Mixing Up Play Types

More often than not I play MMORPG type games of varying types. Sometimes I’m really into the traditional fantasy that Elder Scrolls Online provides. Other times I’m compelled by the mix of science fantasy that Final Fantasy XXIV incorporates into their world. But usually these interests bounce around from different MMOs. However, over the Halloween weekend my random desires reached outside of the world of MMOs and I landed on single player games. I was looking for something that was creepy, with a compelling story, with a bit of a murder mystery feel. Looking through Game Pass I came about What Remains of Edith Finch.

What Remains of Edith Finch checked off every box I wanted and a few I had not even thought about. The game was a unique story driven explorative game. With fantastic voice over work. The plot was to figure out why everyone in this family had prematurely died. Overall the story starts off strong, but ends a little weak. Not to say the overall story was bad, there just wasn’t a large amount of closure in the way the story wrapped up.

Though What Remains of Edith Finch left a bit to be desired in the length of the game as well as the completion of the story, the journey to the end was compelling enough. There were many times that “oh, no!” was exclaimed and the esthetic of the environment was captivating.

Since I was able to complete What Remains of Edith Finch, rather quickly, I still had the craving for this genera of game. Game Pass had a whole spooky-October section. I decided to peruse the listing and landed on The Medium. A psychological horror game that follows the story of Marianne, a medium, whos foster father had just passed. While grieving she receives a mysterious phone call from someone who apparently knows of her abilities and is seeking help.

I spent a bit longer than I care to admit trying to get it to play via the Steam Link so that I could play it on the couch. Unfortunately, I could not get the controller to play nicely with the game. It would not recognize that a controller was connected and was expecting keyboard and mouse inputs. I tried use GloSC and uwphook, but couldn’t get either to work correctly. After I finally conceded I kept playing on my desktop. Not as comfortable for this type of game as I’d like, but it is what it is I suppose. The Steam Link has always been hit or miss.

I haven’t gotten too far into The Medium, but what I have played is certainly creepy enough for me to keep coming back. The voice acting is fantastic and the way the camera moves is very cinematic. It feels like you’re playing an interactive movie. The inability to control the camera can be annoying at times, but you can tell that the developer wanted you to see that particular area from a certain angle only, as you’d do normally with certain shots in movies. Controlling the camera view gives the devs the ability to force the story to unfold in a certain way. That isn’t a bad thing. You just have to trust the developer knows what they’re doing and in this aspect I fully believe that they do. Seeing a door creep open or closed adds a very real creep factor to the experience.

The way they show the duality of the physic world and the material world and allow you to individually interact with both at the same time or have an outer-body-experience to allow you to interact with only the physic world adds an extra layer of complexity that is both unique and fun to deal with. For example being unable to progress down a path because in the material world there is rubble in the way, however in the physic world that is not the case. Having an outer-body-experience allows you to separate your mind from the material world and allows you to interact only in the physic world for a short time to find another way around. It is quite unique.

I plan on continuing my play through The Medium, assuming it holds my attention, in the coming weeks. I’m excited to see how the story turns out and what other distinctive ways to play the devs were able to come up with.