YMMV / Gone Home

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• Alternative Character Interpretation: The game inspires a lot of these.
  • How good is Katie's relationship with her parents? On the one hand, there is some evidence that they favor her over her sister, since her trophies are more prominently displayed, and Katie notes that they let her go all the way around the world. On the other hand, one note to Sam says that she's "as bad as (her) sister" when it comes to leaving lights on, and Sam notes that their father often "jokes" about sending Katie to a nunnery when she brings guys home.
  • The Greenbriars as parents. Did they do as good of a job as they could at raising their somewhat troubled younger daughter, even when she ended up getting into trouble? Or did they more or less drive Sam into running away?
• Cliché Storm: Some of the game's detractors argue that aside from the characters being gay, the main plot is a generic teenage love story.
• Fridge Horror: Several.
  • One reviewer put together a spectrum of clues to show that Oscar Masan, Terrence Greenbriar's uncle, previous resident of the house where the game takes place, abused his nephew in 1963.
  • The plot in general can be widely interpreted in completely different ways, depending on how cynically one views which characters involved. Some of them are extremely unflattering, particularly given the Ambiguous Ending.
• Glurge: Lonnie's initial coming onto Sam is reciprocated, but still uncomfortable for Sam. The ending is more severe, with Lonnie and Sam running away to be together but not before Sam steals all the electronics in the house. It's worth noting Sam hadn't graduated yet and ran away from her creative writing course, that she was excited to be in, to pursue a teenage romance that could be just as prone to burning out as straight teenage romances are.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Sam admits in tapes that she has known about her attraction to other girls "since She-Ra". This was made funnier when a reboot of She-Ra released in 2018, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, gave the whole She-Ra cast a higher amount of LGBT characters, which includes an actual lesbian couple in the cast and even She-Ra herself.
  • Made even funnier when one considers the fact that a prominent minor character in the She-Ra reboot is in fact a teenager named "Lonnie".
• Hype Backlash: Many critics gave it perfect or near-perfect scores and Game of the Year nominations. Player reaction has been somewhat more divided- whether the players like the game usually boils down to whether they enjoy a short and relatively story-driven game, as well as their opinion on some aspects of the story.
• It's Short, So It Sucks!: One frequent complaint is how short the game is. It can generally be completed in two hours on a first playthrough; on subsequent playthroughs, or if you're following a guide, you can skip the intended breadcrumb-plotline and go straight to the final area to end the game in two minutes.
• It Was His Sled: The gay romance plotline is intended as a surprise, but the game's fame and infamy have made it fairly well-known to many players. It's the main thing the game is known for in popular culture and often the first thing people find out about the game.
• Squick: Make sure you have your Brain Bleach ready for Sam's creative World War II piece about the menstrual cycle.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Although it may be due to Deliberate Values Dissonance, some fans don't appreciate the implication that Terry and Jan may consider sending Sam to a "reeducation camp", considering how high rates of abuse and mistreatment are there (alongside general homophobia). Although by no means the case for everyone, some people struggle to sympathize with their marital problems as a result.

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