Читать книгу The Gamer's Bucket List - Chris Watters - Страница 13

Gone Home

PC, MAC

First Released Aug 15, 2013

A girl comes home from college. Her parents are out for the evening, and her sister has left a note, asking her not to investigate where she has gone. The girl explores the house, looking for clues to her sister’s whereabouts. That’s it.

That’s... it? Well, yes, in a way. There are no alternate places to visit, enemies to fight, puzzles to solve, or conversations to navigate. Many of the elements you’d commonly associate with video games are absent from Gone Home, and this is part of what makes it special. Video games are a constantly evolving art form, and decades after the first ones gained mainstream popularity, we are still seeing new games that push the boundaries in exciting and intriguing ways.

Gone Home is such a game, but it didn’t earn a spot in this book on the strength of novelty alone. As you explore the house, you learn a little bit about who you are: a college student named Kaitlin, come home after a year abroad to the house her family moved into while she was away. You, like Kaitlin, don’t really know what mom, dad, and lil’ sis have been up to, but as you find letters, diaries, books, photos, and notes of all kinds, you begin to weave together the tapestry of your family’s life.

You read about your father’s work struggles, your mother’s loneliness, and most poignantly of all, your sister’s growing friendship with a new girl at school. The rooms in which you find these scraps are rich with details, and the subtlety and humanity of the writing is astonishing. By the end, you don’t just feel like you know these people, you feel like you understand them in a meaningful way. This is called empathy, and that a video game can so powerfully channel this deep human feeling is remarkable indeed.