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Jdao's Firewatch (XBONE)
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| [February 16, 2018 12:25:58 AM]
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NOTE: Spoilers ahead and behind (my past entries). Entry submitted 2-15-18 at 11:25 PM.
Played for a total of 3 hours today. I wanted to finish the game for the last OPA entry of this game. I right up until the end it was pretty exciting and a little terrifying. Throughout today's play-through you figure out that someone has been watching you. So until I figured out who it was at the end I was paranoid for every little sound I heard from the environment, especially like something is moving in the bushes. But nothing popped out, I guess this isn't that kind of game.
To pick off where we left off earlier when we're heading fishing. Henry/Hank find a clipboard that has the conversations that Delilah and Henry have been having throughout the whole Summer. Henry is knocked out by the person that has been watching them. From this point on, both Delilah and Henry start becoming afraid and paranoid. I believe there were options to verbally attack Delilah during some conversations but I tried to keep a level head as possible. Henry and Delilah are thinking there some kind of conspiracy and so they decide that they/Henry should investigate the fenced off area. You find some high tech communication devices and documents, later figure out they were drafted by the mysterious man, detailing Delilah and Henry's life and personality. They begin thinking that this whole place was created to observe them both but you later find out that that isn't the case. I've already given out too much so I'm just going to say that what seemed like a whole big dramatic plan/event was actually not that big. There is no secret research facility doing experiments on the inhabitants of the forest. It was just facade for something smaller. A story about a former lookout and his son. They figure out that the son has died and the lookout/father is to blame. Delilah's angry at both the failure of a father and herself because she didn't report about it. It's not really apparent on whether she gets completely over it. After solving the whole mystery of who's watching them, the former lookout, and a murder. A fire is enveloping the entire forest and Henry and Delilah escape. Now right before escaping, Henry is in Delilah's lookout tower waiting for the helicopter, while Delilah's already left. Henry and Delilah talk on a ham radio about what they're going to do in the future. And Henry wants to be with Delilah, at least that's what I chose. But Delilah tells Henry that he needs to face up and go see his wife before anything. That the problems he came to the forest to run away from are still in front of him. This brings up a theme that is pretty apparent throughout the game, and that is guilt, escapism, self-acceptance and moving forward. Now does the game depict these themes effectively? I would say that the story brought up/presented the themes very well and it's just up to the player's dialogue responses on how well it turned out. For me I chose dialogue that I would think I would say and that I wanted Henry to accomplish what he came out to the forest to do, which was I believe to be moving forward and tackling your problems.
The former lookout/father is what Henry could be. He's a symbol of having run away from his problems instead of owning up to them and facing it head on. He was still stuck in the past.
I've kind of rambled on and pretty much spoiled the game for whoever reads this, so sorry. Anyway overall, I came into this game with low expectations and came out semi-satisfied. Semi-satisfied just because I'm a little annoyed that we didn't even get to see Delilah and that the ending felt a little underwhelming.
This entry has been edited 3 times. It was last edited on Feb 16th, 2018 at 00:32:04.
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| [February 15, 2018 12:58:29 AM]
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NOTE: Can't change the site's time. Time of this entry's submission is 2-14-18 at 11:58 PM.
Was only able to get around 40 minutes in today but I think the two hour play time yesterday counterbalances that. So, found the teenagers or at least their campsite. And it was wrecked, they even left a note and it mentions that the two teenage girls believe that I was the one who destroyed their camp. I didn't do it but I find it funny that they threatened to call the cops even though they were the ones who wrecked my lookout tower.
Now here's where the game starts to speed up the story and boy did they really speed it up. Delilah asks if I'm ready to get to work and I tell her yes. But then it gives me the option to tell her to put it on hold cause I want to explore around more. In my head I'm thinking oh I guess somethings going to happen since they're giving me this option. I explore a little and then tell her I'm ready to work. Note, that when I tell her I'm ready to work that it is day 3 in game time. A couple days pass by and Delilah mentions that the teenage girls who I saw at the lake and think I that I destroyed their camp, are missing and that I was potentially the last person who saw them. Fast forward a couple weeks and Delilah begins telling me about her life after having told her so much about mine. Henry and Delilah are becoming pretty close now. One night you get a call from Delilah and next thing you're talking to your wife whose asking how you are. I tell her I'm fine and she lets you go back to bed but apparently according to Delilah, I was talking in my sleep. I was kind of thinking that the whole game so far was coming from Henry's head and that Delilah wasn't real but now I'm rethinking that. More weeks pass and finally a forest fire happens. And Delilah and Henry are really intimate with each other now, as much as you can be over a radio. Henry names a fire after Delilah's middle name, June and now here I am about to go fishing. Note it's like day 64 in the game now.
Overall, I'm having a good time despite my initial low expectations.
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Feb 15th, 2018 at 01:00:08.
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| [February 14, 2018 12:56:42 AM]
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NOTE: the time it says I posted this entry is wrong. I posted this entry 2-13-18 at 11:56 PM.
I've heard good things about this game for quite some time but just haven't really felt like picking it up, til now anyways. It just so happened that the game became on sale on the Microsoft store so I thought, why not. I came into this game with pretty low expectations just because I've heard about how the gameplay is basically just a walking simulator with a few button presses for simple interaction, and that's partly why I haven't felt really motivated to play this game until this assignment. And you know what, this game actually made time go by pretty good. I expected to play at least a little bit over half an hour and at this point for my first OPA of the game I'm clocked at about two hours. Now I'm a little worried I went too far because I've heard the game is fairly short.
Anyway, so far the game's story has captivated me to the point of always having an urge to figure out what's going to happen next. Off the bat, the soundtrack really helps set the mood. The beginning part with the on screen background information/story about how he met his wife was pretty captivating and moving. You would probably normally think that just pure screens of text would bore, you, but the music and content of the text really drew me in. The game brings up a pretty serious issue of your wife going through Alzheimer, dementia. You're growing apart from her and you just need an escape. So fast forward a little later and you set out on a new job as a lookout. You're always in contact with a person named Delilah, your supervisor, and you have some pretty interesting conversations whether it's about the actual plot of the game, just finding random objects on the ground, or you admiring the scenery. She questions why you took the job and even mentions that usually people only take this job because they're escaping from something, which Henry, you, to be doing.
So far throughout the job I've had to tell off some teens because they were causing potential dangers to the forest with their campsites, fireworks, and oddly catchy yet annoying music. After doing that I head back to my lookout tower. Note, do not take the teens boombox because while it does make the trip back pretty enjoyable with the pop music it kills the tension when someone has broken into your lookout tower. The only people I expect to have caused this so far is the teenagers and the creepy guy I met on my way back. Later communication towers wires have been cut off by someone deliberately and now at this point I'm looking for whoever did it, suspecting the teens.
Now you're probably wondering how this took up 2 hours. Well, I explored way too much. Anyway, the only moral, ethical, issues I've picked up through my playtime so far is escapism and coming to terms with things. So far Henry our protagonist seems to be escaping his home issues of his wife going through dementia. And he's come to the forest in order to clear his mind and forget about it. And I believe we've all had similar experiences where we go to places or use devices to escape our problems. I know I've done it multiple times through whether it's just surfing the web or playing video games.
This entry has been edited 2 times. It was last edited on Feb 14th, 2018 at 00:58:55.
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Jdao's Firewatch (XBONE)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Tuesday 13 February, 2018
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