Agent_KaryoFirewatch was meant to spark a subgenre but its influence didn’t spread. A decade on, we ask why Roblox and Minecraft are more
I_Has_A_HatI really liked the first 80% of Firewatch. The last 20% though… I guess I didn’t hate it, but I also really didn’t like the switch in tone. Without giving spoilers, the ending left me feeling kind of disappointed with how normal it was. I remember finishing the game and immediately going to look if there was an alternative ending, because certainly the game wouldn’t just end like… That.
Like, imagine working on a big murder mystery where a man was found dead inside a locked room with no windows. You gather tons of clues, interview countless people searching for a motive, spend a lot of time putting together all the clues and… It turns out he simply tripped and hit his head.
Like, there’s still a mystery. There’s still a good story. It’s not even a really bad ending, it’s just not nearly as exciting as where you thought it would lead.
I see this opinion quite a bit. I also see the opinion that I’m about to give you quite a bit.
I think the ending was fitting. Life goes on, not everything has a spectacular ending. Yet we go on.
I think I related to the game quite well because I finally played it after ending a long-term relationship. I think it actually helped me process some stuff - not that I couldn’t without it, but it maybe helped bring it out into the open.
Yeah, I actually think from a narrative perspective it’s very fitting, maybe anticlimactic, but fitting.
You have this guy trying to get away from the realities of life, he wants things to be more than what they are, but in the end that just isn’t the case. It’s melancholic, but also cathartic in a way.