The Unfinished Swan is a marvelous game with exceptional gameplay, visuals, sound and story. While Giant Sparrow set the bar high for any subsequent releases, Edith Finch actually manages to surpass this. Giant Sparrow is no longer an indie darling that produced one good game. They have solidified their brand as being a collective auteur and should carry the some amount of gravitas as when you see a game developed by Team Ico and thatgamecompany. You play as Edith Finch as she returns to her isolated and architecturally eclectic family home following the death of her mother. You have a single key and are tasked with exploring the house to discover how all the family members died. Each family member has their own locked room that you must access, which contains a slight mini-game where you re-enact their death. There's more I could say about the plot but I don’t want to do this for the risk of spoilers because the game is only around two hours long. Many other reviews have made justifiable comparisons to the story with the works of HP Lovecraft or Edgar Allan Poe. I find it more akin to James Joyce’s The Dead. It’s a collection of bitter tragic tales that combine into a beautiful celebration of living our own lives.

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The burgeoning Walking Simulator, or narrative adventure genre, is not for everyone. The plots can be quite dull and at times trying to be too clever for the sake of it. Drowned in symbolism and metaphors, they can times feel like poetry written by an angsty teenager that demands to be admired for its deepness but only comes across as pretentious. Edith Finch manages to avoid this pitfall by slowly revealing the story with just the right dash of mystery and intrigue to make you want to keep playing. It must be said that this is not a game for children. There are moments that deal with the death of children that are immensely horrifying. However, by no means is this a horror game like Resident Evil, Five Nights at Freddies or Until Dawn. There are no cheap jump scares or unnecessary gore for cheap thrills. The later games are films like Scream and Hostel, whereas Edith Finch is The Shining and Get Out. The game will genuinely shock you, leaving a mark on your psyche that will linger in the coming days. Like most Walking Simulators, the controls and gameplay is limited to moving at a fixed pace, with no ability to run and jump and occasionally interacting with something. This can make the game boring if you are experiencing this genre for the first time. Video games have given us a non-linear form of art that we can interact with. As the medium has developed over 30 years we have been given more freedom to go and do whatever, wherever and however we want.

GIANT SPARROW What Remains of Edith Finch

Edith Finch takes that all away and gives us a linear exploration of the narrative akin to watching a film or reading a book. The self contained and limited gameplay means that we observe and ponder the environment more than we would do in a sandbox game. The game is powered by Unreal 4 and looks fantastic. The different rooms of the house are all unique in colour palettes and design that allow the different personalities of the Finch family to flow through. The graphics power the setting to create an environment that is comparable to Shadow Moses from Metal Gear Solid or the Spencer Mansion from Resident Evil. A self contained environment that morphs from just a setting to an integral element of the game. Music and sound effects of the game are perfectly executed to envelope you further into the environments. The game will use the full technical range of a good headset or speak system to heighten this. Each room and family members personality comes through with use of original scores and a few tracks from popular culture. There are some criticisms I have with the game that do harm the experience. I have completed the game three times now and have had sparing issues with sound dropping out, graphical glitches and seeing through objects. Most damagingly, there are invisible walls which block areas that you should be able to explore. The slight pause and notification for Saving is also an additional problem.