Game: Firewatch
Developer: Campo Santo
Disclaimer: Opinions are my own and do not reflect the opinions of my employer Blizzard Entertainment. These are my rambling notes to myself as I play the game. I respect and appreciate the hard work of all game developers.
Notes:
That narrative at the beginning with the wife was emotionally rough. Did a great job of hooking me into the game though.
Games have made me skeptical of whether any of my dialog choices really matter. So I’m curious if anything I did in the beginning makes a difference.
The atmosphere seems really ominous, between bears and thunderstorms and creepy strangers.
Environmental navigation feels a little unpolished
Narrative and mystery was extremely compelling. I was always eager to jump back in and start playing.
Voice acting was really engaging.
I appreciated the extreme loneliness they put me through. Having a game with virtual no tangible human contact was a cool experience. The radio as my only real lifeline of a relationship was a super interesting touch.
The travel time got a bit tedious sometimes, but overall the game did a pretty good job at not making me waste a bunch of time moving around. When it did, it felt like it was because there was dialog it wanted to deliver.
Ending felt a little unsatisfying. Solved the mystery, but it wasn’t all that deep, and there wasn’t much resolution. Kind of just back to where I started. Not sure how the game really ties in to the story about the wife. Feels like two totally separate things.
I liked that the pictures I took showed up at the end in the credits.
I probably won’t but I’d be interested in playing through again and making significantly different decisions to see what changes.
