The game I played was What Remains of Edith Finch, published by Annapurna Interactive. The game is playable on PlayStation, Windows, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and iOS (where I played it). The walking simulator nature of the game was very clear from the start, as we are dropped into the game with very little information to figure out what is going on. Through exploring the house and paying attention to key visuals, sounds, and lighting effects, we are able to properly engage with the story and learn its owners’ history. Rather than lacking gameplay, What Remains of Edith Finch proves that walking simulators too can have meaningful gameplay through movement, using exploration and environmental design as the primary tools for storytelling and emotional engagement.
Most of the game is based on exploration, walking through the rooms, examining objects and situations, and exploring “memories.” The simplicity of this process is very crucial, as any small details can be slowed down and looked into. It helped focus the player on the task at hand, which is moving the narrative forward. There are no puzzles (in the traditional sense) and distractions to pull away from the story that the player is meant to see. There are tiny clues as to where to move and what to do throughout, but overall the order and time it takes to get through the story is rather self-directed. The environment is definitely not a relaxing walkthrough though, as the tense background music and coloring choices for the entire house create this tone of tension and discomfort, engaging the player to get through the house and learn what they need quickly. The house and the environments it creates become the storyteller. This is very different from a game where one can just talk to those involved through lots of on-screen directed dialogue. Instead, the movement throughout the space (physical and time-wise) allows the player to immerse themselves as the Finch family.
As players choose to go into rooms, every story unlocked brings the player into a new generation and a new tragic loss. We feel this loss in a first person PoV as game mechanics are unlocked through the perspective of the family member. Eg. Molly climbing and swimming and just desperate hunger throughout the arc. It felt really sad to play because her voice was so youthful and innocent, paired with her exploration driven solely by unattended hunger. The pouncing, sneaking, hunting of other animals really drove this feeling of desperation home. Movement here allows the player to feel hunger, and a deeper level, sadness for the neglect of Molly’s care.
To the article’s point, it is true that the walking simulator isn’t as action-packed in the military sense, and is indeed pretty set-in-stone as to what the outcomes are. You are, after all, exploring what happened to the Finch family. There is no alternative outcome; everyone who played the game will have the same understanding of What Remains of Edith Finch. But alas, this “linear” structure is still ever-so engaging because the gameplay itself is so exploratory and movement-driven. By acting as the family members, you feel the emotions they felt (distressed, scared, hungry, etc) that builds into this multi-generational curse of an environment. The pacing is meant to be slow and anticipatory, and by really taking in the environment details and familiarizing themselves with the house and its secrets, the players naturally form an emotional investment in the narrative and its characters. Furthermore, there is no failure mode, you just keep trying over and over again. For better or for worse, this tells the player that the only thing to focus on is the narrative, getting through every mini-mechanic introduced (eg kite flying, can opening, etc) informs the player that this will lead to further development. If you follow the guides like floating text, pop-ups, light, and sound guides, you will progress. Thus, it is no longer a matter of how, but just when. This leaves the player time and ability to observe and interpret what they are doing and feel the emotions associated with their action and how it connects to this multi-generational theme. Like repeatedly cutting fish as you’re literally navigating a labyrinth.
The design of the Finch house, its locked doors and bundled architecture, also enforces feelings of empathy (locked doors are tragedies frozen in time) and curiosity to explore what does remain. The tragedies are not gamified, but an empathetic experience through the final memories of those who passed.
All in all, What Remains of Edith Finch does a great job of using movement-driven “walking” to allow players to piece together an engaging and empathetic narrative experience. The environment built around the whole story really pulls together this feeling of tragic loss and tense nostalgia of last moments for the Finch family.
