Firewatch

Having completed Firewatch, I'm lefting wanting the 5 hours I invested back. The game has an interesting enough premise, the prologue certainly lays the groundwork for a potential epic, but afterwards your left to a back and forward conversation via walkie talkie with another ranger named Deliah while given some tasks that move the game along. The game sets up some interesting set pieces involving fireworks, 2 teen girls that like to skinny dip, a cave with a locked off area, and the highlight, a fenced off no tresspassing area in the outskirts of the park. The setups were there, but the reveals were all pretty disappointing. The ending wasn't too great either. I also experienced motion sickness a number of times while playing. I even used the FOV app, but that didn't help very much. Definitely could not play this in very long bursts without getting ill. I like that it supported achievements, but the achievements were rather buggy. Either they would unlock with no notification or necessary objects to complete certain achievements would fail to spawn. Overall, it's just not worth your time.

The game sets up several interesting premises/plotlines then just falls apart. You realize you've been walking and doing basic challenges for essentially no reason, then the game ends. You can find out about a conflict/ "Bad Guys" but it's odd and doesn't match the clues. It's like a second team took over the game when it was trending over budget. Decided to finish it in the most half-assed way they could and then released it, pretending it was the plan all along. Enjoy the first couple of hours. It falls apart after that.

It's not BAD... more just... Not good. The first two thirds are really gripping and then the rest kind of falls flat, with disappointing ending. This is the kind of game that *feels* like it should be great to replay and make different decisions but the choices do NOT matter. Overall a good movie but not really a good game.

For the first 3 hours the story draws you in with mystery and a creepy atmosphere; however, the final hour that closes the story is anti-climactic and disappointing. First 3 hours: 5 stars Final hour: 2 stars I believe the game is worth the price when on sale.

Fight Night was a boxing game. Need for Speed was a racing game. In the same way, Firewatch is a hiking game. My W key is exhausted, and so is my optimism. Think of Firewatch as a 1980s text-based adventure with the privilege of seeing what happens between decisions. But it's not really a privilege: it's like Skyrim without fast travel, and nothing to be done in any of the cities you to walk to. You arrive, hear what happened before you got there, and find out where you'll have to walk to next. Nothing happens between destinations; just keep walking. Firewatch is an existentially depressing indie drama movie that accidentally manifested as a video game. In the beginning, you get to choose the nuances of your character's heartbreak over marrying a girl who comes down with dementia at 41. Then you flash to arriving at your outpost for the summer, choose some more tragic subtleties (which change the ending or anything about the game exactly 0%), and flash back to the hike from the parking lot to your lookout spot. After you arrive at your lookout spot, some weird stuff happens... but nothing too weird. Actually, the details make even the weird stuff more depressing than weird. Your Alzheimerzy bride has gone to live obliviously with her family in Australia so it feels okay that you strike up a walkie-talkie-based romance with your contact at HQ. You make tentative plans to meet and maybe even take on the world together when the summer's over, but she says no in the end. Then you go home. If you're thinking about buying this game, first read The Stranger by Albert Camus. If it somehow doesn't leave you feeling like a waste of flesh--or if you're into that kind of thing--then you might have a pretty good time playing this game. Otherwise, take up knitting.