20 Best Video Game Storylines Of The Decade (So Far)

What Remains of Edith Finch, on the surface, just seems like an excuse for the developers to tell radically different mini-stories, each with their own unique set of mechanics. While that is partly true, all of these disparate parts do share one thing in common: death.

Chronicling the tragic story of the Finch family and how each member ended up dying under strange circumstances, the title is more than the sum of its parts. The immediate stories of each death are creative and heartbreaking without a doubt, bringing together everything from the poisoning of a young child to the suicide of a disgruntled employee, but it’s the overarching narrative they all contribute to that’s so affecting.

Each vignette is poetic and well told in its own right, but they’re given even more significance in the way they play into themes of fatalism and determinism, and how narratives in general control our lives. It sounds a bit wanky, but the game also lets you roll down a hill as a shark and control a comic-book inspired horror movie, making sure it never feels like a lecture.