Ever since Epic has setup a store front, they've been trying to draw business by giving away a different game every week and if it struck me as interesting I would pick it up only for it to languish in my backlogs. This would be one of those games, so when I did my first dice roll in a long while (franchises took up a lot of my gaming time recently), this came up as the result. Interested, I installed and a few hours later, the credits were rolling. I have to say, it was a nice evening.
Story: It's been seven years since Edith made her way to the old family home. But when her mother passed away, she inherited the place, so it was time to go revisit the past... hers and her family's. You see the Finches have always had a bit of a history: their family is known for being well off, but also being cursed with many unfortunate deaths along the family tree. To find out about these things is a morbid quest, perhaps, but one she needs answer for: as a child her mother had gone to extremes to hide such things... even going so far as to seal the bedroom doors of those who had departed... and ultimately move the remaining family (basically herself and Edith) away so as to try to escape that dark past.
So now with even her mother also gone, she is the last. It's finally time to know.
The tale will take place as you explore the house with Edith, either wandering around or losing yourself in the stories she uncovers. At these times, the world melts away and you enter a small vignette of a game as it's described in the text (or even device sometimes) she finds these tales in. While this does mean you literally have the text in front of you, it's blended into the events you experience, often taking a role in the environment itself. The effect is that really outside of one specific story (which in my humble opinion is the lowpoint of the game anyway), you honestly begin to look at the text as nothing more then a meter to show you are progressing and little else, even as the words are spoken and add to the what you are experiencing brilliantly.
It's actually rather ingenious in how it works both with and around the game itself, and may be one of the better examples of stylized writing I have come across... and I'm not sure I mean just in video games. But to explain what you will see beyond that is to ruin the experience so I will stop short of that.
8/10
Graphics: This is yet another game I really have to describe first and foremost as gorgeous. Right from the start the game shows you what it can do with a general gloom over the world as you walk down the old roads to reach Edith's childhood home, the house itself standing with a tower-like silhouette against the fog of early day. And this tone is going to be a common theme as you play which will be supported by everything.
Not that this forest and the abandoned home are all you will see. They just provide a backdrop, which in itself is incredibly varied, ranging from wilderness to a private library to even the pinkest brightest and frankly most garish bathroom you will ever seen in a video game (and possibly your life)... and then we can get to the meat of the game: the descriptions of the events you are collecting the news of.
When you find the story of one of your family members, you will be transported to a rendition of their story, each complete with it's own style. These may remain in the style of the game for the most part (first person from the eyes of the one the story is about), but everything from the world, to the art to even the shading style of the engine changes to suit this new scene, and the effect is perfect to still look amazing even as it separates the story from yours brilliantly.
But that is not to say this game is perfect, as humans in this game suffer like many games of it's time: the few times you see others in the game, they look simple and kinda cartoony. They fit the world, but they just don't have the same level of detail and care the rest of the game does, and it's frankly a favor to the game how much it focuses on the world(s) it takes place in over the people within: literally focusing on it's strengths.
8/10
Sound: Much like the graphics that make up this game, the soundscape is also amazing. There is very little in the way of music, and that may well be for the best: this is a game is a very atmospheric affair about some very morbid events and discovering them, so outside a few specific moments, letting the world itself seep in completely was just a great design choice. And it also let those moments when there is music stand out exceptionally well, giving them that extra oomph to those moments they highlight even more.
But the soundscape you uncover is much more ambiance then direct sound effects, so expect that to be the dominant part of what you hear. And you can expect it to be really good as you are accompanied by a slight breeze through the forest, wood floors creaking as you walk around, or even the nearby waves as the house resides on a shoreline. It just sounds right, giving the world a bit more of that melancholy tint of loneliness then it would have in dead silence.
But what you will hear most is the voice acting... as you play, Edith will narrate a lot of what is going on, both talking about what she is finding as well as reminiscing about her time as a little girl before her family had abruptly left this place. It actually feels really natural. And even though she is alone in this house, hers is not the only voice in this game. When you find one of these stories about a family member, the voice becomes the one who wrote it, and all of these while much smaller parts, are also really well done as each voice just adds that much more to the picture painted by the scene you will witness.
9/10
Gameplay: This is perhaps the weakest part of the game as really, there isn't much in the way of gameplay here. You will wander around the house and the area around it from a first person view, but there is really little to do beyond look around open passages, listen to the commentary as you do so, and ultimately, find the stories of Edith's family to dive into and experience. It's brief... in fact I finished it taking my time in about 2 and a half hours, but in that time you will find plenty to see and enjoy, provided you are in the mood to sit back and absorb instead of getting into the thick of it (action or puzzles).
But I do have to bring up a complaint here too. Simply put this game makes a lot of use of your motions directly interacting with objects in the game, such as books or windows and doors which should be a lot more intuitive then they are. Be it requiring too much movement so you have to pick up and move the mouse, moving in a direction counter-intuitive to what the screen suggests, or other small detail, sometimes these functions do not feel as smooth as they should. Thankfully nothing is in a rush so if it takes you a moment, that's all it is, but after other games I have played, it was kinda jarring to hit moments like those.
5/10
Bugs: This is yet another game where no bugs presented themselves. It ran absolutely perfectly for me.
Digital Rights Management: We have another game that seems pretty DRM free. If you buy it on Steam it uses that, but on the Epic Store, you can apparently run it without even the Epic launcher.
Score: Once again, we have another "game" I have a hard time calling a good game, but not because it's bad so much as it's hard to really call it a game. In fact it may be best to compare this to another title I once reviewed where I called it more of a virtual haunted house then a game. But where that was a haunted house, this felt more like a museum dedicated to the Finches and their various fates, complete with interactive displays for each. Take a few hours and relax as you explore and see what it all has to show you.
8/10
System Requirements:
- Intel i3 2125 3.30 Ghz
- 2 GB RAM
- NVidia GeForce 750/AMD Radeon 7790
- 5 GB hard drive space
- Windows Vista SP2 (64-bit)
System Specs:
- Ryzen 7 (5700X) 3.4 Ghz
- 32 GB RAM
- AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT (8 GB VRAM)
- Windows 11 (64 Bit)
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