Recent reviews by protagoras

Lovely little game. I only did a single playthough and don't feel particularly bothered to go through the story again to get the other endings. Maybe if the walk speed was adjustable - I found it a bit on the slow side. Worth a run through.

One of the best adventure games ever created. If you've never played this, treat yourself today. The remaster is nothing too exciting. The most remastered part is the music, IMHO. Anyway... It's the core game that stands out here.

Ugh. I really want to give this a yes, but I found the story to be overwrought - particularly the supernatural ending. This was a big miss for me. If you like point-n-clicky adventure games, I wouldn't fault you for giving this a try. Maybe you'll like the story better than I.

What stands out for me with this game: The campaign level design. Top notch. So many times that I died I was like "I should have seen that coming, but I didn't. Shame on me." Quite a bit of variety in both characters and levels.

Worst part: MacBrover is terribly useless.

I'm going to give this a 'yes but'. Graphics are nice, story is okay. It's a short romp, no puzzles/thinking necessary.

Fun little diversion. The story isn't anything exciting, but the gameplay is worth a run-through. Not much replay value here unless you fancy grapple-platform challenges.

Need a screwdriver. Go to pub. Special is cocktails. Order screwdriver. Get drink + actual screwdriver. Screwdriver is too flimsy. The fix? Put it in varnish! OF COURSE! Also, play "hidden object" in the general store. Ah, here we go - a hat that is also an umbrella that just happens to be necessary to occupy a mortician. What's this? A mini-game? Well at least we can press the 'skip' button. It's the wacky/sloppy "Anything goes" of adventure game writing. This is why the genre gets a bad rap.

I hate to give this a thumbs down as I am sure a lot of work went into this game, but it all came down to "does this bring anything interesting to the genre?" Many reviews mention the writing as a positive - you may find it enthralling. I found that I'd much rather read a period novel.

Firewatch is, above all else, about placing you in a picturesque, remote environment and letting you live a short story. Like a book, you may enjoy the experience or you may find it to be a terrible waste of four hours of your life. Either way, it's fine. Everything is fine. Life will go on.

The experience is indeed on average about four hours, with a bit of sight-seeing included. $5/hr of entertainment if you want to be shrewd about it. Cheaper than a movie for two.

The voice acting, imagery, controls, sound were all on point. Simply beginning to think about the art style gets me giddy. The fact that style doesn't "strive for absolute realism" is a breath of fresh air and fits perfectly with the environment you are placed in.

A minor critism is the set choice itself. One gets the impression that Firewatch is here to experience and be awed by - not to explore (in the current gaming sense of 100% completionism). New areas with distinguishing features are opened up as the plot progresses, but they are true-to-life: a remote wilderness/national park simply doesn't have tens of amazing unique attractions to check off your list. It's about the whole, not individual parts, where Firewatch excels. The story spans months in the wilderness - the fact of the matter is expecting every day to be jam-packed with capital-A Adventure is unrealistic.

In regards to the plot and specifically the ending: Perhaps why some find the plot so mundane is that it is. There are no aliens, no government conspiracy, no true bad guys lurking around the corner waiting to kill you when your guard is down. There's some bored kids and a few adults trying to escape from their decisions instead of facing them. There is no escapism here. I found the smash cuts to be appropriate as they spanned days or weeks of the protagonist most likely watching for fires and doing his job. The ending was fine. Characters were introduced, a couple conflicts met their climax, the situation resolved. Roll credits.

I hope that Campo Santo enjoy success from this title and use it as a springboard for a long and fruitful stay in the industry.

Beautiful graphics. Decent concept. Repetitive.

The seemingly insane low % chance on the witchhazel part is just plain bad game design and destroyed the flow of the game for me. If the devs were to fix that, I'd give this another chance. Until then, I can't be bothered to wander through the same screens over and over and over and over and over hoping the RND gods shine down on me.

Won't take you long to finish, but worth the journey. Haunting at points - perhaps a bit too typical of the genre (jump scares, blood, darkness) as others have noted - but the story is strong and combination of mechanics draw you in.