Firewatch

Started good, interesting buildup and characters.

But in the last mission of the game, the writers rushed the ending and messed up everything in the story which leads to absolutely nothing.

The voice acting carries the entire thing.

It's not often that you see such a mature approach to storytelling in video games. This game does a great job at diving into some "adult" issues while keeping it lively and bright, and I love that aspect of it.

That said, the gameplay is by far its weakest point. The amount of things you can do is very bare, and I would even go so far as to say that it's barely a game. A very compelling experience nonetheless.

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

This game is beautiful and really heartwarming. The plot is not something that is far-fetched it's just a dude whose wife is sick and currently living with her family and he's taking the summer off to work on a firewatch tower. The experience is not that long but it feels quite the opposite. I personally felt every emotion the man had and was really immersed into his story due to the minimalistic but well curated introduction. I finished the game in one sitting as it is just 4 hours long. If you're looking for something with complex gameplay then this is not it as it is just supposed to be relaxing and plot-oriented. It does get a bit boring and frustrating when I get lost in the woods as I'm someone who's terrible with directions irl and ingame. No other downsides though. Stunning visuals and voice acting. Maaaan the voice acting is just perfect and so real. Delilah's voice actor is gifted. Hats off to the developers. Definitely looking forward to their next project.

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