Just finished Firewatch and I was mostly happy with it. The game play is very good; it has its own style and mood. I really liked the forest setting. Of course, it is a "walking simulator" so you are so a large extent led through all your actions. Many people have mentioned bugs but I did not encounter any while playing. The big reason to play (aside from the gorgeous graphics and great voice acting) is learning the details of the characters' lives. It is essentially a character study. I did feel a slight disappointment with some aspects of how the story was resolved but for the most part it was very good. I think my gameplay time was around 8 hours. I bought the game on special for A$8 (around US$6.50). Overall, quite satisfied with it.
This is a very playable game; comfortable and easy to get into, a relaxing, easy playing style and lots of nice and interesting things to do each day. Playing one extra day only takes another 10-15 minutes, so it's easy to justify not quitting! Appealing to kids and adults alike - my young daughter enjoys the game as much as I do. Never played Harvest Moon or Rune Factory but I have played Animal Crossing on the Wii and it's quite similar to that. Most of my thoughts about it are positive so take it as read that I think it's a great game. :) My few criticisms revolve around some knowledge being based too heavily on trial and error. Knowing which gifts to give people to gain favour, for example, and knowing the daily routines of the people in town -- if you have to get a certain item and give it to a certain person within a couple of days, for example, it can be hard to track that person down in time. Some people spend a lot of time in their bedrooms, which you don't have access to if you don't already know that person well. Some method of being able to track people down would be really useful. In some cases I consulted guides on the web to answer some of these questions. Overall, it's a great mix of RPG aspects, exploration, simple combat, puzzle solving and relationship building. Great for all ages, it holds your interest well and seems like it would have a good degree of replayability. Highly recommended!
The game is not that deep but for what it is, it's great fun. The presentation is very polished and the control system has been designed well. The concept is original and is well executed. The lack of a save function was not a problem for me as there are quite a few checkpoints in each level. The only issue I found was that sometimes the camera did not give me a good view of whatever I wanted to look at, and although you do have some manual control over the camera, it's quite limited. The gameplay is very task oriented and none of the problems are really difficult to solve. My nine year old daughter loves playing this game; the controls took a bit of getting used to but the game retains her interest and she loves the way Octodad moves. The game is not very long but my daughter has no problem with playing it over again. Replay value for adults might be somewhat limited. I haven't tried co-op so I can't comment on that. All in all, good value and good fun!
Innovative, fun and completely insane! A massive load of fun to play. Not too challenging. Well designed and well made. Good replay value. This is what games are supposed to be like!
