In stark contrast to other games in the "walking simulator" genre, What Remains of Edith Finch manages to captivate the player with not only amazing storytelling, but mechanics that lend themselves to the delivery of the narrative, all while engaging the player. The game starts out slowly, but quickly becomes interesting once you begin to explore the Finch house, and at no point during my playthrough was I close to being bored. The visuals are stunning, the sound design is gorgeous, and I often found myself impressed with the way the story was delivered throughout the game. I cannot recommend this game enough. Please play it. I promise it's worth it.
... or at least, that is what it feels like. The "game" takes an hour and 15 minutes to complete. I say "game", because I struggle to find enough merit in this product to actually call it a game. There are no mechanics, except for walking and looking. There are no ways to fail. There is no intelligence involved. There are no puzzles. There is a clear, linear path to follow -- once in a while, you will trigger some narrated dialogue (more on that below), but that is all that happens. The walking speed is atrociously slow. If this game had sprinting and jumping, it could be completed in less than 10 minutes. It feels very much like an amateur game, drawn out as much as possible to justify the price mark. People have praised the game as athmospheric and visually beautiful; but it is mostly comprised of bland caves and hillscapes, likely built from stock assets. As for the selling point of the game: the story. It is milquetoast at best, shallow and unspired at worst. There are tons of clichés, such as tragic car crashes and biblical references, and the whole script feels like something written by a child for a school assignment, then handed over to writer who desperately tried to insert as many fancy words as possible, to make it seem more "artsy". No hyperbole: the storytelling in this game made me cringe, and only worsened the already boring experience of walking through bland hills and caves. I find absolutely zero entertainment value in this product, and I feel thoroughly cheated out of my money, even though I bought it on sale. Let me reiterate: There is no gameplay. The story is vapid. The environments are little but stock assets cobbled together. Just because somebody put thought and time into a product, does not mean that it is worth your money. Do not buy this product; save yourself the disappointment, and watch a Let's Play on YouTube. It is exactly the same experience; albeit more entertaining, since you don't have to hold W down for 75 minutes.
