Posted July 17, 2021
=-= To Begin With =-=
Having not heard of the Developer of Firewatch previously, but enjoying the trailer and noting that (despite obvious prettiness) the GOG.com description notes it as having a creepy wibe: I thought I would try it.
Normally I don't care about sales hype or what the latest thing is; plus my purchasing decisions are governed by a budget; so as usual I bought this on sale, at a significant discount.
I was looking forward to having a tour of an admittedly imaginary section of the Wyoming wilderness, and perhaps dodging getting attacked by a Bear along the way.
=-= Is It Broken? =-=
To address the technical issues that lie with this product: a glance in the Forum for Firewatch will (currently) show a number of people who had issues getting it to work; and yet more who got stuck or even felt *burned* (pun intended) during the course of play. In my opinion related issues have been ironed out; but your mileage without a small collection of "Visual C++ Redistributables" installed may vary with this product. I experienced *none* of the above issues, and please note my hardware *necessitated* me running Firewatch with all of the "bells and whistles" in the "Graphics settings" turned off, with the top two of that list at "Medium". The fact that this product has been patched more than once, and fairly recently (at the time of writing) shows that the Developer does seem to give a "monkeys'" about its customers. "Nuff said".
=-= On Reflection =-=
Thankfully no Ursine creatures were harmed in the making of this (essentially) interactive "walking simulator"; nor did I have to clean my clothes after encountering one. Please note: *yes* there is *a lot* of walking; but equally *yes* there is a given set of interactions the player can carry out. The Developer clearly made a decision during the design process to limit the amount of these. I think this *is* in keeping with the "spirit" of the game, as-it-is, according to me at the time of me writing this review.
The PC (Player Character, for the uninitiated) named "Henry" *is* escaping from Real Life to work in the Wyoming "Firewatch"; and after 10 and a half hours walking in Hank's sturdy boots he is still likeable (enough), and is played by a member of the cast of TV's "Mad Men" (I thought I recognised the voice!).
Having decidedly borderline "hardware" to run this game on (I'm currently running a GeForce GT 610 graphics card by an Intel Core 2 Duo processor - one very "bottom rung" and the other very old) I thought I would miss out on some of the experience: I think not. Bear in mind that on a previous operating system with hardware as old: I've managed to get "Saints Row III" and "ArmA 3" running, so I like to think I know what I'm doing, in that regard.
The atmosphere of Firewatch is indeed, at moments, downright creepy; and while I'm not "into" horror movies I did get a feeling that someone was "watching me" during the course of the game...
The cast of voice-actors are well-chosen; while the setting changed as the game progressed I still felt immersed; though I think the product is "too short" (i.e "completed" too quickly).
=-= What's Next? =-=
I look forward to playing more of this title, but so far only in its version of "Free Roam" / "Sandbox" mode; and eventually I will probably want to find out if I *can* collect books 6 and 7 of a set that's featured in the game, to satisfy my own curiosity about a secret "achievement" that may not exist...
However: I currently don't see the point revisiting this to see it under "run" on better hardware; the more avid (read: "hardcore") *gamers* out there may think differently. In my opinion: it depends how strongly you feel about dappling "Sunlight", "realistic" flowing water and "smoke effects".
I think there is definitely room for a direct sequel; even if something with a plot in the mould of a "1 year later" vibe. DLC for this I think would definitely be flogging the proverbial dead Equine (please note: no Equines, injured or otherwise, are viewed or visited during the course of the game; although Horses do come up in discussion there, once, that I know of). I don't know if modifications to the code that could / would "stretch" the available storyline / plotpoints (to play through) are possible. Oh well!
If you enjoyed (or hated) this post: please give it a vote. A portion of this text can be seen in the "User reviews" section of the Firewatch page in the GOG.com "Store".
Having not heard of the Developer of Firewatch previously, but enjoying the trailer and noting that (despite obvious prettiness) the GOG.com description notes it as having a creepy wibe: I thought I would try it.
Normally I don't care about sales hype or what the latest thing is; plus my purchasing decisions are governed by a budget; so as usual I bought this on sale, at a significant discount.
I was looking forward to having a tour of an admittedly imaginary section of the Wyoming wilderness, and perhaps dodging getting attacked by a Bear along the way.
=-= Is It Broken? =-=
To address the technical issues that lie with this product: a glance in the Forum for Firewatch will (currently) show a number of people who had issues getting it to work; and yet more who got stuck or even felt *burned* (pun intended) during the course of play. In my opinion related issues have been ironed out; but your mileage without a small collection of "Visual C++ Redistributables" installed may vary with this product. I experienced *none* of the above issues, and please note my hardware *necessitated* me running Firewatch with all of the "bells and whistles" in the "Graphics settings" turned off, with the top two of that list at "Medium". The fact that this product has been patched more than once, and fairly recently (at the time of writing) shows that the Developer does seem to give a "monkeys'" about its customers. "Nuff said".
=-= On Reflection =-=
Thankfully no Ursine creatures were harmed in the making of this (essentially) interactive "walking simulator"; nor did I have to clean my clothes after encountering one. Please note: *yes* there is *a lot* of walking; but equally *yes* there is a given set of interactions the player can carry out. The Developer clearly made a decision during the design process to limit the amount of these. I think this *is* in keeping with the "spirit" of the game, as-it-is, according to me at the time of me writing this review.
The PC (Player Character, for the uninitiated) named "Henry" *is* escaping from Real Life to work in the Wyoming "Firewatch"; and after 10 and a half hours walking in Hank's sturdy boots he is still likeable (enough), and is played by a member of the cast of TV's "Mad Men" (I thought I recognised the voice!).
Having decidedly borderline "hardware" to run this game on (I'm currently running a GeForce GT 610 graphics card by an Intel Core 2 Duo processor - one very "bottom rung" and the other very old) I thought I would miss out on some of the experience: I think not. Bear in mind that on a previous operating system with hardware as old: I've managed to get "Saints Row III" and "ArmA 3" running, so I like to think I know what I'm doing, in that regard.
The atmosphere of Firewatch is indeed, at moments, downright creepy; and while I'm not "into" horror movies I did get a feeling that someone was "watching me" during the course of the game...
The cast of voice-actors are well-chosen; while the setting changed as the game progressed I still felt immersed; though I think the product is "too short" (i.e "completed" too quickly).
=-= What's Next? =-=
I look forward to playing more of this title, but so far only in its version of "Free Roam" / "Sandbox" mode; and eventually I will probably want to find out if I *can* collect books 6 and 7 of a set that's featured in the game, to satisfy my own curiosity about a secret "achievement" that may not exist...
However: I currently don't see the point revisiting this to see it under "run" on better hardware; the more avid (read: "hardcore") *gamers* out there may think differently. In my opinion: it depends how strongly you feel about dappling "Sunlight", "realistic" flowing water and "smoke effects".
I think there is definitely room for a direct sequel; even if something with a plot in the mould of a "1 year later" vibe. DLC for this I think would definitely be flogging the proverbial dead Equine (please note: no Equines, injured or otherwise, are viewed or visited during the course of the game; although Horses do come up in discussion there, once, that I know of). I don't know if modifications to the code that could / would "stretch" the available storyline / plotpoints (to play through) are possible. Oh well!
If you enjoyed (or hated) this post: please give it a vote. A portion of this text can be seen in the "User reviews" section of the Firewatch page in the GOG.com "Store".