![]() ![]() One of my biggest annoyances in walking simulators is when you're just set out in the world with a vague objective, where you end up getting lost, not having triggered any environment actions or dialogue in half an hour, not knowing what to do. You barely see any people, you're mostly going around interacting with your environment while talking to Delilah. Not long after you set foot into your watch tower, you're introduced to Delilah, your boss and pretty much the only character you'll be talking to for the next ~4 hours. Often with the intros to show and movies, I'll think to myself, "That could've been its own great short film", and this text sequence gave me the same feeling, in that it could've been it's own "walking sim".Īfter the text sequence is done, you, as Henry, take on a job in a national park (I think? I'm not American), as a fire lookout. As with a lot of games in the genre, one of Firewatch's main themes is loneliness, and its presence/absence affects the way you think and feel. This sequence sets the tone for the rest of the game. While the game doesn't reach Edith Finch heights, it gets pretty damn close! The game starts with a few minutes of story told through text, explaining your character's back story, with a few A/B choices sprinkled in. The game seems like one of the more beloved games of the genre, and I went in hoping it would be worth the hype. Whether that makes for a good “game” is another question.I was going to mark spoilers for the game, but it's a walking sim, there's not too much to talk about if not the story.Īs a big fan of "walking sims", I've been meaning to go through Firewatch for a while, but only jumped at the opportunity when it went on sale (for the first time in years) on the PS store. I think the game succeeds in what it tries to do, in that regard. The game works hard at instilling these same feelings in you, the player, by giving you what you think is going to be a mystery and adventure but it turns out it’s more mundane and unresolved and it ends kind of abruptly and unsatisfactorily. His adventure with her stopped halfway through and it left him feeling unfinished, unsettled, cheated, depressed, etc. His life with his wife went off the rails. I think it’s an intentional storytelling choice, not poor plotting: Think about the main character and what brought him to the forest. The more I thought about it, though, the more I appreciated the reason the game doesn’t come together in the way we wanted and expected. I felt the same after finishing my playthrough. What’s the point of putting the player through an adventure if it stops halfway through? I get why people like this game but in all honesty, the fact that it is halted in such an awkward and unrewarding place makes the whole thing not worth it in my opinion. Hell, it feels like one of those games where you get a free first episode and then pay for the rest. ![]() What's the point of putting the player through an adventure if it stops halfway through? Because that's what it felt like. The abrupt "resolution" is lackluster and feels rushed. You're forced to just sit and wonder why this and that happened, and shrug your shoulders. Surely there had to be more? There were so many questions to be answered, so many mysteries to be solved! Nope. ![]() I progressed through the game, really excited to tie everything together, figure out what that mysterious cabin was for, why that fire happened, et cetera. They seemed to be clues, pieces to a larger puzzle. The exploration was amazing as well, I discovered so many interesting, mysterious things. It felt like I was talking to a close friend. I really enjoyed the character(s?) and the friendship I built. It throws you into the rocky terrain of the forest, aided only by a companion from afar. And for 90% of my playthrough, it lived up to that standard. I decided to give Firewatch a shot since I've seen it praised as being the pinnacle of modern walking simulators. Please use flair to display what games you’re currently playing, not a punch line, username, tag, URL, or signature. New, mobile-friendly spoilers can be posted using the following formatting: Want to play online in a dead gaming community? We expect you to know these rules before making a post. Please click here to see our current rules. We no longer maintain our posting rules in Old Reddit. Join our Discord Join our Steam Group Posting Rules Whether it's price, waiting for bugs/issues to be patched, DLC to be released, don't meet the system requirements, or just haven't had the time to keep up with the latest releases. A gaming sub free from the hype and over saturation of current releases, catering to gamers who wait at least 12 months after release to play a game. ![]()
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