I mentioned my resolution for 2019 here, but the long and short of it is, I have a huge backlog of games waiting to be played on Steam—I tend to binge on their quarterly sales—and I’m finally going to play ’em.
First on the docket…
What Remains of Edith Finch (2017)
Developer: Giant Sparrow
Publisher: Annapurna Interactive
Written and directed by: Ian Dallas
Platforms: Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Genre: Adventure
Mode: Single-player
Why I Chose It: Great word of mouth (it won a BAFTA, for Pete’s sake!) combined with pretty graphics and an interesting story.
The premise:
What Remains of Edith Finch is centered around the character of Edith Finch, the last in the Finch family line, which have a perceived curse that causes all but one member of each generation to die in unusual ways. Edith has returned to her family’s home, on Orcas Island, off the coast of Washington state, following her mother’s death to explore the house they hastily abandoned years before. She learns about her relatives and deaths by visiting their bedrooms, sealed off and treated as shrines to them, with each death played out in a short gameplay sequence. The game is presented as an anthology of these mini-experiences, wrapped in the dramatic retelling of the family’s history and fate through Edith’s narration.
Below is a spoiler-free zone.
Discussion: Let’s get the technical stuff out of the way first. The gameplay is first person, and I’m crazy sensitive when it comes to issues of motion sickness, but this game didn’t bother me. Probably because, for the most part, you’re walking around and looking at things. Said things are beautifully rendered, in great detail, and the controls are easy-peasy. On Steam, there are ten achievements, and they’re not too hard to snag, especially since, once you’ve an entire playthrough, you can go back and replay any chapter you’d like. The voice acting is solid, as is the music, which is composed by Emmy-award winner Jeff Russo. Finally, the dialogue/subtitles are part of the game, sometimes factoring into the gameplay itself.
As for the narrative… This game is what I imagine would have happened if the exceptional Gone Home had been written by the talented Seanan McGuire. Gone Home and What Remains of Edith Finch both center around the idea of a young woman returning to her empty home. Her goal: discovering what happened to her absentee family. However, in Gone Home, the house is architecturally standard, and the explanations of her family’s absences are interesting, yet also fairly run-of-the-mill.
The same cannot be said for the wild, unsettling construction of the Finch home, nor for its former inhabitants. This game swings between the surreal and the mundane with abandon. It’s about families and alienation and love and death. It’s dark and sad and hopeful, both mourning and celebrating the fragility of life. It’s about truth and myth, and the stories we tell ourselves. It evokes the darkness and the wonderful strangeness of McGuire’s Wayward Children series, feeling both familiar and strange.
Trigger warnings: There is a bit of semi-graphic violence toward living mammals and a more graphic depiction of dead fish. There is also an instance of child neglect that some players may find disturbing.
Despite all that, those moments pass quickly, and the beauty and hopefulness of the narrative’s conclusion left me with a much more lasting impact.
Conclusion: I’m glad I purchased this game, and I’m sad I waited so long to play it all the way through. From beginning to end, I’d say there’s about an hour to an hour and a half of gameplay, depending on whether or not you choose to backtrack and/or replay certain chapters, either to reexperience them or to gain some of Steam’s achievements.
Regardless, this is a beautiful little game with a lot to offer in terms of artistry, gameplay, and story, and I highly recommend it.
Additional hack: There’s a site called Fanatical.com, where you can upload your Steam Wishlist and get some great deals on everything from indie games to AAA titles. Not every game will upload–I believe that’s because Fanatical is based in the UK, but there’s enough overlap that I’ve purchased some real steals.
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