You Think I Won't Throw A Boombox Into The Lake? I Will!! : Firewatch - Pt2. (Steam PC Playthrough)
Channel: LIFE RPG
Date: 2018-05-23

Well, Firewatch was a game that I actively avoided for a long time... The high price tag, along with the streamlined narrative, and fervent politics of the developers meant I gave Firewatch an extremely wide berth. Then I heard Campo Santo was being purchased by Valve. What did they do so right that Valve would want to buy them out? That is the mystery we are here to solve friends.

My initial impression of Firewatch is that it's a very pretty game... But that there isn't much to it. Firewatch tries so hard to shove flaws into their characters to make them relatable and likeable, but everyone just seems to come off as a dick. Myself included. Firewatch wants to hold your hand and spoonfeed you, which is not something that I look for in gaming. Firewatch is a detriment.

I'll give Firewatch a fair shot. I'll subject myself to the game's linear gameplay and shoddy characters. My mind isn't completely made up... But after the first episode was completed I found I was largely being proven right. Firewatch is a waste of attention. I might be late to the party, but that won't stop me from making my opinion known. Valve wasted a big chunk of change buying out Campo Santo.

Firewatch's linear gameplay can be purchased for a premium on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/383870/Firewatch/

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Firewatch is a single-player first-person mystery set in the Wyoming wilderness, where your only emotional lifeline is the person on the other end of a handheld radio.

The year is 1989. You are a man named Henry who has retreated from his messy life to work as a fire lookout in the Wyoming wilderness. Perched high atop a mountain, it’s your job to look for smoke and keep the wilderness safe. An especially hot, dry summer has everyone on edge. Your supervisor Delilah is available to you at all times over a small, handheld radio—your only contact with the world you've left behind. But when something strange draws you out of your lookout tower and into the forest, you’ll explore a wild and unknown environment, facing questions and making choices that can build or destroy the only meaningful relationship you have.

While I have to say that I enjoyed this game and it was an endearing experience, I can't really recommend this game due to the fact that I don't feel like I enjoyed it any more than I would've just watching a playthrough on YouTube. The characters are well written and relatable, the scenery looks nice and pretty, and the story starts off kinda nicely. But any decisions you make have extremely little if any real effect in-game, making different playthroughs essentially identical. 

While the setting looks nice and soothing it also lacks any real 'soul', there's not much exploration, and I feel like that wastes the map design. Wherever you go you're running into trees and rocks you can't cross, paths that go all over the place, and all of that only really serves to get the player lost and maybe extend the playtime a bit, making the player resort to pulling up the rather clunky map system every 10 steps. There's nothing much to see in this game aside from the trees and rivers, etc., and the game suffers from the gameplay consisting entirely of "Go from Point A to Point B". While this is a "Walking Simulator" as you might've heard, the game really relies on okay-scenery and occasional funny banter between the characters to keep you from falling asleep. 

The story also eventually devolves into a "mystery" kind of ordeal, which seems like a rather sharp turn from the tone of the game before. Not only does this "mystery" kind f come outta left field, it also lacks a satisfying conclusion, much ike the game itself. The ending is agreed upon by many to be rather disappointing, which some argue is on purpose, leaving the player empty and wanting more in some kind of artsy way. 

I say you should only consider purchasing this game if you feel strongly about supporting the developers, and even then you should wait for a sale to come around. - Pres. Trump