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Day-tripper: five great games you can beat in a day
J
Juno Stump
Be a digital day-tripper and try these five games you can beat in a single day each via the Epic Games Store.
What Remains of Edith Finch
What Remains of Edith Finch is a narrative experience that focuses on a story of magical realism, tragedy, empathy, and love. You play as a 17-year-old girl that’s visiting her family’s home for one last time, partially to say goodbye to her mom, grandma, and other family members that have already passed away, but also to explore and figure out what actually happened to them. After all, Edith Finch barely knew most of her family, and there are just so many mysteries hidden away in this house of seemingly endless rooms. Death seems to be hidden in every corner of the Finch’s home.
What Remains of Edith Finch is similar to games like Gone Home and Journey: it's a journey of discovery set at the center of an otherworldly story, with the player's vessel serving as a digital witness. What sets it apart from so many other games in the genre is how heartfelt the game manages to feel across all the many fantastical stories of each Finch family member. The player scales the long and twisted branches of the family tree to see how it all connects. The love, the empathy, and the tragedy is keenly felt in the various vignettes that explore their tragic backstories.
What Remains of Edith Finch can be completed in two to three hours. Repeat playthroughs aren’t necessary. However, since the game is densely packed with detail, you’ll likely discover new things whenever you revisit the Finch family home.
Switchball HD
Switchball HD is the puzzle game equivalent of a giant, warm blanket that will keep you cozy on rainy days. And even on those sunny days where you’re not sure what you want to play, Switchball HD is a perfect choice.
It puts you in control of a magic ball that must be maneuvered and manipulated down curved tracks and around magical worlds. To do so, you hit buttons and push past different obstacles, sometimes morphing the ball's form to batter down heavy obstacles or speed past spinning fans. The mostly realistic physics mean that it’s both never confusing and always delightful. Switchball HD is a relaxing trip that can be completed in around eight hours, and that’s if you intend on seeing every sight there is to see. It’s filled with relaxing music and sound effects that give off a cozy feeling that’s very similar to the popular lo-fi hip-hop channels on YouTube except you’re in control —and on a roll.
Switchball HD isn’t the hardest game, and it won’t make you think too much, but that’s also the point. It’ll fit in between any plans you’ve made. It’s relaxing, warm, and perfect for a single day of video game fun.
Tacoma
Much like What Remains of Edith Finch, Tacoma is a narrative-focused experience, but it’s different in a few key ways. For one thing, it takes place on a space station in the far future, in the distant reaches of outer space. However, like Edith Finch, you’re still in for an out-of-this-world trip that explores the innermost thoughts, feelings, and fears of the human experience.
Tacoma casts the player as an investigator looking into what happened between crew members during a work voyage to the far reaches of space. The futuristic setting isn't just for setting and show: The way players investigate events experienced by the crew members of the ship is gamified in a unique and diegetic way. You'll view holograms of the crew members' past as they move about the ship, allowing you to see story events literally play out. You can follow characters around, seeing how exactly how they walked and talked through the ship. If you need to hear something again, you can rewind and fast-forward these immersive "video log"-style cutscenes.
Tacoma’s voyage through its colorful cast of characters will take players through discussions on what it really means to have loyalty to your career and identity in a world that doesn’t allow you to question it. The game can be completed in three hours, depending on how thoroughly everything is explored.
The Stanley Parable
The Stanley Parable isn’t a normal video game. It’s a weird world that feels a lot like a mystery that you’re at the center of, or like a joke where you might be the punchline. In truth, The Stanley Parable plays you. If you’ve played Inscryption at length, then you’ll have an idea of what we mean. If not, you should play both!
The Stanley Parable has environmental puzzles and problems to solve, but it’s more of an immersive sim, so fans of games like BioShock 2 and Prey will find plenty of details to discover and tear apart. The Stanley Parable stars Stanley and an omnipresent narrator he can hear. You can choose to either listen to the narrator or ignore him, which may cause him to berate Stanley. Or you can head off into the dark corners of the bizarre building, where you might find yourself in other games while the panicked narrator tries to get you and Stanley back on track. There are many endings to discover in The Stanley Parable, but the game can still be completed in a day.
Oxenfree
Oxenfree may be a sidescroller, but don’t let that fool you. Night School Studio’s story-rich horror platformer is multi-layered and takes place in multiple dimensions, and it all starts with a couple of friends hanging out at a campfire on a beach at night.
Oxenfree is similar to intense and beautiful narrative experiences like Night in the Woods. It takes place in and around an abandoned military base that just might have a few eerie surprises in store for those looking to explore it.
The characters of Oxenfree are different from a lot of other games. They just feel so real, so in-your-face and alive, making for some truly interesting and lifelike conversations. These provide the perfect canvas for a series of supernatural and incredibly human brushstrokes of storytelling.
Oxenfree’s main story can be completed in less than five hours. However, if you're planning on unlocking every aspect of the game's story, it might take most of a day, especially since there are multiple endings to uncover.
Thanks to games like What Remains of Edith Finch, Switchball HD, Tacoma, The Stanley Parable, and Oxenfree, we can experience an array of different stories and again and again while working through the massive and marvelous worlds that developers continue to create.