Firewatch Spoiler Thread | Henry Two Hats

[osmosisch]

I couldn't find the turtle. Very sad.

it's

where the powerline has snapped, on a rock below it next to the supply box

[bakelite]

Thanks!

 

I'm curious about the significance of Jane Eyre, I'm pretty sure it's the only real book in the game. Also, someone should write Borges-style fake reviews of the fake books.

[DMorsing]

Oh well, I guess I was really convinced there was something more than Ned and his dad, but now I'm really confused why he just left his son's body like that. Or he could have not left the keys in a backpack attached to an alarm and buried them somewhere if he was worried about Henry finding his son. If anything he was the one who led Henry there by creating this elaborate ruse in the first place. Maybe I'm supposed to take away that he really wanted to tell someone about his guilt then?

 

Guilt probably has something to do with it, but there's another reason to hook up the alarmed backpack. When you find it, Ned is going up to your tower to tape the walkman to the door. He's luring Henry out with the radio and then listens for the alarm for when it is time to get the hell out of your tower.

[syntheticgerbil]

I suppose that makes sense, but considering the backpack had a tracker, and I had assumed Ned didn't hear the alarm anyway since taping a tape up doesn't take a ton of time, then he still handed Henry the key.

 

Also (including that moment) Ned had a lot of opportunity to collect all of the evidence Henry just foolishly laid out in his tower to ensure no trace would be found. I kept thinking it would be stolen, but that was never the case.

[GByronWilliams]

It's possible that if the camp is being used outside of summer and Delilah's only firewatching during the summer she might not necessarily be aware, I guess.

 

Those were my thoughts too!

 

I'd also love to know what'd happen if Henry stole the other supplies.

 

I loved the game, looking forward to doing a more role play-ey playthrough tomorrow, one where I'm the worst person possible, and one where I'm all about running away with Delilah.

 

That beginning was so well crafted, it felt very Pixar-esque in the way it attempts to generate pathos between the player and Henry.

[robotslave]

Like most everyone else, I played through it relatively straight.  Unlike some, I haven't got much interest in playing through it again to see what it's like when you make Henry be an asshole.

 

My first complaint is that this is an absolutely terrible game to play through when you've got a really bad cough.  Which I suppose is a compliment to whoever did the lighting and smoke effects, but I feel it really did exacerbate the coughing fits.

 

And my second is that I tried to clean up every piece of litter I could out there in the wilderness, so it just killed me when I found two beer cans that were glitched into some rocks and couldn't be picked up.

 

I'm not sure how I feel about Delilah.  But then it seems that's how I'm meant to feel about her, so that's fine.  The radio is of course a nice metaphor for the relationship, and relationships generally, and fits the story perfectly.  But I'm curious: which came first, the conceit of the radio (presumably driven by a budget decision to do the game without character modeling/animation/etc) or the story that it would be used to tell?

[osmosisch]

Having had a night to sleep on it, I'm going to try and properly articulate my thoughts/feelings about this game.

There's a lot of things to love in Firewatch for me, first and foremost being its amazing aesthetics, both in their uniqueness in the gaming landscape, and their coherence. The gorgeous vistas, the painterly style, the moving but discreet music and the wonderful setting all contribute to a game that is a joy to visit for me. I've done a lot of nature hiking over the years and this game manages at times to capture that feeling.

I thought it was a very good idea to make this a walk-and-talk game so that you can experience two of the game's greatest strengths (the environment and the conversations) without them getting in the way of one another.

As an aging dude, it's nice to see a story that's not about tight-bodied teens (except tangentially). For similar reasons, the introductory material left me somewhat choked-up.

There's also a bunch of things that did not sit well with me at all, which ultimately left me disappointed in the whole experience.

Most of my more fundamental gripes were made clearer to me when I tried to contrast this game to gone Home, which I adored in each and every aspect.

Both games have a relatively mundane story, which creates some tension through misdirection before ultimately resulting in a bit of a non-resolution.

