The First Tree

The First Tree doesn’t have a ton of game play to it but it makes up for it with a fantastic story and voice acting. The game play it does have is good for what it is as well but on it’s own would be a bit disappointing to some. You play as a fox looking for her cubs. You engage in some light platforming and very light problem solving to navigate the levels. While this goes on you listen to the main character tell childhood stories to his wife. As the fox you can also optionally find mementos from the man’s childhood and collect stars which do serve a slight purpose later on but are still optional. The game works by combing these as on it’s own the great story that gets revealed as you are the fox would just be an audio book on it’s own and without the great story the platforming would just be a very simple game. Together they work better than alone. I do wish that more was revealed about the middle portion of the main character’s life. We learn a lot about their childhood and some of their adult life but not much for the gap in between. The graphics take two forms. While you’re the fox it is almost a cell shaded type world that while not overly detailed has a good style to it and is full of colour. As the man it is a more realistic style. That world is a little less impressive because it relies more on technical detail. It wasn’t an eye sore but at the same time won’t wow you. The music was also superb. I will also say that the few hints the game gives were well done. They didn’t spell things out so much as provide a drawing of what you needed to do which I thought was a nice touch. I am also happy to say that the keyboard and mouse worked just fine which isn’t always the case with some games with platforming sections. My Score: 7/10 My System: AMD FX-9590 | 16GB DDR3-2133 | XFX RX 590 8GB Fat Boy | Mesa 22.1.7 | Samsung 870 QVO 1TB | Garuda | Mate 1.26.0 | Kernel 5.19.8-zen1-zen | AOC G2460P 1920*1080 @ 144hz

The gameplay is hell. Really bad ideas. I don’t even want to listen to the story because of this gameplay. Not beautiful at all. Good music.

The story is very nice and relaxing and definitely makes me think about my family and memories I have with them, though the voice acting or voice direction was a bit amateurish and was difficult to get fully invested in the characters. It's unusual for a game to have a personal diary kind of vibe so I appreciate the effort and would love to see that expanded on with a more experienced crew. The look of the game is very basic. Though there are some beautiful aspects to it, the beginner level textures and lighting effects are distracting and it's not clear if some of it is an artistic choice or an oversight, like a wet surface reflection smoothly transitioning from the ground up onto the sides of mountains. I couldn't tell if I was supposed to be walking through a pond and there was a lot of water coming down the hills or what exactly was going on there. There's a lot of things in the game that seem pointless because they only occur once and have no consequence later on, which left me feeling like I didn't really do anything important or make any decisions worth remembering or like I should try to do better on another play through. I also wished this game had an auto run button or a full sprint. I never used the slow walk and the trot was ok but some of the distances are long so a faster pace would feel nice. I had to take a break a couple of times just to give my finger a rest from holding the forward direction the whole time. The fox is poorly animated and at times feels like you're moving around an inanimate object in an unfinished 3d landscape. I know some people liked the music but I found it a bit boring. It made the whole game feel like I was being forced to sit through an overwrought open mic performance by a born again christian who just graduated from berklee college of music. I have to ask, was this a Christian thing? Is the first tree a christian reference, like the biblical tree of life?

Beautiful contemplative game ! Great music, beautiful landscapes and a nice and touching story. If you want some gameplay, don't play to it! It's a beautiful and touching journey through a story, but not a very difficult game ! The idea is very original and the concept of the message left at the end is very nice ;-) Thanks for this immersive and very sweet experience !

First off, don't expect a game here. If you approach this as an interactive experience, you are much more likely to be in the right mindset for this. At a length of approximately 2 hours, this feels actually closer to a movie than a game. The graphics and musics are good, and though the narrative may be depressing at times, the ending provides a powerful emotional catharsis that brought tears to my eyes. In terms of gameplay, there's no real challenge. You run around, look for items and collect stars. Occasionally, there's some jumping involved, but really it's mostly just running. There's also the option to walk, but that's just there to turn it off at the beginning of the level. You can run faster by pressing forward and either left or right, which seems like an oversight, but seeing as how most of the levels are needlessly huge, it is a welcome glitch, especially when you need to backtrack. At the end of the experience, my fingers hurts from keeping the movement keys pressed for minutes at a time. All in all, I can recommend this as an interactive experience, but not as a game.