Thirith on 19/8/2017 at 14:38
I'm not quite done yet, but I've probably played most of What Remains of Edith Finch... and I'm a bit underwhelmed. The environmental work is great, and it's not bad, but I find the writing and stories so much less engaging than that of other walking simulators I've played. I greatly enjoyed Dear Esther, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture and Gone Home, but this one is more meh than I'd expected - doubly so because a lot of people whose tastes are often quite similar to mine seemed to love it.
Thirith on 20/8/2017 at 07:38
Quick follow-up on that: I'm probably one or two sequences away from the ending, but while the whole thing is still less than the sum of its parts (I don't think they work their theme as well as the story requires it), there are great individual parts, done with invention and grace. It's worth playing for those, but don't necessarily expect it all to add up to all that much satisfaction.
Judith on 20/8/2017 at 13:05
I wanted to play What Remains of Edith Finch at some point, but if it's weaker than Gone Home, then maybe I'll wait for a sale. Also, I wonder when we'll stop using the term "walking simulators" for that kind of games. "First person adventure games" would be more fitting. When I hear the term "walking simulator", I think of QWOP ;)
Thirith on 20/8/2017 at 13:15
Don't go by my opinion only. It's more visually inventive than Gone Home, but its flights of fancy don't quite add up to me. For someone else, they might make the game.
As far as the genre name is concerned, I'm not too hung up about this. To some extent I use the label "walking simulator" to reclaim it from those who use it as glib criticism.
WingedKagouti on 20/8/2017 at 13:59
As far as I'm concerned on the definition of the genre, I use "Walking Simulator" when there are no puzzles or gameplay induced alternate state at all. If there are puzzles to overcome to progress or ways to reach different endings (including dying) Walking Simulator doesn't fit in my opinion.
Something like The Stanley Parable is not a Walking Simulator to me, but more of an Interactive Experience.
Pyrian on 20/8/2017 at 14:53
"Adventure game" implies puzzles for some (historical) reason. I wonder if it was a marketing person who came up with that? It's frankly even less intuitive than "walking simulator", which is at least directly descriptive.
Judith on 20/8/2017 at 15:02
Not really. Those games have all kinds of movement implemented (walking, running, sometimes jumping, etc.). But they don't focus on simulating walking (and you'd probably need some kind of other peripherals for that, like VR helmet and a treadmill). They make movement more or less transparent, so you can focus on your adventure, story, and whatnot. From that standpoint the phrase "walking simulator" is a bit simplistic if not unfortunate. A bit like "notgames", it's more of a mental shortcut so we're all on the same page, rather than a thought-out name.
Pyrian on 20/8/2017 at 15:41
Quote Posted by Judith
Quote Posted by Pyrian
..."walking simulator", which is at least directly descriptive.
Not really. Those games have all kinds of movement implemented (walking, running, sometimes jumping, etc.).
:laff: Stop helping. ;)
Quote Posted by Judith
But they don't focus on simulating walking ... so you can focus on your adventure, story, and whatnot.
Yeah. But lots of games
have story. A competing term that seems accurate but isn't really catching on is "Environmental Narrative".
Nameless Voice on 20/8/2017 at 16:41
They don't simulate walking, but walking is usually the main thing that you can do in those games, so "walking game" would be more accurate.
You can usually also look at things and inspect things. So maybe they're "walk & look adventure games"?
Tourists like to walk around and look at things, so maybe they are "tourist games"?
demagogue on 20/8/2017 at 16:47
If it were up to me, I'd call them first person interactive fiction, FPIF, since IMO they're basically just translating the old genre of IF to an FP_ platform.
