By Ivon Michal For people who liked What Remains of Edith Finch, here are some more Walking Sims that you will love.
Some people don’t instantly think of “walking simulator” as a famous type of video game when they hear the words. But you won’t believe it, but these niche games can be really fun.This is very clear in What Remains of Edith Finch.
The story was told through first-person exploring, and there wasn’t much gameplay like platforming or solving puzzles. What Remains of Edith Finch instead relies on graphic stories to keep the player interested. There aren’t many games that handle things this way, but walking sims are fun because they focus on exploring and sharing stories.
Abzû
It might seem strange that the main way to get around in a game called a “walking simulator” is to swim, but the exploring part of Abzû is like other games in the same genre. From a third-person view, the player controls an unnamed diver as she swims around an ocean and checks out every corner.
A great white shark shows her the way and leads her to wells that bring life back to the water. Abzû doesn’t have any speech; the story is told only through images.
The Forgotten City
The group of modders for video games often goes the extra mile to add more fun and story to games that already have a lot of them. The Forgotten City, on the other hand, became its own game, which doesn’t happen very often in mods.
The Forgotten City was originally a Skyrim mod. It’s about a story involving a Roman city that has been buried and a rule being broken that turns everyone in the city into golden figurines. The game has a unique time loop feature that sends players back to the beginning of the day over and over again to help them figure out how to win.
Sludge Life
It’s not often that you can talk to a lot of different characters in a walking game, but Sludge Life puts players in such a strange world that it’s impossible not to. People who play this vandalism-themed game are GHOST, a tagger who wants to become famous.
The many islands that make up Sludge Life can be explored by players, who can also pick up special skills that make the experience more fun. It’s like a fun playground because some of the controls and features are there just to entertain the player and not move the story along.
Proteus
Proteus can give players a chill experience if they just want to chill out and have no goals in mind. As you move through a randomly created, three-dimensional pixelated world and listen to music that fits the season, the game is about the player going through all four seasons.
As the music plays, players will notice that different parts of the natural world around them have an effect on it. With the “save a postcard” tool, players can even take pictures with the game.
Ether One
Storytelling can be interesting, but it can also be sad. Ether One is about Jean Thompson, who has been told she has dementia. In this game, the player is a fixer whose job it is to use three-dimensional research to find out what Jean is thinking and piece together her memories.
There are puzzles in the game, but they get harder to understand to show how hard it is for Jean to deal with her illness. The puzzle-solving part is not required, though, since the main goal is to explore and find new things.
Tacoma
Most walking simulations are based on stories, and most of them don’t let you go back once you start the story. It’s interesting because of this. The ability to stop and fast-forward through scenes lets people go back to certain parts of the story.
When players enter a space station, they can look around and learn about the people who worked there in the past. Players can see and experience talks and events that have already happened on the ship thanks to the tracking system.
The Stanley Parable
What started out as a mod for Half-Life 2 turned into a full-on funny and mysterious game called The Stanley Parable. Stan, an office worker, opens his door one day to find that all of his coworkers have left. This is the plot of the game. The players have to look around the office while a storyteller tells their story.
Each path ends in a different way, but players are always able to start over at the beginning of Tunnel Rush and try a different way to get out of the game.
The Beginner’s Guide
Some of the best walking sims are the ones that take the player somewhere they didn’t expect to go. The beginning of The Stanley Parable was made by Davey Wreden, who also voices the main character in The Beginner’s Guide.
It starts out as a way to show off a friend’s work, but it turns into an experience that explores things like how we try to figure out every game we play and how important it is to feel validated when we’re making art.
Firewatch
A lot of walking sims are about exploring nature, and Firewatch puts players right in the middle of it. People play the part of Henry, who gets a job as a fire watcher. He starts to talk on a walkie-talkie with Delilah, another watch in a different tower, while he is in his own.
The main way to play the game is to explore while dealing with strange events that are happening. Firewatch is also a social exercise because Henry becomes friends with Delilah. As the game goes on, the tone of their talks changes based on the choices they make.
A Short Hike
Explore-based adventure games like A Short Hike might not be the most standard walking simulators out there, but they’re great for people who just want to go on a relaxed walk and talk to characters who might need help.
The idea is simple: Claire needs to get to the top of the mountain to use her phone. To do this, she has to go around and help people by doing small jobs for them in exchange for golden feathers. These help her get higher so she can reach the top.
Journey
Journey is one of the best games of all time, and it has parts that could be called walking simulators. The player controls a figure in robes in the middle of the desert. Their goal is to get to the top of a mountain.
Some parts of Journey are straight, but the point is to look around and figure out how to get to the end by making discoveries and solving small puzzles. Players can meet other players along the way and help each other, but they can only talk to each other through musical sounds.
Dear Esther
Another mod that was turned into a game, Dear Esther is a walking simulator that enjoys the simplicity of its gameplay. The game takes place on an island in the Hebrides, Scotland. While exploring, players can move around easily, but they mostly stick to a straight path.
Players listen to a man read letters that are written to his late wife as they go along. As players get further into the game, they find out more about the strange ways she died. But the game doesn’t give all the answers; some are up to the player to figure out.
Eastshade
Finding out about the people who lived in a house and their lives is what What Remains of Edith Finch is all about. The way this works in Eastshade is similar, but players can talk to and even help the people who live on the island from Eastshade.
If you play Eastshade as a wandering painter, you can drop your easel at any time and paint the beautiful scene in front of you. When you add in the interesting personalities, you have a recipe for a game that lets you enjoy both the story and the scenery.
The Looker
The Witness, a modern great puzzle game, can be thought of as a walking model in a way. People who liked The Witness and like funny games might also like The Looker, which is free and based on and pokes fun at The Witness.
The players start out on an island with buildings that look a lot like those in The Witness. But players will quickly notice that the first tasks are just simple mazes that don’t seem that important. Though there are some tough spots, the silly jokes told along the way make it easy to handle.
Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture
All of a Sudden Death is a good adventure game for those who want to play something different. Everything in the story takes place in an English town where everyone has vanished, and it’s up to the player to figure out what happened to them.
The players have to follow light orbs that will lead them and give them clues about what happened. The game is similar to Dear Esther because it was made by the same company, The Chinese Room.
The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter
This game, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, does a great job of adding some scary aspects to the walking simulator genre. Paul Prospero is a psychic sleuth who gets a letter from Ethan Carter, a kid who is really interested in what he does.
When Prospero goes to Carter’s hometown, he finds that Ethan is not there. The point of The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is to look into what happened to him and deal with supernatural events that are happening at the same time. Mechanics include being able to use things to make the crime scene happen again.
Gone Home
Gone Home is as close to a walking game as you can get. It has very little interaction but a lot of room to explore. At the start of the game, Katie, a young woman, goes back to her family’s house and finds that everyone has died.
In Gone Home, the player can look around the house to find tools, notes, and other things that will help them figure out what happened. Because this doesn’t happen in a straight line, the player can find out parts of the story at their own pace. Some things do let you into some parts of the house.
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