What Remains of Edith Finch
89 /100
Based on 26 reviews

What Remains of Edith Finch Reviews

Check out What Remains of Edith Finch Review Scores from trusted Critics below. With 26 reviews on CriticDB, What Remains of Edith Finch has a score of:

89

Game Page

The story itself, narrated to us via Edith as well as other characters and voices as we dive deeper into the family tree, is woven throughout the game, text weaving itself into existence in the air before being blown away by the the tail of a kite, or on the walls and belongings of those that came before; subtly pulling the camera to highlight something relevant before fading from view.

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9/10

First-person, narrative-driven games generally follow a pattern. What Remains of Edith Finch plays with those established conventions to create a beautiful story that breaks your heart, while making you smile just as much. A triumph in the genre.

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9/10

What Remains of Edith Finch is a 'Walking Simulator' that doesn’t just tell an unforgettable story – it's genuinely unforgettable. As tragic as its tale is, it always manages to entertain. As one section ends and as you fight back tears, you’ll always carry on, because the next story is as engrossing as the last. If you want a strong feature-length story that doesn’t waste a minute, Edith Finch is the one you need.

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10/10

Republished on Wednesday 1st May 2019: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of May's PlayStation Plus lineup. The original text follows.

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9/10

What Remains of Edith Finch knows its niche from the beginning and rarely strays, resulting in a cohesive experience that I was never jolted out of. It elicits the strangest mixture of emotions, and its different modes of storytelling are second to none. The controls don't translate seamlessly from PC to Xbox One, but you don't play this game for the controls; you play for the story, and the story is gripping.

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Unscored

What Remains of Edith Finch is a poignant, understated tale that has a strong message of family and what it means to belong. As the each thought plays out and words flutter delicately across the screen, blending with the scenery, the exploration of a house that has been truly lived in becomes so much more than just a walking simulation that these slow-burn stories are often accused of. By the end of the experience, I felt touched, with some moments truly staying with me in my thoughts for day...

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9.5/10

What Remains of Edith Finch is what happens when you make a video game about obituaries. On the surface it just looks like a game about death as you live out the last moments of various people's lives. Search deeper, and you find it's a game celebrating how they lived.

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75/100

Let’s start by getting this out of the way, What Remains of Edith Finch is essentially a walking simulator. Don’t run away, or rather, walk away just yet! Developer Giant Sparrow (The Unfinished Swan) has included some fun little gaming sequences that help it stand out in the walking simulator genre. While it might not satisfy anyone with an itchy trigger finger or a thirst for puzzles – it does offer a pretty compelling story and some sincere moments that just might make it worth your time.

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10/10

Overall What Remains of Edith Finch is a masterfully executed story and experience. If you are looking for an intriguing story to take an active part in and experience this is a great game to check out. I know I’ll be thinking about this game and going back to it to look closer at various aspects for a long time to come and is well worth anyone’s time.

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WCCFtech
May 2, 2017
10/10

When I stood up during my first playthrough of What Remains of Edith Finch to refill my water, I realized something; my house is full of stuff. There’s the signed poster hanging in my den, commemorating my first trip to Gamescom, the old martial arts belts that add a bit of color to my closet, and there are the half-filled notebooks scattered around my oversized desk. I found myself, still entranced by What Remains of Edith Finch, looking through all these things and reliving the scraps of memories that they represent.

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100/100

Don’t question it — just buy it. Buy it right now. It isn’t a shooter, and there are no puzzles and some will question if this even qualifies as a “game,” but What Remains of Edith Finch is an exemplar in video game narrative design. No other game I’ve ever played has provoked the same meditation on death, and ultimately life and the beauty of it all.

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For those who can’t stand the “walking simulator” genre, Edith Finch likely won’t change your mind. But Edith Finch does incredibly interesting things for fans of these kinds of experiences. Telling stories from different perspectives throughout time allows it experiment with different types of gameplay in different settings. At two hours it may be a bit short, but ultimately I was satisfied with its conclusion.

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Game Rant
April 30, 2017
9/10

Almost everything about What Remains of Edith Finch is head and shoulders above its competition, though some may be disappointed by its ending and some of the graphical issues. The game's short length (it can be fully completed in just a few hours) and lack of replayability may also be a turn off for some, but anyone looking for innovative gameplay and some of the best storytelling in gaming should seriously consider picking up Giant Sparrow's latest effort.

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9/10

The game takes players off into some far-off places when it comes to its dream sequences and vignettes, and while they're purely based in the fantastical, there are plenty of elements that every player will relate to on some human level throughout the journey; sadness, disappointment, heartbreak, love, joy, and most of all, the will to experience life to its fullest. What Remains of Edith Finch may only provide a brief glimpse into the lives of its characters like a family photo album filled with moments that have long since passed, but by the game's end, it's sure to leave...

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7/10

Giant Sparrow (developer of The Unfinished Swan) is back with another game that also has a bird in its title. However, will What Remains of Edith Finch be as much beloved as their debut offering?

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TheSixthAxis
April 28, 2017
Unscored

What Remains of Edith Finch is a short experience, but one of the best that has been released in recent memory. Giant Sparrow rose to prominence with The Unfinished Swan and here the studio has cemented itself as one of the best at constructing narratives intertwined with engaging environments. Both a celebration of life and a commentary on the tragedy of death, What Remains of Edith Finch should be experienced by as many people as possible.

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PC Gamer
April 28, 2017
91/100

A masterful story full of misdirection and sadness that's worth experiencing, even if your control over it is trivial.

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GameSpew
April 28, 2017
10/10

What Remains of Edith Finch is, quite simply, a stunning experience. It takes Gone Home and turns it up to eleven. While it’ll undoubtedly end up being labelled as a ‘walking simulator’, it takes that genre and throws it on its head, giving us an experience so rich, so deep with emotion and meaning, that you’ll probably not quite know what to do with yourself when the credits roll. It’s a story like no other; both very grounded in reality, yet at times other-worldly beyond imagination. It’s touching and thought-provoking; daring to explore dark subject matters rarely delved into by...

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GamingBolt
April 27, 2017
8/10

What Remains of Edith Finch is a short but bittersweet adventure of a family struggling to live with its past. It’s not exactly bombastic but it’ll likely tug a heart string here or two.

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VG247
April 27, 2017

The house amid the thickets.

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8/10

A compelling story well told, and although it’s still not very interactive the variety and artfulness of the presentation feels like something only a video game could do.

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IGN
April 26, 2017
8.8/10

Though it only took me just under two hours to complete, the second the credits stopped rolling I immediately restarted What Remains of Edith Finch. Each of the vignettes is so distinct and surprising that I didn’t have enough time to absorb and dissect what I had just played before being whisked away to the next one. But after fully piecing together the threads of the family and sifting through the allegories of their final moments, I was left with a beautiful, heartbreaking mosaic that exudes life, even when mired in death.

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GameSpot
April 25, 2017
9/10

It runs in the family.

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Polygon
April 24, 2017
Unscored

In What Remains of Edith Finch, death is a certainty and life is the surprise. Its stories are enchanting, despite their unhappy ends. I was sad I never had the chance to know the Finches while they were alive, but thankful for the opportunity, however brief, to learn a bit about them. The final farewell left me crying, but What Remains of Edith Finch is, without doubt, love.

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9/10

Edith found exactly what she came for: The reasons for all those early graves. This family tree is rooted in tragedy and suffering and loss. It’s no great surprise that all the branches broke off. That might be fascinatingly grim for us, but there’s also the unmistakable feeling that we’re more shook by it than Edith is. Sadly, she’s a Finch and that means she had gotten used to it long ago.

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