Firewatch

The game begins very good. Nice graphics, fluent game play, funny dialogues. The story is vague but interesting. But there are nasty bugs that break the atmosphere. First at the beginning of Day 2. It's necessary to restart the game to continue and 2nd on the beginning of Day 3 where after boarding up the window the game didn't progress anymore. This is a known bug (search internet or see steam discussions) happening "to a few people" and there is only one note from the developers in the PS4 forums where they say that they 're aware of it and going to fix this but if this bug already has occurred then it's necessary to completely start over. I've done this twice times and am again stuck on Day 3. I'm annoyed. This shouldn't happen in a final release and I'm thinking about refund but honestly I still want to play this game although in it's current state i cannot recommend it.

Entire "gameplay" consists of walking in a maze of invisible walls, having no freedom of choice at all. It is basically an audiobook that let's you progress to next chapter after jumping through hoops and finding your way in the maze. Only time where you are allowed to "choose" are the dialogues, but they all seem to lead to same conclusion though. If I'm not mistaken, there is not a single day in the game that actually let's you be a firewatch and enjoy some time at the tower that is cluttered with useless items. What a contrast to "The Forest" which manages to employ survival elements and still keep a story going at your own pace. Game interface tends to get irresponsive after maybe hour of gameplay. Restarting the game seems to resolve the problem. The story is decent and even captivating, could be really nice book/movie, instead it's a lousy "game".

I love indy titles, so I was on board when I heard of this game: slow burn, mystery, great atmosphere... Sure, I'll give it a shot. While the imagery is stunning, the game's story was clearly too ambitious... It's as if the dev came up with a bunch of great ideas, but then didn't know how to properly execute them. The game has a bunch of excellent story threads, but they're never properly explored, and worst of all, are tied up in the blandest and worst way possible. Character choices are ultimately irrelevant, character arcs are also unsatisfyingly tied up... It's just so ... disappointing. The game had some excellent potential, but either writer wasn't talented enough to properly explore the ideas, or the dev couldn't implement them all properly, so you're left with a very "meh" experience. Sadly, the large open landscape is misleading, because you'll quickly realize just how linear this game is. And given that it is ultimately a walking simulator (very little "puzzle solving"), that could have been acceptable if the story delivered. Perhaps your dialogue choices could have meant something, perhaps they could have explored any of the crazy story threads. But there were no real twists, no satisfying conclusions... just anti-climax after anti-climax, and then the game ends. I'm not saying I wanted something sci-fi or super-natural, but there were other things as well that could have been done, that weren't. And since I don't want to spoil the game for those who want to try it for themselves, I'll leave it at that. Don't get me wrong, the game certainly has some introspective moments, and again, beautiful visuals, but in the end you'll be left feeling unsatisfied. I finished this game on steam, and finished it under the time required to get a refund... but I didn't. This game wasn't awful, and at least the dev tried to make this title, because it could have been amazing.

Firewatch is a fantastic game. While it is mostly walking, the narrative is engaging and interesting. I would def recommend this game to most people.

Great game from a hobby hiker and video gamer!