Firewatch

Firewatch would have been an extremely good game, if not for the plot holes. The idea is awesome, the game itself is well-done and engaging, but the plot holes in the story ruin everything. So many contradicting elements, so many questions left unanswered.

Let me start by saying, I was excited for this game initially. I'd gone into it having heard that it was a moody, emotional, narrative game (in much the same vein as Gone Home or Life is Strange). The intro certainly hooked me in and made me invested in the characters. Given the player character's backstory, I was expecting the game to be a deep, psychological mystery, and exploration of themes of loss and loneliness. As the game headed toward its ending and answers started being revealed, however, I bounced HARD off of this game. All the mysteries ended up being tied up in a neat little bow, and had practically nothing to do with the 2 main characters; the game seemed to be hinting that the mysteries had to do with the main characters' backstories... but nope. There was a whole lotta setup, but little to no emotional payoff at the end. This was exacerbated by all the needless wandering and backtracking the game makes you do. Many missions literally tasked you with making your way from one corner of the map to the other, for no other good reason than to increase the game's runtime, with little to see and nothing interesting happening along the journey. Compare this to something like Gone Home. Both games are "walking simulators", but GH didn't force you to walk through swaths of empty landscape, and when you did have to backtrack in GH, there were always neat shortcuts and things to discover to make the process easier. GH kept its gameworld tight, and as a result, it never felt like the game overstayed its welcome. By contrast, in Firewatch I found myself just wanting to get the whole game over with by the end.

It's really short and it looks like you are meant to explore it at first but nope just follow the path. Cool little story though.

I enjoyed this game. It is a Unity game and to play it on Windows 10 you must install Microsoft VC Redistributable 2013 x64, otherwise all you get is a blank screen and no sound. Maybe GOG could add this as a note to the game store page. It is a first person walking game. The game is fairly short and a lot of it is just walking the wilderness (which was fine with me). There are only a few quest that Henry has to do, mostly going places to pick something up or observe something. The scenery is beautiful and the music is very nice. It is emotional and makes you think about life. The dialogs are all for adults and I think it is geared towards adult players - you might enjoyed the title more if you over 30, IMO. I thought Henry was pretty relatable and I really enjoyed playing his role. After you finish the game you unlock the option to explore the world without the pressure and constraints of the quests and of the story, and that is nice. Overall the story is pretty believable. Although the ending is somewhat unexpected and a bit underexplained, it feels that it wraps up well. I liked it. Exploring the map was for me the most fun. Looking at the scenery, listening to the birds and insects, the music and the cycle of morning and sunsets. The zooming option to examine things and see far is really cool. Character movement though was a chore. Mouse control is very imprecise and overshoots all the time whatever you are trying to click on - this was for me a very annoying thing. Interaction with the world and objects is somewhat underdeveloped - you can only use a few things that are available. Most of the time you go about doing things that really do not matter much to the gameplay, other than to make you think. All in all, if you are into this kind of "chill" game, I would recommmend it.

Apsolut masterpiece, great story, gameplay, all