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dkirschner's The Last Campfire (PC)
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| [February 9, 2024 09:11:58 AM]
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I would describe this game as "pleasant." I read someone describe it as "soothing," to which I would also agree. It's a little puzzle and adventure-lite game with cute art direction, a colorful world, a positive, hopeful story, and a narrator whose voice was certainly soothing.
You play as an "ember" trying to find its way home. You get thrown off course and have to find your way back. In so doing, you meet a variety of other embers who are lost and wandering, many of whom have given up hope of ever finding their way back. When you encounter one of these "forlorn," you must solve an environmental puzzle to inspire them. The puzzles were generally easy, yet thoughtful. Occasionally the difficulty would shoot up or down. Most puzzles took probably 5 minutes. One time, I was stumped on a puzzle. I'd spent 20 or 30 minutes poring over it. Finally figured it out (and felt very smart!). Got to the next puzzle and solved it in about 10 seconds.
Another thing that made the game difficult for me is that there is no map. There is a world that you're (using the term loosely) exploring. It's not that big, and the game begins linearly. Then it opens up and you'll be doing all sorts of backtracking, looking for forlorn, bringing items here and there for characters. Since I was generally playing this like once a week, I wasn't constructing a very solid map of the world in my mind. I'd get turned around, forget which paths led where, where characters were, and so on. It led to a fair amount of extra time spent wandering around (which I guess gels with the theme). But I would have rather had a basic map. By the time you get to the last chapter though, the game is linear again. It was strange having it be linear, then more open, then linear.
To the point about it being open in the middle, the amount of time you spend in each area varies based on how many forlorn you care to save. Each area has a campfire, with a ghost, and the forlorn whom you rescue go sit around the campfire. The ghost will give you hints as to where the forlorn in the area are located. When you get enough (I think it was four), then you can request that the ghost open the path to the next area. Or, you can continue asking for hints to find all the forlorn (usually around eight). I liked this option to spend more time searching for forlorn and solving additional puzzles. In a couple areas, I found most of the forlorn, and in a couple I went straight to the next area once I had my required amount.
Overall, yes, cute, cozy, soothing. If you like this kind of thing, you'll probably enjoy this. It is nothing I needed to play, but it was nice.
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dkirschner's The Last Campfire (PC)
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Current Status: Finished playing
GameLog started on: Thursday 18 January, 2024
GameLog closed on: Friday 2 February, 2024 |
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This is the only GameLog for The Last Campfire. |
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