Critical Play: What Remains of Edith Finch
“Why would walking be fun?” I asked myself while downloading this game for the critical play on walking simulators. After playing it, my answer will be yes. Not only fun but also engaging, and my only complaint about this game would be “it’s too short!”
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Go here to find the game http://www.giantsparrow.com/games/finch/
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What Remains of Edith Finch is a game where you walk around as Edith Finch (at least for most of the time) and explore and experience the misfortunes of members in the Finch family. The game consists of several mini-stories of each member, and each story has various mechanics and representations. The progress uses an interesting way of representation, a family tree. Each time you finish a story, the portrait of the person will be added and allows you to play again in the future. It feels like you are playing a bunch of well-integrated minigames that contributes to a bigger story.
What made me really stunned by this game is the level design. The interior and props are well organized so it reflects the mood of the game. It is fully narrated with the character’s voice, and what is amazing about it is that the voices synced very well and smoothly as I navigated through the scenes. It seemed like the creators can predict when and where we will be at, but of course, it’s scripted. There are a lot of hidden prompts that guide you to where you should be focusing on and where you should go, obstacles, trails, keywords in the narration. What I loved the most out of all is the use of text.
In the gameplay, these flying texts not only serve as a supplement to the narration but were also a part of the game, a critical part. Sometimes it acts as “look here” as it draws your attention to it (the text on the house); sometimes it could be “this way” when it keeps popping up as you walk down the correct path (in the tunnel); sometimes it is a guide to the minigame puzzle (kite). With these well-designed prompts and clues, the designers can “predict” what the players are going to do next.
The parts that I wish the game could improve on is the difficulty and coherence of puzzles. As a storytelling game, it shouldn’t have too many challenging puzzles. However, as I’m going through the game, I didn’t feel much agency as it feels like I’m playing through a movie. And some puzzles are just out of the blue. A human transforming into a cat, then to an owl, then a shark, then a Kraken, and being back to human whereas the Kraken is under the bed? I still can’t get it now… But some of the puzzles added more flavor to the story and let me understand more about the background of the family.
