Firewatch

Cool game with engaging story. would've been better without audio cutouts and getting stuck couple times and the rope climbing was awful waste of time. I'd recommend it to people who like story games.

Bought the title with a discount, and played it without knowing what to expect (maybe some firefighter action, I don't know). Don't want to get into too many details, but I'd like to say the story got me hooked and I finished it in one go. It was a short time (maybe 3 hours with just breaks to get food and go to the bathroom), but it was money very well spent. If this is a "walking simulator" as some people call it, then by all means I want more.

I'm going to keep this review fairly brief. Firewatch still stands as one of the most engaging narrative, "walking simulator" that I've ever played. There are plenty of games that tried and failed to catch the magic that this game offered me. The one game that makes you believe has these merits would be the Playstation exclusive, The Last of Us. Read a review on TLOU and remove that game from that review and place firewatch in its stead. The connection between the characters, and the overall believability is groundbreaking. I can only name a handleful of other games that scratch the surface of real human interaction that this provides. From beginning to end, this provides medium defining narrative that completely captures real conversation, character progression, suprising turn-of-events, and a real desire for lust. The game is just remarkably beautiful. Using the power of intense lighting effects, a perfect-for-genre color pallete, and a filled in world. I've seen this game on multiple display technologies, such as IPS LCD, OLED, VGA CRT and HD CRT. This game is just magical on every single type. The textures following a more simplistic design, but using incredible post processing technology to create sharp images and eye catching sunsets. The beauty of this game is one of it's greatest aspects. At this point in my life, I'm well aware that I'm hard to please when it comes to video games, movies and other forms of entertainment. Firewatch grabbed my attention that few games have, or even captivating movies have. The ending captured the magic completely, and many of you wouldn't understand or might even dislike it. The game has no flaws from my subjective opinion. I can't tell you that you will enjoy this game, but I sure did.

At first I thought I managed to really score on finding this for 75% off. It seemed like a fantastic deal for such a pretty game. And at first, it was. The intro was great. The switching between past & present to introduce our protagonist and set up the ongoing story was great. And then the main story started, and it was great, the music & the scenery blending so beautifully... As the story progressed, though, the game slowly lost all charm as it grew more & more tedious. As beautiful as it is, it's also designed with forced paths, with no really clear indication of where those paths are. You can run yourself up a set of rocks, over a tree, through a bush that looks perfectly passable all day and not get past it. That gets irritating LONG before you're done. The "multiple choices" aren't any such thing. It didn't help I was watching someone else's LP day by day as I played (playing out a day myself then watching theirs) to see how different choices affected the story - well, they didn't. And even without the LP, I think it would have been obvious - I was being herded through a single story, with only small, insignificant changes in dialogue. Delilah - a major part of the story - is a big example of this. As an introvert, her intrusive, rude questions like 2 days into our working relationship put me off and she never did stop annoying me. I often outright refused to answer her, and in the end was very hostile - but there was no meaningful change between how she behaved to me and the LPer who chose friendlier responses, and none at all in our endings. So between the disappointment in the story (the ending is a real letdown after all the buildup - also there's one REALLY annoying red herring that ends up having nothing to do with anything though you spend so much time on it) and the tedium of navigation, I was annoyed with the story, and done with it, long before it was done with me.

I've been playing this one for almost two hours. And I am still wondering if this is just the intro. The whole story is about a man who is spending his time alone on a watchtower doing almost nothing for months, radioing his boss to remain mentally sane. Maybe in the end something will happen. Or not. Ok, I am not an hardcore gamer. I just don't have all that time. Now I wonder, why on earth those "walking simulators" are so popular? Is the Sierra/Lucas Age of Adventure gone forever to be replaced with this stuff?