I think part of the disappointment some feel is that in the end it turns out the force behind the mystery is something mundane, neither supernatural nor a government conspiracy.
It builds up the players expectations of something weird out there, and then turns that on it's head. It's a hard narrative trick to pull off, and there's always going to be people that don't like that kind of twist.
Gone Home of course pulls the exact same trick. So perhaps I was conditioned to expect it from Firewatch because I knew it was likely going for the same plot construction. I wasn't let down, because I already expected that was what they were doing and I was wondering how they'd get there.
I actually think Gone Home has a better build up and pay off than Firewatch, but that Firewatch in having actual characters and dialogue feels like the better experience. They're both great though.
I think the only flat note for me was the quick 'oh, by the way, those girls just turned up' line. It was a little TOO throwaway, felt like maybe a loose end they forgot to properly tie up.
Massively outweighed for me by the final 'exploring the man cave' part where all the various trials of the hermit guy were laid bare. And that whole part is missable! Take the time to read everything in there, and see just how driven to distraction this guy became with keeping his secret. (Also, I think some of it might be less impactful for people who've never used a typewriter).
mikeleddy83 wrote:Just started here, is 4 hours a good estimate of the games length?
It depends on how much poking about you do - I did a fair bit and it took 5. Quite a lot of the game is guided by the story, but if you feel like it you can break off at times and do your own thing.
Flabyo wrote:A few of us have played and finished Firewatch now, and we all seem pretty positive on it.
But I've seen quite a few people who say they think the ending was off.
I loved the ending and thought it was fine, being rather mundane on two counts - the 'mystery' is resolved in a down to earth way, and Henry's nascent relationship with Delilah didn't come to fruition. I was happy with both. The misdirection that takes place for the bulk of the story is generally expected in mystery novels, for example, so why not here?
Then, I thought Henry's and Delilah's relationship was handled almost perfectly, and I would have chosen for it to end that way myself, as I was quite affected by Julia's dementia and figured I/Henry would need to deal with that first. And it was well done from Delilah's view as well, as it gave multiple potential reasons why she wouldn't want to meet up - whether she just needed the relationship to reduce her cabin fever during the summer, whether she had a boyfriend etc.
Flabyo wrote:Back to just Firewatch spoilers now...
I think the only flat note for me was the quick 'oh, by the way, those girls just turned up' line. It was a little TOO throwaway, felt like maybe a loose end they forgot to properly tie up.
Massively outweighed for me by the final 'exploring the man cave' part where all the various trials of the hermit guy were laid bare. And that whole part is missable! Take the time to read everything in there, and see just how driven to distraction this guy became with keeping his secret. (Also, I think some of it might be less impactful for people who've never used a typewriter).
Yep. love all this and agree. The story got a little ropy late on but the narrative was so well done. Amazing job.
I don't know about that, but certainly the theme of dealing with dementia really got to me, and I guess it's a big theme in everybody's life these days as we grow older and deal with parents/family etc that may be affected. I suppose that is still entirely unthought of for a 25 year old with 50-60 year old parents?
I though the dementia side of things was very poignant, and Henry's various reactions described brilliantly and believably through text of all things. Again, great writing.
As you can tell, I loved the game. I think this is the most advanced example yet of the story game/walking simulator/what have you, and the script, acting, and execution were all phenomenal.
fieldy wrote:Well for me the game played out very nicely as you say all of the stop Arcs are resolved before the final section of the game apart from one which I thought was the main arc...
Henry and Delilah's 'relationship' is for me the main over arcing storyline. The whole premise of firewatch is that Henry is trying to get away from what is obviously a traumatic end to his last relationship and then he comes into contact with Delilah who seems like a good fit for Henry. The way they communicated eluded to something more and indeed at one point in my play through whilst talking about the June fire, things seemed to get quite intimate. The game had me wanted to meet Delilah and to make it work for Henrys sake but in the end Delilah didn't even want to see Henry face to face, she just disappeared.
I think what Campo Santo were trying to achieve was something in the vein of these 'slice of life' films, something along the lines of 'theres not always a happy ending in real life' sort of thing but really when put with rest of the story where the characters relationship was built very nicley it seemed like a quick way to end the story. I felt short changed by it as I had invested a lot of thought into the decisions given to you in order to get that 'Happy ending'
That said as a package i think Firewatch is a very unique and interesting game worthy of the amount of time I spent playing it. The game looks incredible with very nice lighting and colour choices as well as being well written I think apart from the ending. As I said in my original post not many games have inspired such a feeling of unease and isolation like this.
Ah, I understand now. The big difference for me was the tone of the central relationship.
For me, Henry and Delilah were never destined to be a couple. Whenever I was given the choice, I intentionally steered clear of dialogue choices that would be flirty in favour of developing a close friendship. I played Henry as a man looking to get away from the mess he'd made, but I was never in doubt that he'd want to go back to Julia once he could deal with his guilt and grief.
Obviously, my reading of the situation was very different to yours, but it meant that the ending fitted the story pretty well for me.
Thanks for enlightening me. The degree to which experiences can differ continues to be larger than I expected.
the "reveal" in Gone Home feels earned and in Firewatch it feels cheap.
One of the reasons that the Gone Home misdirection works is that the game never actually tells you that you're in a ghost story, or anything supernatural for that matter. Sure you get a lot of red herrings, but all conclusions are your own. You navigated a creepy house in the dark - that's all. You're led to fear the worst for these characters that you're getting to know, but ultimately the game is letting you get carried away rather than actively misleading you. The bittersweet "teenage lesbians against the world" reveal at the end is a relief, because at this point you've talked yourself into believing that something awful and supernatural is happening. You jumped at shadows, and now you get to laugh at yourself for being so silly and because you're glad these characters got to see where their story goes next.
