Review - What Remains of Edith Finch

What Remains of Edith Finch is a new narrative game from the developer Giant Sparrow. It puts the player in the position of Edith Finch, a woman whose family has long since passed away leaving her a strange old home filled with memories. As one explores the abandoned home, they learn the different stories of her family to uncover where her family came from.
We will gloss over the gameplay for the most part because the game is a walking simulator. The player just moves through the environment exploring different object. It is to be noted, however, that that formula is played with significantly in each of the memories. The story of one family member may have you play as a cat where another will see the player flying a kite. These are short interludes from walking place to place and were a rather nice change of pace when they occurred.
Of course, like a narrative game would imply, the focus of this piece is the various stories. As the Steam page states, the whole of the game is a tragic tale of a family surrounded by death. Each member, in their own way, became so engrossed in stories that they lost themselves. The narratives touch on mental illness, the power of grief, and family relationships. Each of the individual’s stories is tried together by the exploration that the player does through the house. Each memory could be considered a level with the house being akin to a hub world.
The first thing that needs to be discussed is the method of storytelling. Most of the story is told through dialogue that is accompanied by words on the screen. On the one hand, this was a nice way of conveying the story. It made the world itself fundamental to the story with its visual representation. However, there are two serious issues. One is the camera. For the most part, the game plays like a standard first-person experience with the player controlling vision and movement. However, when dialogue is occurring the player is not allowed to look away from the majority of the text and, if they are not already are looking at the text, their vision is pulled to it. By forcing the player’s camera to focus on the narrative text, the game created numerous frustrating moments as I moved to explore one area only to have the controls pulled away from me to look at text.
The other issue is in the narrative itself. What Remains of Edith Finch often suffered from the problem of telling the player instead of showing the player. This is an old narrative issue. Consider that one memory is as simple as a boy swinging on a swing. The scene itself was very interesting, but the entire roughly ten minute seen was dialogue of why the child was swinging. It was an interesting back-story for sure, but presented in a boring manner that was, quite frankly, lazy game design. Even just snippets of that backstory as gameplay would have been quite interesting to play and have given the player a far greater understanding of the character. Moments of “telling” occur all throughout the game.
Despite these issues, I did find the stories engaging and the game kept me playing to the end. What Remains of Edith Finch might be best understood as a collection of modern fables. They are small stories with a meaning behind each of them. Tied together, they show the power of storytelling and the dangers of an overactive fear of the past. It is certainly a powerful narrative experience.
In terms of the aesthetics. They are okay. I was not blown away by any of the visuals, but nothing detracted from the game. Each of the rooms was immaculately created to express the personality of the people who lived there. It would have been nice to see more interaction in each room, as few objects can be interacted with, but the visual layout was masterful.
What Remains of Edith Finch is a strong narrative experience. Some of the mechanics might detract a bit from it, but that does not stop it from being a powerful story. It is only a couple hours in length, but it remains worth the price. You should certainly pick up What Remains of Edith Finch if you are at all interested in the game.

Giant Sparrow, What Remains of Edith Finch. Annapurna Pictures, Apr 25, 2017.

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