Review: Firewatch

I managed to get some time this long Valentine's Day weekend to purchase and completely play through Firewatch. I'm going to try a new format for game reviews. For those of you who are wondering about the game without having to read everything I wrote...

Gameplay: 10
Soundtrack: 10
Graphics: 10
Replayability: Medium (for dialogue)

Should I buy this? My thinking is yes. I purchased it for 20 dollars on Steam after reading some reviews that suggested the PS4 version may have frame-rate issues that I didn't want to deal with. Jokes on me. I had to deal with them anyways.

The game is gorgeous, my MacBook Pro couldn't handle all the gorgeousness despite having a better graphics card than recommended and more memory than necessary. I turned the settings down to Low and the game was still beautiful but I think I may have been missing out.

In terms of plot (spoilers ahead), the game really reminds me of Gone Home, another gorgeous and interesting, story-driven game. Similar mechanics, except the critical difference between Gone Home and Firewatch is that in Firewatch, you're actually speaking to someone. Or at least, I'm pretty sure you are. You never actually meet Delilah in person, which was both an exciting choice and a little bit of a bummer.

The game had me in such suspense over my 4 hour play-through that I had knots in my stomach. Severe spoilers ahead:

You get your characters backstory, it's sad but realistic. It's refreshing how much it's a believable story. Due to the representation of Delilah, I also didn't mind playing a male protagonist. Both Henry and Delilah are human and as such they are flawed individuals. You start out easy, walking around, having some short conversations with Delilah who is your superior. Her tower is easily visible from yours but is one heck of a hike.

You make observations about this beautiful piece of land you're watching, you find a cave early on that is locked to entrance but plays an important role in the story. You see two teens skinny dipping in the lake. All you do is pick up their beer cans and tell them to stop setting off fireworks but they get irrationally mad at you and ransack your tower.

Later on, the game goes in a completely different direction and you're not sure who is messing with you but your dialogue is being recorded and documented and it's suspenseful and pretty scary (for me at least!).

The game took me about 4 hours to beat and I think I'll play at least once more with different dialogue choices simply to see what (if anything) changes.

I'm excited to take my time and breathe in the environment and the gorgeous music (which I desperately want to play).

Firewatch is a beautiful game, reminiscent of Gone Home's focus on environment and storytelling. There's a good reason for all the internet chatter that's been focused on this game!

Making a Legacy

So, after my last post about content, I ended up having a long and stressful drive home with Blizzard conditions (gotta love New England!). I got home, heated up my lovely meal-prepped lunch (beef stew over rice with some roasted broccoli and brussle sprouts) and decided to get playing some Sims 4.

I haven't had a ton of time to play The Sims, especially lately but I've been a devotee from the very beginning. I remember trying to get downloaded content and mods onto my sims computer which didn't have internet.

Today though, I have my own MacBook Pro that I bought for graduate classes and my copy of Sims 4. With my son passed out for a nap during the snowstorm, a little Legacy Challenge seemed to be the game of the day!

I can't quite recall when I started playing the Legacy Challenge, I know for a fact I played several rounds during The Sims 3, I suspect though that I started during The Sims 2.

Regardless, the facts are these; you choose an heir, select your rules and randomize the heck out of your game. The goal is to make a Legacy family where you pass down the (hopefully) ever growing house from nothing to a mansion. You can basically play how you want but it also gives some guidance to make the game a little bit more challenging.

I play my Sims games in phases. Sometimes I just want to make lots of sims in Create A Sim and set them out briefly into the world. Othertimes I want to stretch my creative limbs and make a house. I used to be far better at making and designing houses, The Sims 4 definitely has some solid tools in order to do this, but my roofs always come out looking slightly odd.

Have any of you done the Legacy Challenge?

What's your favorite Sim to make? I always seem to favor sims who love to cook food!

What to Post?

I've found myself struggling with content. Partly this is because of my pure exhaustion, partly it's because I've always had trouble finding and keeping a voice online, and partly because I'm afraid of what you all will think of me.

I'd love to get over the hurdle though, I'd love to make the time to start writing again. I'm a little concerned that I'm far behind the times, that media is changing to more vlog types and I've never been very fond of watching videos. When there's a video and an article, I always choose the article. I've only watched a few "Let's Play" videos and that was purely to see the gameplay with the least annoying person narrating as possible so that I could see if I was interested in buying the game or not.

I've toyed with other concepts as well, for instance, I've been getting into chia seed pudding and I'm working to make a palatable version that suits me best. Today's experiment is tasty but not the texture that I was looking for.

Anyways, I'm working on content and I feel like this is the third "I'm working on content" post that I've made. So for you readers, accidentally stumbling upon my word vomit posts, I ask that you bare with me, or follow me on twitter where I at least feel more interesting!

I need an identity! What should I do?