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.

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: [spoiler]Perhaps why some find the plot so mundane is that [b]it is[/b]. 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 [b]watching for fires[/b] and doing his job. The ending was fine. Characters were introduced, a couple conflicts met their climax, the situation resolved. Roll credits.[/spoiler] 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.