Hello my fellow geeks and gamers! Welcome to Biotic Bee’s reviews. Today on a section I like to call The Game Gallery, I will be reviewing a game from 2017 called What Remains of Edith Finch. So let’s see the story behind this art piece, shall we?

What Remains of Edith Finch is about Edith a 17-year-old girl, and the last of the Finch family and heir to the mysterious Finch House on Orcas Island, just off the coast Washington State. After her mother passed away, she decides to return to the house to explore the family history, and to find out the truth behind the curse of the Finch Family. Will she find out the truth? Or will she find more than she bargained for?

On the technical side of things: When playing the game I quickly realized it’s a puzzle game. The puzzles for each room in the house is fairly easy to solve and doesn’t distract from the actual story. The Finch Family itself is a very…odd bunch. Not Addams family odd, but odd enough to get your attention. With each puzzle you discover about each member of the family, and how they died. Some of them are interesting, some are horrifying, and some are just down right boring.

The graphics: The best way I can describe the graphics in this game is pretty. Very pretty. The backgrounds at times remind me of a painting. Since the game is set on an island with only the sun, moon, sea, and forest as your outside area and the house as you’re inside area, it can be very pretty to look at. There was a lot of detail put into this game. Especially the house. When entering each room in the house I could almost tell what kind of personality each member had.  But there are times that graphics take a long time to load and I ended playing with… “Clay like” graphics for a bit.

The Soundtrack: The music is very soothing, but I will admit maybe a little too soothing. I’m not going lie, I almost fell asleep playing it.

The Downfall: The game is very short. Right off the bat I know. But it took me two, maybe three hours to complete the game and get every achievement. I do wish the story was longer but I’m satisfied with completing it. However there is another glaring issue. I played the game twice. 1st without a walkthrough, 2nd time with. Now this maybe the game trying to make you guess what happened, but it made more frustrated than anything. One of the family members story feels like a last minute story that they added. Even after finishing the game I still couldn’t figure out what happened. I’m sure there are theories about this character, but like most theories there a probably too many for me to put in a review.

What Remains of Edith Finch is a game developed by Giant Sparrow and can be played on PC, Xbox One, and Playstation 4. It is a first person game, and I would recommend wearing headphones for better sound.

Final Results: My final rating is 3 out of 5 stars. I would recommend you rent it, or if you own an Xbox One or PS4 get it through Gamepass or PS plus.

Today’s review is a very interesting one because it is about a game that I wanted to play back in 2015 when it was coming out. But ultimately decided against after finding out that it would be coming out on a certain console (Xbox One) that I didn’t have at the time. By the time that I got the console, I had only played a demo do to someone I knew that had it. It then totally slipped my mind afterward. As time went on I actually forgot about it. Until I saw it again at the beginning of this year. And I must say after 12 to 14 hours of playing this game….. I kinda wish I bought an Xbox One sooner.

Howdy, everyone, my name is Biotic Bee, and welcome to the Gaming Gallery. Today’s work of art has been created by Moon Studios and published by Microsoft Studios. This artwork is titled Ori and the Blind Forest. Let’s begin the tour!

The Story: Ori and the Blind Forest is about an orphan white guardian spirit called Ori (As the title states). Lost the forest she comes across a little floating ball of light (Navi?) named Sein. After discovering that the Great Tree has wilted Sein and Ori decide to journey through the Blind Forest to bring it back to normal. Will Ori be able to solve the mystery of the Blind Forest? Or will the shadow that flies through the forest kill the last guardian of light?

On the technical side of thing, Ori and the Blind Forest is a 2D platform game that realizes heavily on puzzles that need to be solved to continue to the next area. The controls in the game are actually fairly easy to figure out. Even if you don’t go back to it for a week or more you can still remember them. I can say without a doubt that the game is a lot of fun.

The Story: The story itself is emotional, meaningful, and mysterious. The characters are adorable and have a lot of personality in each one of them. I also have to give credit to the team who worked hard on this game because a majority of the characters don’t talk. So bravo!

The Music: I want this soundtrack. The music is so lovely to listen to that I actually found myself just listening to it and not realizing that I had died. LOL. Love. Love. LOVE!!!!

The Graphics: Beautiful! Absolutely beautiful. Each area is different and unique. I can honestly say that the backgrounds will be on my computer for a long time. The character designs are adorable to look at(well, most of them). Ori is so cute! I want a plushy of her!!! Actually, I’d want plushies of all the creatures.

Downfall: One of the problems I have with the game is the controls. A lot of the powers you get throughout the game use the same buttons, so if I wanted to use one power, I would have to be careful not to accidentally use a different power especially if I have rush out before I die. In a nutshell, the controls are a double edge sword. Another problem I have is the difficulty system. I played on Easy mode to enjoy the story more, but it felt like I was playing Normal mode. I actually double-checked to make sure I put it on Easy mode. The game is difficult, expect to die a LOT.

Ori and the Blind Forest was developed by Moon Studios and can be played on PC, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch (as of 2019) and is single-player only. I would highly recommend wearing headphones for the music alone.

Final Results: My final rating is 4.5 out of 5. I would recommend buying it. It belongs on your shelf. If you can’t buy it right away and you have Game Pass on Xbox One. Download it.