Game profile
What Remains of Edith Finch
Edith returns to her family's sprawling, labyrinthine house and relives the final moments of her deceased relatives through small vignettes that each play completely differently. Every story has its own tone, from poetic to shocking.
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What kind of game this is
At its core this is Adventure, set in the present day. Visually it is deliberately stylised rather than photorealistic, and the overall tone stays somewhere between light and heavy. The structure is guided rather than open, so you are moved along instead of dropped into a map. It is built around short sessions, which makes it easy to pick up for half an hour.
Difficulty stays forgiving, so progress rarely depends on your reflexes. The narrative carries the whole thing, and the mechanics serve it. It is a single player experience from start to finish. It is available broadly, on 5 platforms. It sits in the budget bracket.
What stands out
- Creative storytelling
- Emotional vignettes
- Short and intense
This fits you if
- you want to live through a story, not just play a system
- you usually have thirty to sixty minutes and want that to be enough
- the writing matters more to you than the mechanics
- you want zero frustration and no difficulty wall
- you play alone and want a complete experience without other people
- you are watching your budget
Look elsewhere if
- you need real difficulty to stay interested
- you skip cutscenes and want to get to the gameplay
- you want something that lasts, this is over after 3 hours
- you specifically want an open world to roam
How long is What Remains of Edith Finch?
About 3 hours in total. That is roughly 2 evening(s), so you can realistically finish it this week.
How the rating ranks
Critics settled on 87 out of 100, which puts it above 71 percent of the 1276 games here and at rank 366 overall. That is mid-table for this database. Not a standout at the top, but solidly rated.
For comparison, Adventure averages 83 points across the database, so this one sits 4 points above its own genre. The figure rests on 1015 collected ratings.
Released in 2017, so it has 9 years behind it. Usually cheap by now and the rough edges are long fixed.
The facts
- Release year
- 2017
- Genres
- Adventure
- Playtime
- approx. 3 hrs.
- Difficulty
- Relaxed, forgiving
- Story weight
- Carries the whole game
- Play with
- Solo
- Setting
- Present day
- Visual style
- Stylised
- Price bracket
- Budget
- Platforms
- PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, Mobile
- Critic rating
- 87 / 100
Direct comparison
| Genres | Release year | Playtime | Critic rating | Price bracket |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What Remains of Edith Finch | 2017 | approx. 3 hrs. | 87 | Budget |
| Old Man's Journey | 2017 | approx. 3 hrs. | 79 | Budget |
| Mixtape | 2026 | approx. 4 hrs. | 74 | Budget |
| Before Your Eyes | 2021 | approx. 2 hrs. | 86 | Budget |
If you liked this, try these
- 79/100 Old Man's Journey Shared: Adventure, Present day
- 74/100 Mixtape Shared: Adventure, Present day
- 86/100 Before Your Eyes Shared: Adventure, Present day, shorter
- 74/100 Gone Home Shared: Adventure, Present day
- 79/100 Firewatch Shared: Adventure, Present day, longer
- 79/100 Beacon Pines Shared: Adventure, Present day, longer