What Remains Of Edith Finch - Physical Edition (PS4)

[Codreanu]

Full Game Name: What Remains Of Edith Finch
Edition Name: Physical Edition
Platform(s): Ps4
Region(s):
Publisher:
Release Date: Mid January 2018
Price (RRP): $29.99 /
Bar Code: (if known)
Package Description:
Content Description:
Link(s) to source(s):
Other Info/Pics:
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0580/0965/products/03_FINCH_GAME_BEAUTY_COVERS.jpg?v=1511987251
- Exclusive Physical Version
- Premium Reversible Cover Insert
- Region Free - Worldwide Compatibility

US: https://store.iam8bit.com/collections/annapurna-interactive/products/what-remains-of-edith-finch-ps4-physical-edition
UK: https://store.iam8bit.co.uk/collections/annapurna-interactive/products/what-remains-of-edith-finch-ps4-physical-edition

[comaamen86]

Awesome I don't buy bells and whistles editions no more but do like a boxed copy of a great game

Ordered

[Twisted]

What type of genre is this game? And is it a quality play experience for those of you familiar with this game? I personally never heard of it!

[utta]

What type of genre is this game? And is it a quality play experience for those of you familiar with this game? I personally never heard of it!

It's a narrative driven "adventure" game. Basically you just walk around finding things to click on to learn more about the story.

[Vlad]

What type of genre is this game? And is it a quality play experience for those of you familiar with this game? I personally never heard of it!

Okay, so I have some very strong feelings about this game that I'll share with you in the interests of offering my opinion as a huge fan of the genre(s) it's trying so hard to break into.

Simply, it's a walking simulator for people that don't like walking simulators.

I disliked it immensely. None of the below is meant to cause offence if you did like it though, I just want to share my sorely disappointing experience.

I thought The White Swan was brilliant so it's good to see such a positive reaction to this which could mean more games from the devs but for me unfortunately my main issue running through it was that it felt very much like there was a complete lack of subtlety and nothing was truly hidden and left to the imagination and for me there's no mystery when probably 95% of the content is so forcibly spoon fed to you. The other large issue being that it felt like there was never any reason built up to actually care, most of the stories were so bite-size that there felt like no real way to connect with any before it was over.

I love walking simulators and unique indie games but as I said above, I just found this experience to be awful. It feels like there's absolutely no subtlety or nuance to any of it, everything is rammed in your face and simply seems to try too hard to be different just for the sake of being different and so whilst I was completely hooked on games like Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, Gone Home, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, Firewatch or even going way back to Dear Esther, What Remains of Edith Finch utterly bored me because of this lack of subtlety and feeling like it had to railroad you from one gimmick to another.

The impression I honestly got the whole way through was that it was a walking simulator that's ideal for people that don't like walking simulators. Or people that can't stand the thought of not having some new and shiny gameplay segment shoved in your face every 15 minutes to keep you interested and try to cover for a vapid, self-indulgent non-story. My personal opinion on it being a walking simulator for people that don't like walking simulators is that I started to get that feeling in it when rather than being understated, slow and letting you wander and explore with narrative dotted around like sweets leading to the gingerbread house like Gone Home or EGttR it felt very much to me like it was very in your face and tried extremely hard to throw in a new flashy bit every 15-20 mins as I state.

For me any emotional impact was completely lost because of a seemingly complete lack of restraint when telling the stories. The only restraint that seemed to show was not showing any deaths fully on screen, instead fading out for them.

Even taking Dear Esther which is probably one of the most on-rails examples where much of the content is presented in unmissable triggers, there's still so much mystery to the island and characters through little details that don't need to be pointed out, the illusion of being able to explore a gorgeous environment and triggers that are missable which give further insight into the story.
Gone Home would probably be a decent comparison for me too, if only even to simply illustrate exploring a home and unravelling a mystery. In that it's up to you how much you discover and how much you get out of it to the point where you can end the game in under a minute and miss everything yet exploring is deeply rewarding as it gives an emotional story and you still unravel this mystery. I think possibly if the doors weren't sealed in WRoEF it would have vastly improved the game for me as it could be taken at your own pace in any order rather than feeling like you have to play it a certain way for no other reason than the devs said so. This one also highlights a huge disappointment for me, there's all these hidden passages and doors through the WRoEF house yet they're not secret when you're so bluntly forced to use them. Where's the fun in not discovering anything yourself?

I felt somewhat let down by some of the larger stories too, for example with Barbara I wasn't surprised in the slightest by any twists, for me that whole story was far too obvious and even cliché and for Molly, well to me that's one of the ones for me where 'trying too hard' really comes into it where I felt no real value at all was added to the story through the twists and they were really only there to try to add twists and be different for the sake of it.

I did actually enjoy the Lewis story and I think that was actually very well done because it was so fleshed out and gave you long enough to connect to the character. This was the story that made me realise that my issue with a lot of it to be honest is that most of the stories are so short that I didn't have time to build any kind of real connection with the characters. Even with the fact that this one was still all spelled out for you, it felt like a proper story with a character I was interested in because it gave me a reason to be interested and a desire to know what happens. Also to its credit, the visuals and music were certainly nice.

As for the price, I think the price is asking far too much for the little amount of content you receive. It takes two to three hours to complete whilst trying to fully explore however I don't really feel like there's much replayability in it. Once you've played the game once you've already seen everything it has, there's no mystery left to explore because of the borderline unforgivable way in which you're not free to explore or experience the game any other way than being led by the nose through the house and stories.

Just speaking as a totally personal, subjective opinion for this paragraph what I honestly hated was how bloody smug the whole thing felt. It was like the devs made something that could've been great if it was left alone but then it was like they had to take your hand and drag you through whilst yelling at you, "Look at all these set pieces and vague lack of a story! Aren't we so very clever and arty?!"

TL;DR - Shallow, vapid story; Little to no exploration; Tried too hard to keep your interest with the gimmick of every gameplay segment being different; Extremely poor decision of, "Here's 15 minutes of a character, you must care about them for no other reason than we told you to."; Feels like a high school aged student's idea of "deep and meaningful"; So dumb that it feels like intentional parody of walking sims or more arty games; Pretty visuals; Good music.