One of the best-knowns indie darlings, it has been in my Steam wishlist for years. Fortunately the Epic store gave it away for free a couple of months ago and - together with being only 3-4h long - gave me the final nudge to play it
Part of that sub-genre known as "walking simulators", it tries to be a bit better than just a moving story that takes you from A to B and so on. It achieves that, but it didn´t string a cord in me. I believe it has been a sales success on the indie target, so it´s probably my problem
On the good side the game gives you the rare luxury of exotic gameplay on almost every "chapter", which doesn´t happen often. I should probably stress this: In these times of reusing gameplay templates Edith Finch stands out for trying to be unique on each situation. And it commonly succeeds
The ambiance is well reflected on music and world creation, and it creates an interesting melancholic mood you don´t see often in other games. The in-world UI and subtitles make the game also feel different from similar titles
On the not so good side my biggest problem with the game is on the story: Dark and gritty - uncommon in these days of rainbows and pinky unicorns - but not interestingly dark and gritty. It took me several weeks to finish the game, through several sessions. "But it was just 3-4h, why didn´t you finish it in just one session?". Here´s the thing: I personally didn´t care much about those characters - who all seemed to be doomed - and the story outside of them is almost non-existent. You´re essentially taken to a zoo tour without a carrot on the stick
Another element I think could have been improved or communicated better was the level design, more precisely the flow between chapters: Me being a completionist I cherrished the idea of experiencing all the stories. However the initial flow seems to allow you to skip some, while the later stages are much more tunneled. I suspect I could have back-tracked to the beginning but it didn´t seemed easy on the final chapter´s level design. I finished the game missing 2-3 characters. Admitedtly you´re then given the option to check them all, but it´s not the same
If you like indie games you should check it out for sure. It wasn´t memorable for me, but I´m sure it can be for many others
