What remains of Edith Finch (iOS)
Designer: Ian Dallas of Giant Sparrow
I’m sad to say that I did not have much fun playing this game on my iPhone for the past couple of hours. I’ve heard nothing but rave reviews from friends and will have to revisit this once I try it out on a laptop/ larger setup.
The mechanics of this game on an iPhone are very simple. You walk around by placing one thumb on the left side of the screen to control your direction of movement, and the thumb on the right controls your view. You walk around to discover clues, find objects, and I assume, eventually make something happen, although I didn’t manage that last part. At first, I was entranced by the foggy mysterious forest and crisp immersive animation around me. But as I explored every edge of the house and forest a few times over, achieving nothing in the process, the forest and spooky house quickly lost their appeal. The walking itself is smooth and simple to master, but it’s painstakingly slow with no option to accelerate. This pacing makes sense at first when you are reading the messages that pop up when you walk somewhere for the first time, emphasizing the narrative focus of the game. However, I had already made every popup appear and activated every glowing object/clue that I could find around the house. I tried the key in the front door to no avail, there were no side doors I could access. I then paced around everywhere I could manage several more times hoping to find a new path or anything to help me move on. The pace was extremely frustrating and I could not continue playing, but I understand the intention and can imagine a better experience had I not been stuck like that.
These were two extra frustrating points: I felt like I was being teased looking into the mail slot after searching for ways to get into the house for the past two hours. I also couldn’t get into the garage, but it felt like they were hinting that I should somehow with this piece of narrative, and I wasted even more time looking for glowing objects around the garage that would let me do something to discover the source of the noises in there. Oh well!
I can appreciate what walking sims offer as described by the article. I myself am a very inexperienced gamer and the simple mechanics were very welcoming and relaxing as opposed to the first-person shooter games I often watch my friends play. The art really is fantastic as well and the story is compelling. I liked many little things, like when the words of the narrative scattered and remained on the ground as you pushed past a gate and shattered them. Even the simple mechanic of flipping your own page/turning your own key was pleasing. I’m excited to give this game another chance from a laptop/Xbox setup, or after researching how to get past this stinking initial setup.
