Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Feb 19, 2022

  [h1][i]History of imagination, stubbornness and madness[/i][/h1] As you venture through a small forest among all-knowing trees that are "about to say something but never do", suddenly a dream-like vista of the Finch house appears, like it popped out of a storybook. Stacked up, with rooms built haphazardly on top of each other, tacked on over time as the family expanded, it soars to the sky, rushing towards it like the Tower of Babel... and its branching looks like some peculiar family tree. Trees are surrounding it, squeezing, caressing it, going inside, merging with it. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2753779108 And inside... books, books everywhere, stories as far as the eye can see. Everything has a story in it: The fireplace built with bricks from the fabled old house, the messy kitchen bathed in warm light, the dining table that looks like "a bomb had gone off", the ear-ie music box, the faded family pictures. Even though empty, the house feels lived-in, vibrant, like the inhabitants were just there, left in a hurry. Every detail seems important inviting your caressing gaze. But on the other hand, it's also a bit like a museum, because these are the last moments, frozen in time, of the Finches whose only remaining living member, Edith, came to pay her respects and try to find some answers for decades of tragedy that has haunted her family and this house. We learn about characters not just from the way they died, but from how they lived, from things they left behind, traces that say a lot about them. These memories are like ghostly hauntings, an imprint in time and space. Ultimately, [i][b]What Remains of Edith Finch[/b][/i] is a game about stories we tell each other so we don't forget. It seems a bit silly how I always side-eyed walking sims when I usually love the exploration part in adventure games: just frolicking around, looking, observing, breathing in the ambience, letting the environment tell me a story. And what strange tales the Finch house weaves, often just hinting and suggesting. It invites the player to meet it half-way, to be a co-creator; relies heavily on our participation in interpreting and ultimately creating our story. Contrary to a bit of passive gameplay, it actually requires activity in storytelling. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2757257656 Gameplay is intuitive, you just kinda know what to do. Some simple actions: open the door, pull, push, use the key, unlock, flip, swing, swoop, fly, jump, swipe left to right, up and down... Follow the words floating like echos in the ether, thoughts appearing and disappearing without a trace, leading you through corridors, salons, rooms, secret passages, hatches, weird compartments... watch the story unfold. This house sometimes feels like a pop-up book. A few times you literally unlock a book, opening the door into another passageway that leads to another tale. The game also has a cinematic flow, like an elegant waltz through the house and the sprawling recollections. There's a rhythm and dance to the words written in the air. Finches' rooms are like tombs, locked and sealed, giving you just a distorted glimpse through a peephole. You must find a way in, to the shrine... where you trigger a story flashback by examining a memento of some kind. You become your dead relative for a brief while at the very end of their life cycle. Almost like an invocation of the spirit. These chapters are short, a peek into a slice of life just before it was taken away, emphasising its brevity and fragility. They feature different art styles and literary genres across decades: Molly's Lovecraftian story is like an archetypal dream of a hungry child; Barbara's is inspired by weird, campy horror comics; Lewis' by an RPG game; a baby sees the world as a Disney musical; then we have a magical picture book, summoned storms, monsters under the bed etc. I get the sense these were probably influenced by all those books scattered around, showing that the Finches were avid readers and dreamers, very creative and imaginative, lovers of stories. Reading book titles throughout the house was a lot of fun and full of hints. [i]Every Finch who ever lived is buried somewhere in the library[/i], said grandma Edie. [h3]The tragedy and joy of life[/h3] Despite dealing with death in some very tragic and ironic ways, it is treated matter-of-factly, something that happens... like an escape. The game is dark yet doesn't feel bleak, but almost joyful, whimsical, dreamlike, reveling in imagination... fervently collecting and keeping the stories like grandma Edie. What do they tell us? Are they history, myths, allegorical truths? Do they hint at madness; do they... invoke madness? It's all very evocative on that deep subconscious level, stirs the Id. They feel like family legends, folklore passed through generations, distorted and transformed with time; whispered through the labyrinth of the house, vibrated between the trees, reflected in the moon. They're the stories from the dark side of the moon. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2757276568 And yet, they hint at some truth underneath. Is it a curse, a history of mental illness... or just life? We only remember misfortunes anyway. These stories also feel like self-fulfilling prophesies: [i]Maybe we believed so much in family curse... we made it real[/i], thought Edith. More importantly, they work on a fundamentally human level as compressed metaphors for longing to escape the mundane world into imagination, the soaring of the spirit and its tragedy, most strongly expressed as a wish to fly, a desire for one new day, and finding creative exits from dehumanising alienation. It's an inescapable irony of life that feels like a cage and only your imagination, but ultimately death (which is just a further way down from a dream), can set you free. Generations come and go and all meet the same fate. Call it a curse, a mystery, cosmic horror, or more accurately, cosmic joke. (Maybe cooked up in that Cosmic Cuisine book I've been seeing around the house.) [h3][i]What kind of family finishes building a cemetery before starting the house?[/i][/h3] Even though on the surface [b][i]What Remains of Edith Finch[/i][/b] is a game about deaths, it is also about the joy of life. Death is always there, lurking, waiting, it is certain. Life in its brevity is a flash of light, a miracle. It's a game about endings, but one that ends with a new beginning. As such it oozes melancholy, laments over past times and generations that went by, feels nostalgic for a time you don't even remember. These people are all peculiar, idiosyncratic, but also completely normal. This could be your family. Edith said it best: [i]If we lived forever, maybe we'd have time to understand things. But as it is, I think the best we can do is try to open our eyes, and appreciate how strange and brief all of this is.[/i] So, what remains of Edith Finch? A new story waiting to be told... [h3][quote][b]Reviewed by [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/40848670-Drugoja-In-The-Dreaming/]Drugoja In The Dreaming[/url][/b][/quote][/h3]
• gamedeal user

