Firewatch

31 May 2016

👍 Recommended (5.1 hrs on record)

What an awesome game. Big thanks to Campo Santo for Linux support!

The first thing you'll notice when hiking to your lookout tower is that the game looks absolutely gorgeous. I was absolutely amazed that this was done on Unity -- I haven't seen any other Unity game look this good. The next thing you'll experience is the awesome voice acting work that draws you into the world and the characters. The immersion is completed with top-notch environmental audio. I spent a long time just peacefully exploring and enjoying the world Campo Santo has created.

It doesn't take long for the story to get started. I really enjoyed the storytelling that flows both through radio chatter and the items you find within the world. The only slight gripe I have with the game is that I only found the option to hide your player marker on the map after I was halfway through the game. It felt too easy to have a constantly updating map pointing exactly where I need to go; just something that cracked the immersion the slightest bit. If you enjoy a challenge do disable it before you start!

One great aspect of this game is that it is very friendly to people who are not hardcore gamers. All the mechanics are well-explained and the controls are very easy to pick up.

After playing this through, it was not surprising to me that this game has received some negative reviews. From what I gather most of the negativity is centered around its short length and its ending. I feel like this is a work of art to get lost into rather than something you try to speed-run through. I loved the ending.

A word of advice: this is one of those games that you can easily enjoy playing through in one sitting, so if that's your thing do take the time for it.

Based on this debut, I can't wait to see what Campo Santo is up to next!

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