Firewatch Week

Firewatch and other games I’m currently playing: ie. The Surge, Hellpoint, and Greedfall.

I debated whether or not to even upload Firewatch, but since I’m running out of videos, I needed something to fill the upload hopper until I finish some other games. Firewatch isn’t a great recording game, because it’s just watching me listen to the same story everyone else saw. There’s so much incidental voiceover dialog that there isn’t much room for commentary, and not much to talk about anyway, except ongoing speculation or criticisms of the plot. There’s no “gameplay” to suss out.

Anyway while everyone else is playing Mass Effect again, I’m playing The Surge, which is a relatively good Souls-like, except for the bosses, which range from disappointing to infuriating. Fortunately there’s only five of them. The bulk of the game is exploration. Hoping to finish it this weekend.

After that I’ll probably tackle Hellpoint, which is a very low-budget Souls-like, but also a surprisingly good one. At least in the beginning. It really captures the spirit of discovery and exploration and mystery of a Souls game, but in a creepy alien environment. Which, come to think of it, is exactly what the Souls series was.

I also started Greedfall, so that’s waiting to be finished. Greedfall sits somewhere in the “not great, but not bad” area. It’s somewhat like Mass Effect, in that it’s mostly just jogging from cut scene to cut scene and clicking on dialog choices, most of which are the linear “illusion of choice” non-branching kind. But occasionally you get to decide whether someone lives or dies.

All of those probably total up to a solid month of playing time before I could even think about buying the Mass Effect Legendary edition.

Firewatch Pt 1 of 6 - Day 1. Pretty cool “media experience” if not precisely a “game.” Good character development, voice acting. I have criticisms about the story resolution, though. Recorded 4/11/2021. (A copyrighted 80s song was painstakingly removed from one part of this video.)

Firewatch Pt 2 of 6 - Day 2. Going out to look for some busted telephone lines. Recorded 4/11/2021.

Firewatch Pt 3 of 6 - Day 3 through Day 76. Ready to work. Missing persons. Dreams. Supply drop. A fire. A shocking discovery while fishing. Recorded 4/11/2021.

Firewatch Pt 4 of 6 - Day 77. Heading to Cottonwood Creek. Breaking and entering. Recorded 4/11/2021.

Firewatch Pt 5 of 6 - Day 78. The “real story” is revealed, and it’s not what I expected. Recorded 4/12/2021.

Firewatch Pt 6 of 6 - Day 79. The story comes to a somewhat disappointing and anti-climactic ending with no resolution on anything. Recorded 4/16/2021. (Another copyrighted song was removed from the credit sequence.)

Hand of Fate 2 - Snap Judgment. Free on the Epic Game Store. A number of people said this was a good game, so I tried it out. It’s a mix of a gambling game (“pick a card”), with a choose-your-own-adventure game, with a button-mashing brawler combat game. I didn’t feel like I was making any meaningful choices. I got a lot of “illusion of choice” vibes, and mostly felt like I was just passively watching stuff happen. Recorded 4/25/2021.