When I'm alone in someone else's home, I really can't help myself: I peek in the fridge, take a look in the medicine cabinet, and if I'm feeling particularly brave maybe I'll even root around in a drawer or two. Gone Home is a game that takes these voyeuristic tendencies and turns them into a game mechanic. The entirety of Gone Home involves searching a sprawling, empty home in order to find out what happened to its residents. You'll analyze journals and scan receipts, slowly piecing together events over the course of a few hours. On paper, it's just about the dullest-sounding game imaginable. But in practice it's a stunningly emotional story told almost exclusively through the environment.

Gone Home puts you in the role of a young American college student who has just returned from a year-long European adventure. Your family moved into a big new home while you were gone, but when you arrive at the front door both your parents and sister are missing. There's a note taped to the entrance from Sam, your younger sister, urging you not to go looking for her. Naturally, all this does is make you even more curious.