A game that could be completed within 2 hours without walking slowly, is not a game you pay more than 2 euro. And not to forget all the pseudo intelligent/mystery happening in the game, mostly left with an open ending, just because the writing was so poor, they wanted people to believe the game was much deeper than it actually was. It took me less than 4 hours but I'm a completionist. It's an adventure game not a crafting survival game as you'd be fooled to think from some footage.
Intrigue is built and then crushed. The story in this game is so promising, but it ultimately fails. I don't want to give anything away (which means I can't say much as the game is < three hours long); however, I will say you are presented with many events which could lead to any numerous, sinister outcomes. The problem is the game developers chose to go with the most mundane plot line each time. Voice acting and visuals are great, but that's all you will remember about this game/event after you are done with it.
In the end, the game will leave you wishing there was more fire and less watching.
Firewatch has great stylised visuals and a world designed to feel like it could fit into ours. It also has two lovely personalities who interact well with each other. And if the entire game was a chill and casual interactive podcast-type thing with collect-a-thon-esque gameplay I'd probably like it a lot more. The begining days of Firewatch shows this could have made for a great game, where the player is sent on light-hearted trips around the forest to complete some innocent task, with playful banter between the two characters and occasional drops into their lives and personal problems.
Towards the middle of the game Firewatch seems to lose focus, and becomes more of a mystery game. Missing teenagers, the past of former fire guards, wire-tapping, a locked off area of the forest controlled by the government. They all felt interesting when first experienced, but as a result of the games ending, which I felt did not make good use of those story elements, the mysteries only seemed to be a distraction from the calm hiking simulator the game set itself up to be.
I don't think I can recommend Firewatch to people when there are many other games which did what Firewatch was trying to do in it's latter acts better and the greatest strength I thought the game had was half-abandoned towards the middle of the experience. Not every game needs to have a grand and action-packed story and I think Firewatch was one of them.
The voice acting here is incredible. The actors who played Henry and Delilah get six out of five stars. It's probably worth playing the game just to listen to their interactions while walking through a beautiful national park. The mystery that develops is also very intriguing, but just as it's reaching a climax...you find out what has really been happening, and it is so lame and uninteresting that you almost feel cheated of your last few hours. When I came across this, I thought to myself "I've heard such great things about this game that I'm sure there is another twist waiting to happen after this", but there wasn't. The game was over and I was left unsatisfied by the ending. The true answer to the mystery 1. was boring, 2. didn't make any sense, and 3. has no follow-up. If the game were one hour longer with a cooler explanation of why everything was happening, then it would have been five stars.
I agree with the other review that says it looks like they were building up to something amazing, then they ran out of time or money and had to wrap it up, so they just threw something together last second.
To keep it short:
Quite nice game i thought. Then: Very quickly played through (4hrs). Choices dont matter! Story nice until end where its a total letdown! Same end every time! Totally disappointed!
Guys, dont buy it! or at least not above 3 or 4$.
