A lot of the pessimistic gamers these days are groaning at the idea of “Walking simulators” becoming more common in the industry, and I get the sentiment. Walking simulators can be boring and uninspired, but only if they’re not done well.
Games like Firewatch and Lake come to mind when thinking of well-done walking simulators, but it pains me to never see What Remains of Edith Finch in the conversation. It hurts especially for me because I firmly believe that What Remains of Edith Finch is the best walking simulator in…ever. Which may sound like a hyperbole right now, but I sincerely believe every bit of that statement.
Story-rich
What Remains of Edith Finch is a game that was released way back in 2017, but even as I played it close to 8 years later, the story was still insanely compelling. Which should be a given, considering that story makes up around 70% of why walking simulators are great in the first place. The game puts you in the shoes of Edith Finch, the last remaining member of her bloodline, as she goes back to her childhood home to reconcile with her family’s unfortunate history. The game is entirely based in the house itself, an eerie (but beautiful) place stuck in time.
Admittedly, a part of me flinched at the thought of going into this house, thinking back to the fear that I felt when I tried to play Gone Home. But unlike Gone Home, which I quit in the first hour because of how anxious I was, the beautifully tragic story of What Remains of Edith Finch made me stay. The story deals with graphic themes such as death, mourning, and obsession, but does it all tactfully. It’s a story that I think of fondly, and I fear that if I say more than what’s already here, then I will ruin the entire experience for you.
Yet after all this praise for what the story is, I still believe that What Remains of Edith Finch shines because of how it delivers the story.
Delivery
Unlike some narrative-focused video games that I’ve played in the past, this is a game you experience completely on your own. No, I don’t mean that it’s a single-player game; I mean Edith Finch is accompanied by nothing other than her thoughts throughout the entire game. There is no proper dialogue between the two characters, nor do you have any real choice in where the story goes. But what it lacks in player agency, it more than makes up for in delivery. The internal monologue being emphasized through text popping up in the background is impressive and catches your eye, but what really hooked me in was the gameplay.
The game follows a very show-and-tell approach, making sure storytelling and gameplay go hand-in-hand in the best way possible. There are multiple instances in this game where you will be put in the shoes of a different person (or creature) at a completely different time, altering the game’s aesthetics and even expanding some of the gameplay elements. I remember this one sequence in the game where, instead of controlling Edith Finch and investigating diary entries, I am instead put in the shoes of a little girl with an insatiable hunger. A hunger so extreme that she ends up eating and turning into a bird, and then a hawk, to a hideous sea monster, and eventually back to her child self.
This sounds novel in itself, but experiencing it is an entirely different story. You didn’t just see her become the bird; you became the bird, you became the sea monster. And this is what hooked me in.
Video Games Aren’t Movies
When the first season of The Last of Us was released, I remember there being a few people on social media asking, “What other good stories from video games have gamers been keeping from us?”, and I remember being completely taken aback. There was nothing to hide, we’ve been vocal that video game plots do deserve the chance to be shown on the big screen! Entire universes like Halo, Fallout, and Skyrim deserve to be enjoyed for the plot, but we also have to acknowledge that video games are a completely different art form and should be treated differently.
What Remains of Edith Finch is the perfect example of a video game with an amazing story to tell, but it falls apart if you separate it from the video game. I’m not saying this as a complaint, I’m writing this as a callout to all the modern devs that try so hard reaching for the big screen that they forget the gameplay. What Remains of Edith Finch uses gameplay in a way that enhances the story, and this is why I urge everyone to go back and give this masterclass of video game storytelling another glance.
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