (Sams sister) and at the end you find out that your sis has run off with her girlfriend, which explains why she isnt there. The narration is primarily by your sister, whose letters you can find, and are read to you. She describes her relationship with Lonnie, and her struggle to come to terms with her queer identity: ‘It feels like every minute that I don’t spend with Lonnie, I spend worrying about them finding out about us.’ Gone Home, however, also has other plot lines.
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