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| The wacky house the Finches call home |
- Reviewed by: Mark Goninon
- Developer: Giant Sparrow
- Publisher: Annapurna Interactive
- Release Date: 25 Apr 2017
- Time played: 2 hours
What is it
Giant Sparrow is an indie game development studio located in Santa Monica, California. Founded in 2009, the studio only developed one game prior to What Remains of Edith Finch called The Unfinished Swan; it was released in 2012 on the Playstation 3, Playstation 4 and Playstation Vita and was well received by critics. In 2017, What Remains of Edith Finch was released on Steam, Playstation 4 and Xbox One. Again, the game was well received by critics and fans alike with the PC version having a Metascore of 89 and a Metacritic User Score of 8.2. On Steam, the game has a rating of “Overwhelmingly Positive” with 95% of the 8,208 reviews rating it positive.What Remains of Edith Finch is a walking simulator where you play the role of Edith Finch exploring your old family home and experiencing how all your family members during their final moments.
How I got it
Due to the game being so critically acclaimed, I made sure to wishlist it on Steam. It seems that around March this year, $50 was put on my Steam Wallet and I purchased Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, Everything and this game with the money. Guess there must’ve been a sale on and I was making the most of a birthday gift voucher 😊. |
| You can tell a huge amount of effort went into bringing this house to life |
What I like:
Final Destination of video games
Do any of you happen to remember a series of horror films starting in 2000 called “Final Destination”? If you haven’t, here’s the Wikipedia description of them:“All five films centre around a small group of people who escape impending death when one individual (the protagonist of each film) has a sudden premonition and warns them that they will all die in a terrible mass-casualty accident. After avoiding their foretold deaths, the survivors are killed one by one in bizarre accidents caused by an unseen force creating complicated chains of cause and effect, resembling Rube Goldberg machines in their complexity.”
Okay, there aren’t any mass-casualty accidents in this game and no premonitions, but the Finch family often die in unfortunate and unlikely ways, although I suspect there’s a wee bit of exaggeration when it comes to retelling how all the Finch family members met their untimely demise. Still, just like the “Final Destination” films, it’s like watching a train wreck as soon as you spot the clues indicating how each person will ultimately perish; a morbid curiosity compels you to keep watching.
Beautifully crafted house
You can tell that a lot of effort went into designing the house and bringing it to life. There are plenty of secret passages to explore and items to interact with.Creative way of storytelling
What makes What Remains of Edith Finch stand out from other walking simulators is its creative approach to storytelling. You will relive the final moments of each family member through a variety of ways, whether its possessing animals, acting out a B-grade horror movie, revealing words in the sky using a kite or taking photos of a camping trip (to name a few).Steam Achievements and Trading Cards
There are 11 Steam Achievements to earn and you’ll probably have to replay the game in order to unlock them all. There are 6 Steam Trading Cards to collect. |
| It only takes a couple of hours to discover the fate of the entire Finch family |
What I dislike:
Can be dark at times
It is a game about death, right? So understandably, the game can be quite dark at times, and while the violence isn’t graphic, gruesome deaths are implied (and babies and children aren’t spared) – so it makes sense why it received an M rating from the Australian Classification Board.Short
I think the game was the perfect length for what it had to convey but for those that determine value of a game by how many hours you can get out of it, be warned that it only takes two hours to complete this game.Score – 8/10 (Recommended)
Despite only taking two hours to complete, your morbid curiosity will compel you to learn how each member of the cursed Finch family met their untimely demise. Giant Sparrow went to great efforts in making this walking simulator stand out from the competition thanks to creative ways of telling the story as well as a beautiful house to explore.Is the game worth $19.99 USD?: Yes, but only just. Consider the fact that this game is only 2 hours long and you’re expected to pay roughly $29 AUD for the experience (although it’s a pretty spectacular one at that). Hunting down Steam Achievements does encourage replays though.
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[ LINK: Official What Remains of Edith Finch Website ]
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