Firewatch

I picked the game up because of graphic designer Olly Moss, whom I knew for his awesome movie posters (seriously, check them out).

The premise: in 1989, Henry (Rich Sommer), a man escaping from serious family problems, accepts a job as a fire lookout in the Shoshone National Park, which means he will be alone for months doing menial tasks in the beautiful wilderness; his only contact is Delilah (Cissy Jones), his quirky supervisor, who lives in a relatively nearby tower and communicates with Henry via walkie-talkie. However, strange events begin to occur, park visitors disappear, someone stalks Henry and spies on him and Delilah.

This first-person adventure/mystery is the kind of game some players praise as an incredible experience while others contemptuously peg as a boring "walking simulator". Let's find some middle ground. Firewatch has several strong points. Visuals are luscious, no surprise here given Moss' talent. Acting and dialogue are top-notch: the interactions between Henry and Delilah, ranging from amusing to touching, are the core of the game. The story is compelling, sometimes emotional, often quite unnerving, with an atmosphere of rising paranoia as your main character explores the area, often at night, while he and Delilah realize mysterious enemies conspire against them.

Gameplay is scant. The player basically: 1) hikes through the wilderness checking map and compass to reach various destinations; 2) chooses dialogue options when discussing with Delilah; 3) interacts with items in a way that never goes beyond "pick up, open or activate". There really are no *puzzles* as in "use the thing with the thing to unlock the other thing" like in LucasArts, Sierra or even Wadjet Eye adventure games.

While the narrative kept my interest until the end, the last act feels anticlimactic, with some setups never paid off and some developments weakly set up.

Still, this can be a short but engrossing experience. For the record, I completed the game in seven and a half hours and I often got lost in the woods; I can't see anyone taking much longer unless his sense of direction is truly abysmal!

7/10

I played it 2 years ago, I was going through a break up and needed some time to relax and meditate. I could say this game found me, two years later I still remember how this game helped me to get well with myself. I totally recommend it.

FIREWATCH (2016) was a really great game, although definitely not long enough. The setup is great, packs an emotional punch, gameplay is fun and captivating. Graphically, the game is on the minimalistic side, not overly detailed or hyper realistic, but eye catching and interesting. The main characters are really well written and immediately come to life, you can't help but care for them or relate to their situations. And once the ball starts rolling there's a good deal of mystery and suspense that really drive the story along.

Sadly, the ending was pretty anti-climactic and felt like a bit of a letdown to me, but the story, gameplay and characters still hold up in my memory many months later. I still really enjoyed the game but felt like it could have gone a better direction and really could've been a masterpiece, but the so-so ending kinda deflated a lot of its glory. Still, it's really worth a chance. It's great up until the end.

STORY: 8/10 GAMEPLAY: 9/10 GRAPHICS: 7/10 ART DESIGN: 8/10 MUSIC: 7/10 OVERALL RATING: 8.5.

Firewatch is the first independent game by the writer of TT's Walking Dead S01 and part of the ever growing "walking simulator" genre. The sub-genre name feels very fitting as first person adventures from the 90s actually bothered to feature real puzzles... Nah, i'm kidding. I kinda like these gameplay free new adventures and Firewatch is one of the better so far. The developers squeezed a mighty fine looking and beautifully over-saturated forest out of the Unity engine and my personal highlight is the clever VN section that forms the prologue. It's a bit like the flashback novels from the highly overlooked Lost Odyssey. The game may lack a certain appeal to younger gamers due to the themes and the rushed ending is frankly a head scratcher but the journey is still worth it even if i don´t think that the game´s female lead is all that great due to the very forced romance. The actual controls are fairly flawed too. The soundtrack and sound design can lastly put most industry leaders to shame. 6,5/10

It's one of the most beautiful and aesthetically pleasing video games I've ever played! The storyline is pretty good as well.