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What Remains of Edith Finch


DANGERMAN
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:(

 

What Remains of Edith Finch is by Giant Sparrow, the people behind The Unfinished Swan, which was inventive and clever. What Remains of Edith finch is shorter, denser, and feels less like a collection of chapters bundled together, and more like a cohesive narrative

 

It's a narrative game, not a huge amount in the way of gameplay other than finding which objects you can interact with. You've returned to the family house, which is almost like a Tim Burton bit of architecture, all your family has died off, often in tragic or strange circumstances, and so your mother took you and abandoned the house hoping to leave whatever "curse" has beset your family. You wander through the house, discovering the stories of your ancestor's lives, and sometimes deaths

 

The vignettes are brilliant. Some are shorter than others, but some really are fantastic, or fantastical, inventive, joyous, and every so often, heartbreaking. You can see the legacy of Unfinished Swan in there, but I was also reminded of That Dragon Cancer, and while it's a horrible thing to say about a game that's as raw and honest as That Dragon Cancer, but Edith Finch does it better, even if it doesn't have the same weight behind it

 

It looks great too, at points I was genuinely surprised by how good it looked. There's some points where it's just that the fidelity is amazing, maybe it's running at a higher resolution on the Pro or something, but there's other moments, an underwater section in particular, that just have superb art design

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  • 3 months later...

I'm an hour or two into this now. My playtime says 11 hours because I left it running once while I was at work.

 

As these kind of narrative adventure games go, What Remains of Edith Finch is very easy to play. It's linear, with no wandering or backtracking around open spaces, moves forward at a fast pace, and there are no pointless interactions with the environment like in Gone Home.

 

It's incredible the level of detail Giant Sparrow have put into creating the world and characters. And you'd nearly take it for granted but it does look and sound lovely.

 

So far it's been very impressive without necessarily elevating itself above other games in the genre (Firewatch, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, Dear Esther, Gone Home).

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Finished, took around around two hours. Lovely, tidy little game that pretty much avoids all the mistakes of the genre. I bought it at 30% off and it was definitely worth that.

 

This whole walking simluator/narrative adventure genre (for me) has yet to deliver a knockout blow but there's certainly a decent number of worthwhile games in the genre now, and What Remains of Edith Finch is one of the best. If pushed I might give the nod to The Vanishing of Ethan Carter.

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Same. I quite enjoyed it and I didn't mind the short length either as the stories were all really well done. 

Spoiler

The bath scene - oh my word :weep:

I'm not a massive fan of the genre and price of entry usually puts me off but the two I've played this year have been very good (this and Firewatch).

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  • 5 months later...

Started and finished this on Friday, took me just over 2 hours.

 

I really enjoyed it overall, but it didn't blow my socks off. The beginning before you reach the house really reminded me of The Vanishing of Ethan Carter but yeah, once you're in there they're rather different to say the least. I love how the house felt all interconnected with hidden passageways and trapdoors, the look of it was very Tim Burton as well. 

 

But the meat of the game was the vignettes about each person in the Finch family tree. Most hit the mark - I think Barbara and Lewis' were the most affecting to me - I did find Molly's one a little twee for my liking, had a bit of an eye roll with that one.


I really like how they tie

Spoiler

 

Milton's vignette in with The Unfinished Swan I thought that was genius how they did that.

 

Barbara's was genius, when the Halloween music came on I was like OH MY FUCKING GOD, I've no idea how they got that track licensed but it was amazing to hear. That whole sequence going into the basement with the crutch and finding the Boyfriend hiding in a Fridge was great, the graphic novel/comic stylings was fantastic too and the narration excellent.

 

Lewis' had me in tears, his life mirrors my own quite a lot - using video games to escape my shitty life - so I related to that one more than any other, some suicidal feelings from my past were dredged up as a result but I managed to deal with it alright. 

 

The ending though just left me empty really, it was like, 'oh, right, that's it is it?' They wrapped it up well enough don't get me wrong but I didn't feel it was as satisfying as it could've been if that makes sense.