  Mar 29, 2022

  [h1] This is what I call an epic walking sim [/h1] ”Why is this game so positively rated? It looks kinda bland,” I said but decided to buy it anyway. And now I understand what makes it so good. What Remains of Edith Finch is a wonderful, touching, and imaginative tale of the Finch family. In many creative and novel ways, you will uncover the tragic life stories of each family member when you explore the well-furnished house and its numerous secret passages. Yes, this is a walking simulator, a game type that has gotten a great deal of hate. Not being the biggest fan of the genre either, I found this one quite engaging because of its gripping narrative and mind-boggling ideas of storytelling. What Remains of Edith Finch is the result of letting a creative mind roam free. But what I personally loved in it were the subtle horror-ish hints scattered throughout the game that is not scary per se, but touches upon some dark topics that made me uncomfortable when I started to reflect on them. Note that this is not a game that should be rushed - you will want to pay a lot of attention to the environmental cues because they just add to the mysterious, strange ambience. I’d say that if there’s one ”walking sim” you should play regardless of your usual preferences, it’s this one - good story, good aesthetics, and good gameplay! [b] Graphics [/b] ☐ Stunning ☑ Beautiful ☐ Good ☐ Decent ☐ Jumble of pixels [b] Gameplay [/b] ☐ Makes you feel like spiderman ☑ Good ☑ Normal/walking simulator ☐ Bad ☐ Don’t fall asleep [b] Audio [/b] ☐ Eargasm ☑ Amazing ☐ Good ☐ Not horrible ☐ Better without headphones [b] PC Requirements [/b] ☐ Potato ☑ Medium ☐ Fast ☐ Ask NASA for a spare computer [b] Difficulty [/b] ☑ Piece of cake ☐ Easy ☐ Average ☐ Difficult ☐ Very difficult [b] Story [/b] ☐ No story ☐ Some lore ☐ Average ☐ Good ☑ Masterpiece [b] Length [/b] ☑ Super short (0-2 h) ☐ Short (2-6 h) ☐ Average (6-10 h) ☐ Long (10+) ☐ Endless [b] Price [/b] ☐ Free ☑ Worth the price ☐ Buy it on sale ☐ If you have extra money ☐ Not recommended [b] Bugs [/b] ☐ No ☑ Minor ☐ Annoying ☐ Too much ☐ The game itself is a bug [b] Replayability [/b] ☐ No replay value ☑ Maybe once ☐ Multiple times ☐ Infinite replayability [h1] 8.5/10 [/h1]
• gamedeal user

  May 14, 2022

  cried like a baby for half the stories 10/10 would cry again
• gamedeal user

  May 22, 2022

  I usually never share my opinion online, but I'll make an exception. This game is absolutely amazing! It is not only my favorite story-based game, it's one of my favorite artistic productions, all categories combined. I have showed it to people to watch their reactions and it’s on my bucket list of things to do with my future significant other. Why is it so great? Simply put, its world sits exactly on the fence between reality and fantasy: it could happen (though REALLY unlikely), but there is a bit of "magic" sprinkled here and there. It fills you with a child-like sense of wonder. It gives you food for thought for hours on end. I don’t know how you got to that game or if anyone will read this review, but I’ll just say this in conclusion: you are in the presence of greatness!
• gamedeal user

  May 25, 2022

  Do yourself a favor if you get eye-strain or nauseated from the forced motion blur and/or the chromatic aberration and go to %appdata%/Local/FinchGame/Saved/Config/WindowsNoEditor and open the "Engine.ini" file and copy in the following: [/Script/Engine.RendererSettings] r.SceneColorFringe.Max=0 r.DefaultFeature.MotionBlur=0 This will disable both effects which in my case completely removed any strain I was having.
• gamedeal user

  Nov 13, 2022

  Lovely but short game. The subject is a bit sad (as it deals with everyone dying) but the presentation is surprisingly pleasant and often even carefree. This lends the game an interesting balance. As the replay value is limited, if you're into that sort of thing, consider an achievement guide for your playthrough, the game is such that it basically cannot be spoiled by walkthroughs or guides. Playtime is approximately 2 hours, but the experience is quite vivid and will probably make you think about it a while longer after you're done playing.
• Nim

  Nov 14, 2022

  Gorgeous game. This game was very emotional and entertaining. The graphics were really pretty and I really enjoyed how the story panned out, definitely a very sad game that is ideal if you want to get in your feels. The ending was quite the surprise, but only added to the beauty and emotion of the game.
• Bellick

  Nov 19, 2022

  I'm not crying, you're crying... Absolutely flabbergasted. God, it's gonna be hard to sleep tonight. 11/10
• cassiecoww TTV

  Nov 22, 2022

  it's beautiful and haunting, such an innovative way to tell a story. i fucking love it ♡
• Honey

  Nov 26, 2022

  Before this game, I thought gaming wasn't for me. I am not into shooters like my friends and fiance are. I am into exploring, decision-making, puzzles, etc... I highly recommend this to any first-time gamers or anyone looking for a super interesting story-type game. I am so happy with this purchase!!!!! I wish I could experience this for the first time all over again!