Best Of

Firewatch(3.3 hours): Wow I am not the best looker in this game. I honestly feel the hype machine was spun to the max on this game. The devs claim of 6 hours is a lie any way you cut it. Everything stinks of budget/time issues that seems similar to I Am Alive except Firewatch was aware from the start and reshaped the game to account for it. I Am Alive tried to build the game they wanted and then realized there wasn't enough money and pulled a cop out ending with the remaining dollars and weren't shy about the reason. That makes a bunk feel at the end acceptable because they really tried, almost met their goals, and weren't going to stand any where else than besides where they were.

You get this nice story little story about a man that is trying to get away from his past and parts of life by hiding in solitude up in the national forest system. You get to pick some plot elements that pop up later and some elements are fixed. The game is supposed to be more a narrative game than exploration or thriller. Everything is focused on a relationship that your character develops with another Firewatcher that is kind of your boss. Effectively you walk around your section of the park doing errands, exploring, finding manbearpig. The scenery is really good but the high saturation and light rays didn't impress me after the first few chapters. Slowly all the small elements that were off and basic level design really was grinding my gears. For $18 I can live with the experience especially since it caught some heat from the user base but critics had to go change their pants after just launching the game. Honestly bought it because of steam cards and enough people having varied ideas on it being good or bad. Firewatch = poor dating sim. I wonder if I can sell these panties.

I am just going to lay into it. People talk about how fantastic the character relationships are and they really were drawn into the experience because of it........these people need to get out of the house more. The dialogue tree is ok with the usually 2 of the same responses and 1 response that results in getting bitched at for not following the plot. If thats the fantastic thing about this then its only mediocre, overall the game is ok and I think the price point is within the limits of the product on launch. Don't buy the soundtrack. Why are there so many dust clouds every where? What is up with my hand when examining things? Why do I have to jump up and down all the time for no reason because LEVEL DESIGN? Why can I spend 5 minutes stomping out a fire? Why am I not affected by all the smoke in the air? Why did thrones grow over that path I just came out of prevent back tracking? Why do I trigger plot movement without completely a required objective? What is the deal with the player model? What is up with that dudes face under his mask? Why do you put a timer on responding when you only ask questions while I am busy doing a non-interruptable action? Why have plot points if its about two characters talking? Why do I make dust clouds every where I walk? Why do I have to stop and then press space instead of being able to perform and action while moving? Why does that light only shine in a grid pattern if there is nothing overlaying on top of the source? Why do you use that control scheme? How do you make a 3 hour game that is semi-on rails and have all these things off?

With a 3 hour game that is "open world" you find little issues with things and slowly become fixated on them since the scope isn't large enough to allow them to pass into the background of your experience.

Games Completed: 113
Time: 5 weeks 23.92 hours