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.
I applaud the idea, but somewhere along the way I just got bored and couldn't be bothered to finish the game. I couldn't identify with the character, and that made the dialogues (which make up a large portion of the story, while you're walking/climbing to a place to finish a task), well, boring.
Overrated game. I've heard that it's excellent but I was disappointed. It's a walk around the forrest with some anticlimactic mistery around it, talking with someone, thinking that your dialogue choices, or any choices, matter, but they don't. Don't bother exploring, don't bother carefully choosing your dialogue carefully, they all lead you to the exact same one ending that the game has. It's so sad that the developers gave us so many options but didn't do anything meaningful with them, it's a complete letdown.