What Remains of Edith Finch: besides the videogame

The project of this tormented interactive story was realized by Giant Sparrow, the same author team of The Unfinished Swan. What Remains of Edith Finch is a first person adventure, which goes in the subgenre “walking simulator” or “interactive drama”.

A real interactive story full of elements which enlarge the narration, really similar to other titles like Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, Dear Esther or Virginia.

The charm of those games is an immersive experience in an atmosphere, in a story, the gamer can relax by having infact a really minimum control on the events.

He will have just to walk or to do some specific choices. On a par of an interactive movie, the whole way is made only to please the user.

What Remains of Edith Finch

It’s considered by many a no-gendre masterpiece What Remains of Edith Finch, it’s a really peculiar title, perfect even for who isn’t passionated of videogames. Infact the combination of story, images and interaction creates an unique experience not playable by a normal movie or videogame.

The basic idea of the creators was the one to create an unusual experience, which encourages the curiosity and the discovery of the unknown.

The game’s structure is really particular, infact every environment, every story, has different mechanics and the gamer is forced to learn and to explore all the times a new scenario by learning how to deal with it.

On a visual level What Remains of Edith Finch has a graphic rich and elegant, the environments to explore have their own personalities, one different from the other, a design that characterizes them with a specific choice of the colours. A scenario full of elements measuredly spreaded.

The story

The protagonist is Edith Finch, a girl that comes back, after few years, in the family house. The house was built by her great grandfather Odin, after his migration from Norwey. The Finch’s family was always tormented, since the 800 and changing the country didn’t change the things.

To witness it there is the crowded graveyard next to the house’s family. Every person of that graveyard hides a story, story which has been discovered by Edith, and from us, while looking for the truth about her relatives.

During the first phases of What Remains of Edith Finch the protagonist reaches the family’s house and finds out that her key doesn’t open the front door as she wished.

Once entered though we will have access to many books and diaries which hide locks and sliding doors, a serie of fancy secret passages that can be unlocked with our key. The house can’t be looked through the normal doors, because they are locked, maybe to not let leak the family’s secrets.

The exploration happens slowly and it isn’t possible to stop it, this though isn’t a disadvantage. The narration anyway isn’t longer than two hours so it’s easy to complete the game in only one session.

The story is rich and fluent, without long breaks, which are sometimes boring, like other titles like Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture. The gameplay is free and faceted, the possibility to have much freedom is never punitive or frustating, it isn’t a case that there isn’t the possibility to lost neither.

We quickly arrive to the credits of What Remains of Edith Finch, which are followed by a really pleasant soundtrack. Maybe the only defect of this title is right the time, especially if we compared with the price. It remains anyway an experience to try.

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