Available on PC (Windows, macOS); Consoles (Steam Deck – ✅Verified, Switch 1/2, PS4, Xbox One); Mobile (IOS)
Family. It can be incredibly complicated, especially if you’ve been away for a while.
In Gone Home, you play as Katie Greenbriar, who finds herself having to play investigator as she visits her family’s new home. But there’s no one there to welcome her. Things are left unpacked. The house is deserted. The only thing she has to go by, initially, is a note from her sister, Sam, telling her not to look into what happened.
This is a walking simulator where you’re encouraged to explore and look through drawers, books, photos, anything and everything that could point you to solving the mystery of who Katie’s family was and who they have become in her absence.
Crafted by Fullbright Studios in 2013, Gone Home is a story told by veterans of the BioShock series and Minerva’s Den’s story team. No puzzles or, at least, there are no puzzles in the sense that it’ll feel like an escape room. All there is is the piecing together of the narrative that answers the question: What happened?
This game completely captures the feeling of a family that tells each other some things but not everything. And while this one is an old game, I think it still deserves a shoutout because the story it tells still matters to this day.
Plus, the developers announced their upcoming game, “Springs, Eternal,” back in December 2025. And if it’s anything like Gone Home, then it’s a game worth checking out!
There are spoilers ahead. If you want to experience the game fully firsthand, then you can stop reading right here.
As Katie explores and uncovers what happened and why no one’s home, she finds clues pointing to Sam’s relationships, specifically with a girl named Lonnie. And it becomes quickly clear that they’ve developed romantic feelings for each other and that their parents, Terry and Janice, have found out. It also becomes evident that they did not approve of this and were in denial that Sam was a lesbian. Slowly piecing this together was like watching an accident about to unfold and being unable to do anything about it. I could feel it in my bones that it was going to be an angsty queer love story. But I kept hoping that I was wrong, that the parents eventually accepted them and then took them out for ice cream. But no.
And if this wasn’t already sad enough, Katie eventually discovers that Lonnie was set to leave for her service, as she was a JROTC cadet. And Sam did not take this well.
But wait, there’s more!
Katie also discovers that on the day she was meant to visit (today), her parents were also meant to go on a camping trip. Or, at least, that’s what they’ve been telling people, but the truth is they were going through counseling. And more importantly, Lonnie had called Sam! (The lesbians! They’re lesbian-ing!)
So Sam’s final journal entry is a message to Katie explaining that she had gone off to find Lonnie and that they’re starting a life together, away from Oregon. But she doesn’t intend to cut off being in contact with Katie, as she says they’ll see each other again. Whether or not she’s cutting off her parents is a whole other thing. There’s no update on this, but I choose to believe in queer love and in happiness. So in my mind, Sam and Lonnie are living a good life somewhere out there.
Did you think it was over? Because it’s not. I mean, you could stop here, but this family has got shit going on, let me tell you that.
Remember when I said the parents were going on a counseling trip disguised as a camping trip? Well, Katie finds clues that basically imply Janice, their mom, had romantic feelings towards a subordinate. Yeah. Imagine being homophobic and being an adulterer. The nerve!
And god, I hate Janice. (Don’t be like Janice, folks.)
On a random note, there’s also a tidbit about Sam and Lonnie theorizing that the house was haunted by the previous owner of the house, Oscar Masan, who was Terry’s uncle. Now, this did scare me a little bit because I thought I had unlocked ghosts and didn’t want to get chased around. But after a few minutes, I realized I was scaring myself and that no ghost was going to spawn and chase me. (The Vanishing of Ethan Carter did a number on me, dude. Never trusting walking simulators after that.)
Now, this game can be extremely heavy if you manage to find the right pieces of information and put them together. The implications of the abuse of Terry by Oscar are what I feel is so poignant. I can’t imagine moving to the house of the person who did such terrible things to me. And I have to wonder if that’s affected his own writing. To live in a house like that must feel like a prison. Not to mention the fact that his father was also berating him for being a failed writer. Makes me feel kinda bad for him. Not enough to excuse him for being unsupportive of Sam, but enough that I wonder how he would have taken that change if he had been supported in his own life.
Gone Home is… an experience. It’s a window into people’s lives. It reminds us that there are Janices, Sams, Lonnies, and Terrys in the world. That families have their own lies they tell each other, and truths they keep from each other. I don’t know what Katie does with all the information she gathers, but I hope she manages to do something worthwhile with them. These are the things that matter.
It’s a story about sisterly love. We see that when Sam tried to protect Katie’s perception of their parents by telling her not to look into things. And we see that when Katie looked anyway.
It’s a story about family. All its complications and trials. The hurdles and the cutting of ties.
Gone Home is a story about heartache. And heartbeats. And I think it’s a story worth knowing.
