What Remains of Edith Finch
PlayStation 4
Nostalgia Factor:
I've always heard good things about this game. Not even good things, great things. People rant and rave about this title and call it one of the greatest video games ever made. Naturally, I made a mental note to check it out someday.
Just this weekend, I decided to purchase a 3-month subscription to PS Plus Premium on the PlayStation 4. Wouldn't you know it, What Remains of Edith Finch was on the service's catalog of games. I made sure it was the first one I checked out. How would I feel about the game? Well, that is what you're here to find out.
Story:
As always, I spoil everything, so if you haven't played this and you want to remain unspoiled please skip to the next section of the review.
You play as Edith, a young woman who returns to her childhood home after she was forced to abandon it seven years ago. The game doesn't really tell you too much of why you are there or what you are looking for. You have to figure it out as you go.
You are in possession of a key, which your mother gave to you before she died. You have to explore the house and find what the key unlocks. Once you have done so, the game's focus becomes more clear. The Finch family has a long and tragic history, to the point where Edith believes the lineage is cursed. As you play, Edith explores the Finch house, investigating the bedrooms and personal spaces of her dead relatives. The story of each relative's death is told through a vision or hallucination of some kind as Edith reads through the notes that they or their immediate relatives left behind.
This isn't a normal house. You'll see that right away. It may have started as a normal house, but there are all kinds of additions and add-ons which have been built up into the sky. The house is full of sealed rooms and chambers that Edith was never allowed to access a kid. As you play through the game and uncover these stories, the mystery of Edith's past and why she was forced to leave seven years ago comes to the forefront.
Edith's grandmother, Edie, bought heavily into the belief that the family was cursed. She wrote stories about them, turning them into these big fantastical tales. You seen the movie Big Fish? It's kind of like that. After the death and disappearance of Edith's father and two siblings, Edith's mother decides she's had enough and abandons the house, hoping to leave the curse behind.
The whole time you're playing the game, Edith narrates her findings as she writes them down in a journal. This becomes significant later. You find out that Edith died during childbirth, and her son is now grown up and reading the journal as he is visiting Edith's grave, located in the cemetery of the good old family home.
While this game certainly tells and interesting and compelling story filled with many memorable characters and moments, the ending fell a bit flat for me. I'm not sure exactly what they're trying to say with the ending, and it ended up being more confusing than anything else.
Gameplay:
This is what people refer to as a "walking simulator." I don't have very much experience with this type of game. The closest one I can think of is "Everybody's Gone to Rapture" - which I didn't like. Luckily, this game is much better.
There isn't much to the game's controls. You walk and you look around. There is no run button or jump button or anything like that. No parkour, no climbing on things. No combat. The only actions you can take are using the R2 button to grab things or read notes. Sometimes you have to use your joysticks if your character is performing an action onscreen (like tapping the joystick left to page through a book, or holding it up to open a hatch).
While things might seem wide open at first, it is actually a fairly linear game. You find out what happened to your first relative, you play a minigame that explains how they died, and back in the main house that opens up where you can go next. You explore the new area, find out how your next relative died, play a minigame, and then that opens up another part of the house. So on and so forth. The whole game is about two hours long, which is perfect for people like me with little kids who don't have much time to play games.
The only time the gameplay deviates is when you're reading a story of one of the fantastical deaths of your relatives. The best word I can use to describe these deaths is minigames, although that isn't quite right. For example, one of the stories involves a kid who dreams of blasting off into space, so he gets on his swing set and shoots for the stars. The whole minigame consists of you using the control sticks to pump his legs, sending him faster and higher on his swing set. Eventually he goes up and over the crossbar and is flung from the swing, plummeting to his death into the water and rocks below.
Another minigame consists of controlling random animals in the woods as your poisoned character trips out and eventually dies. My favorite part of that one is when you turn into a giant shark that is rolling down the hill. So random but so fun. Another minigame revolves around a character who is bored and depressed at his job. Using one control stick, you chop off fish heads and throw them onto a conveyor belt. Using the other control stick, you navigate your character through the events happening in his imagination, which resemble a 32 bit medieval RPG. Eventually your character becomes so disconnected with reality he chops his own head off.
Some of these minigames are a minute or two long. Some ten or more. While none of them are very difficult, they are all pretty interesting or heartbreaking in their own way. Being a dad myself, the drowning of the baby in the bathtub was one of the toughest to sit through.
Graphics:
Visually, this game is awesome. The house itself is almost like another character in the game. It's so big, and the architecture is so unusual. There are books everywhere. There are small personal touches galore, like the house was really lived in by generations of this eccentric family. Everything looks very authentic and very real, even when the game itself turns a little kooky.
Something very important for games like this: it is very atmospheric. This almost has to be played in the dark with headphones on to get the full effect.
Sound:
I can't complain about this game's sound, either. The voice acting is great, the music is effective, and the ambient sound effects match the game's graphic realism to a tee. I don't know what else there is to say.
Okay, I guess I thought of something: the use of licensed music! The theme from the movie Halloween, as well as The Waltz of the Flowers from Tchaikovsky play prominent roles in some of the death sequences.
Overall:
I have some mixed feelings on the game. I like the game, yes, but I don't know if I'm ready to anoint it as one of the greatest video games ever made quite yet. I am not even sure it would crack my top 300. It is fun and imaginative, and the story of the game stuck with me long after I was done playing it. But as a video game, is it really that great? This story could have been told through a movie or an HBO series and it would have been just as effective.
I will give the game credit for its graphical appeal, its attention to detail, its sound design, and its emotional impact. I had to play through the game a second time just to soak everything in, which is something I almost never do when I finish a game. Once I normally complete a game, I'm out and I'm moving onto the next thing.
I feel as if the storytelling could have been a bit better. I had absolutely no idea what was going on the first time I played through this game, which is one of the reasons I played through it a second time. You shouldn't have to play a game twice to understand its storyline, although I do admit my second playthrough was a lot more satisfying knowing the basics of the storyline and the relationships of all the characters.
I will hesitantly give this game a recommend. If you like story based games and aren't put off by walking simulators, you probably will like this. If you're a certain type of gamer who doesn't care about the story and only wants action, you won't like this. Maybe you will. I don't know. I guess I can recommend that you try it yourself and come to your own conclusions.
My verdict: this is a good game but not a great one. I'm not exactly ranting and raving over it, although I do appreciate its tone and its unique method of storytelling. It certainly is not a bad game by any stretch of the imagination. I'll rank it somewhere in the middle between above average and good. But no higher than that.
THE GRADE:
B -
Yes, I gave this game the same score as Toki for the NES. Bring on the hatred, Edith Finch fans.
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