 

It's the Forrest Gump of games really, it's about how life and death entwine with one another through all these different time periods and decades. The rooms acting as microcosms of how wildly different peoples lives can be and the consequences one wrong decision can make. There's something inherently beautiful about that but also melancholic and sombre at the same time.

 

 

 

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Spoiler

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  • 1 year later...

Just got through this in one sitting and thought it was really fantastic. Never knew what to expect from each segment which immediately elevates the game into something special for me. I would definitely recommend treating this like a movie and setting the time aside to do it all in one go as I found the more immersed in the family and it's history I got, the better the game became. So if you can put 2-3 hours aside, it's well worth it. 

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Went back to this and finished it.

What a lovely, but sad, gem of a game.

 

Very surprised with how it all played out. I was expecting a simple walking simulator, like Gone Home, just wandering around a house, but it goes in some pretty odd directions.

 

Well worth a couple of hours of your time.

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  • 1 month later...

I finally got around to checking this out last night. Played it in one sitting and absolutely adored it. Heard a lot about how good it is but it still blew me away.

 

I particularly enjoyed but he comic story, kite flying and the fish chopping one. The baby one left me feeling a bit fucked up too. They’re all incredible though. 

 

Was suprised about how supernatural it got at times but it still worked. Especially since they kept those to the younger characters. 

 

It’s on Game Pass now and can’t recommend it enough. Don’t keep putting it off like I did. It’s only a couple of hours of your time too which is perfect. Really easy 1000gs if you’re into that as well. 

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  • 11 months later...

I wouldn't say that. I don't remember the names of the characters but there was one story you play – half of it his day-to-day job, the other half a fantasy world he imagines while working on said job – that wouldn't have worked as well without the interactive element. In fact I'd even say that was one of the best examples of interactive storytelling I've ever seen in a game so far.

The others aren't quite on that level and some might possibly have worked in a non-interactive movie fashion as well, but there's more involvement and attachment to the world when you actively participate. The bathtub is another example.

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2 hours ago, Maryokutai said:

I don't remember the names of the characters but there was one story you play – half of it his day-to-day job, the other half a fantasy world he imagines while working on said job – that wouldn't have worked as well without the interactive element. In fact I'd even say that was one of the best examples of interactive storytelling I've ever seen in a game so far.


Completely agree with this. That story really affected me at the time as it mirrored my own life when I played it. 

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Lewis' story was the most interesting, but for me, the interaction was ultimately futile, as it neither changed the narrative not had a pass/fail element (and I don't feel that futility helped by empathise any more to his mental state) - so it never added to my experience nor added a gameplay challenge..

 

I'd rather have the branching likes of a David Cage game, or QTE style decisions of Until Dawn, to provide my gameplay entertainment, with an actual feeling of influencing events.

 

I guess this genre just isn't for me, I felt the same dissatisfaction with Gone Home.

 

 

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It's obviously not about challenge but it emulates his experiences for the player. At first you have to focus on both tasks but soon you find your rhythm with the fish slicing so you can kind of pull it off without looking after a while so you start focusing on the more interesting fantasy world being portrayed on the other side of the screen. Which, around that time, starts to occupy more and more screen space while the other job disappears into the background. It's a very simple concept with a similarly simple execution but it was really effective in my opinion. 

You can't really do something like that without the interactive element. There certainly are cinematic approaches to the same idea that have been done before, but they need to be pulled off in a different way and will result in slightly different experiences for the player/viewer. Mostly working with sound for example that starts fading into the background.

 

Gone Home can feel very passive, even for a "walking simulator". I think that one mostly benefits from being a game by the player having total control over the pacing.

 

If you like more classic video game elements you might still want to check out The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. It has a similar storytelling style than Edith Finch but it also feature proper puzzles you need to complete to go on.

 

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  • 1 year later...

Did this in 2 sessions this week. Very enjoyable and definitely not what I was expecting, although I'm not sure what I was expecting. It seemed more of an experience than a game, maybe in the way that a Kubrick film can be an experience rather than a simple telling of a tale.

 

Might have made a decent Kubrick film, actually.

 

Very good, and the first time I've ever played such a game

 

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