Firewatch on the other hand completely misplays this. "Ned did it" would be fine except that nothing Ned does makes sense. His motivation is to keep people away from his son's body, which would be fine except that it's locked behind a door to which he has the only keys. Conflict over. Scaring (and possibly murdering?) a pair of tourists, assaulting Henry, and fucking with Henry and Delilah by inventing a fictional conspiracy in which they're being eavesdropped and psychologically assessed? It's all pointless and none of it is at all plausible. Ned (and by extension the game) is deliberately misleading you to make you think you're playing a different game than you are, except it makes no goddamn sense for him to do so at any point. Sure, he's deranged, but *wiretap two people you don't know to convince them that they're part of a conspiracy in order to drive a wedge between them for no reason* deranged? I realise that it's unrealistic to believe that a random government agency is camped out in the woods listening on park personnel to psychoanalyse them, but is it any more plausible that a deranged former park employee is trying to fake that exact scenario in order to drive a wedge between them so as to keep them from accidentally finding the body of his tragic-accident son? Like... what the fuck? "He's just crazy" is not any kind of a narratively satisfying answer to that.
I will say though that I loved Henry and Delilah's relationship, and as someone who spent his lonely teens in and out of MSN crushes... it hit close to him. They're both lonely, in need of affection, and have the kind of chemistry that's only even possible when you're both projecting an image of your Best Self from a place of complete emotional safety. Delilah even
takes off at the end of the game rather than have that illusion dispelled, for either of them. Because of course she does!
The gradual introduction of stress, the cracks it causes in the facade, and the gradual realisation of the fucked-up human being behind the idealised version of themselves that they're portraying... all hit very close to home. I even think my Henry was played in part because I was aware of that - downplaying his attraction to Delilah, trying to keep things at least semi-professional, and putting his damn wedding ring back on. All good stuff.
I just wish it had been the main focus of the game. If you're going to sell a 3-hour narrative game for $20, please don't spend an hour of it on story that's explicitly useless.
Really interesting views! For some reason I kind of took my own storyline as 'canon' and blanked from my mind that you could play it in different ways - in particular that you could have different goals on the relationship side. I must have got really involved in 'my' story for that to happen.
Agree also that the mystery plot went off the rails a bit at the end; it didn't spoil it for me as I was quite wrapped up in the characters, but I was certainly confused about some of the antagonist's motivations.
those climbs and jumps with blind spots really got me going so many times, the pace of keeping you on edge was immaculate and though inconsequential very much welcomed.
The 'misleading' story was perfect for me. Too many games go for the big reveal. Sure it's playing the same 'trick' as Gone Home, but that's one game out of how many? It kept the game, in the end, down to earth and the focus stayed on the wonderful relationship between Henry and Delilah. It's not often one gets a mature relationship depicted at all in games, let alone one that feels organic and real. As suggested elsewhere perhaps it is due to me being pretty much Henry's age and whilst my wife is healthy my Mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's when she was a little over 60 which whilst not as early as Julia, is still rather early. I haven't been able to talk with my Mother in a good 6 years now despite her still being with us. In my wife's game Henry and Delilah agreed to meet up at some point in the future, whilst in mine there was no such outcome, despite me doing things like not putting my wedding band on towards the end. I think I even left it in the tower to be burned. I wondered if that would indicate some intent to the game, but either I outweighed it with other choices, or it really doesn't matter.
Well, overall I can't help feeling a disappointed with this game. Gameplay annoyances we will get to in a bit, but from a story point of view, I think it failed to deliver. The game started off well, and by the middle had become a really interesting mystery. By the time I discovered the 'government research camp' I was convinced I had stumbled across a team of scientists trying to cover up real life Bigfoot sightings. Or that Henry and Delilah were unwitting participants in some sort of human psychology experiment. When the big reveal dropped, I was left cold. As extraordinary as my two ideas were, they were both far more reasonable than what we actually got. The whole madman in the woods scenario made no logical sense. Why wouldn't he have reported his sons death? Why would he have gone to the extent he did to mess around with Henry and Delilah? How can he have lived for (however many) years without anyone ever stumbling across his camp?
I also ended up feeling quite annoyed.annoyed with Delilah. She really led him up on, only to totally blow him off at the end.
Gameplay-wise, there were parts I enjoyed. Using the radio felt quite good, tactile even. But on the whole, god DAMN it was irritating as hell getting completely lost in those woods. Trying to follow an path only to find a tiny twig blocking your way. I spent a hell of a lot of my playthrough backtracking and trying to navigate the world. And speaking of backtracking, there is nothing enjoyable whatsoever about being forced to traverse from one end of the map to the other, then straight back again. Several times. I found the world incredibly frustrating. You can hop over this log, but not this one etc. There didn't seem any point searching the map outside the mission objectives either. It was a (beautiful) empty world, devoid of any points of interest other than the ones you were explicitly sent to.
It's a lazy comparison because the games share very little in common, but I much preferred Gone Home. The build up and pay off of the story were so much better, and far less obvious. If Gone Home was a doves feather tickling your balls, Firewatch was a ham-fisted oaf, smashing you right in the nads with a sledgehammer.
There were times in the game I thought it was pretty spectacular, like I could be playing something special, but then it just fizzled out. Ultimately, I don't think this is a game I could recommend to a friend.