In Gone Home, you the player are invited into the head of the protagonist to a much more complete way. Katie says almost nothing that you aren't thinking because she is largely silent. In no place is this contrast stronger than in the most tense parts of both games. The rush up to the attic in Gone Home had my heart pounding in my chest, but the game itself is confident and quiet, letting my and Katie's worries be one and the same. In Firewatch, when investigating the scientific encampment I was constantly distracted by Henry and Delilah's chatter about how fucked up and confusing the situation was. Their belaboring the point so mostly served to remove my immersion and made me feel more like a passenger.

In Gone Home, you are trying to find out what happened. The game's actions are then exactly what you choose. In Firewatch, you are experiencing what happens, and are being led around by objectives and tasks. That these goings-on in Firewatch end up shedding some light on an earlier mystery feels largely besides the point, because as Henry, that's not what the game and situation really are about (trying to come to terms with the loss of a partner). Again, the contrast is between agency and being along for the ride.

The decision to make Henry and Delilah and their situation the central focus of the game made it so that I did not feel I was playing the game, but was a bystander. They determine the flow of the conversation to a much larger extent than I did, and their conversations would just proceeed on without what felt like material input from me.

In the end, the difference to me comes down to a player-directed experience and a theme park ride. I prefer the former.

I'll say that in many ways Firewatch is a much more ambitious game, and I applaud its ambition. This made the fact that it didn't always manage to fulfil those ambitions for me amplify my disappointment.

There were some minor annoyances as well, like the occasional overuse of some phrases ("are you serious right now?!") and some tonal/content shifts in conversation from paranoia about tracking to playful flirting that felt rather jarring. In general the writing felt a bit manipulative and glib at times, and Henry frequently acted much more jocularly than I felt fit the character I'd made for him in my head, but in general I did enjoy the writing a lot.
 

ne consequence of the realism and relatability of the characters and general setting is that I have absolutely zero desire to play through again with different choices, because I've made the choices that I felt are correct, and therefore making different ones would feel bad. I may revisit the game with some pointers to try and find stuff I missed but I don't think I'd enjoy it all that much.

 

Anyway, I think Campo Santo should feel proud of what they made, and I look forward to what they do next.

[syntheticgerbil]

it's

where the powerline has snapped, on a rock below it next to the supply box

Odd, I checked some reddit threads a bit ago and it appears you can have two turtles, however they said it was northwest of Jonesy lake (I'm guessing on that small circular area where your path ends). Since you have said a third location, does this mean you can own three turtles at once? turtle power

 

Also concerning the research area on Reddit, I found some vague info on two events I missed where the game may have clarified it some. Apparently there's some conversation you can trigger with Delilah at some point where she says she lost the info about the fenced in research area under a pile of papers. No idea where this would take place as it seems like if it took place before finding the research area and her wanting to burn it down, it wouldn't play out well. The second is you can use your tracker presumably after the first time to find an option deer with a collar up north to confirm they are part of the research project.

 

I hope I get more hidden stuff like this in preparation for another playthrough. I'm also wondering how many obscure type easter eggs there are in the game, like taking the baseball all the way to the cave at the end and throwing it inside the guitar and somehow Henry starts singing the lyric song from the full soundtrack.

[jennegatron]

Upon finishing, I had a bunch of questions and an initial feeling of the mystery not hanging together, but the more I think about it the better it works for me.

[Coods]

 

 

In Gone Home, you are trying to find out what happened. The game's actions are then exactly what you choose. In Firewatch, you are experiencing what happens, and are being led around by objectives and tasks. That these goings-on in Firewatch end up shedding some light on an earlier mystery feels largely besides the point, because as Henry, that's not what the game and situation really are about (trying to come to terms with the loss of a partner). Again, the contrast is between agency and being along for the ride.

In the end, the difference to me comes down to a player-directed experience and a theme park ride. I prefer the former.

 

I super agree with this and want to go into my take on the same problem.

 

You mentioned that the two interactions in the game are 1. the interaction with Delilah and the story and 2. the interaction with the world. Obviously these two things intersect, and the walkie lets you further both interactions at the same time, but I think other than that these two things fight for the player's attention.

 

Early on after a couple of the early days you realize that if you hit the right story beats, the day will automatically end, and after the story starts to pick up you can't really go exploring without breaking the pace of the story. This is tough because I'm one of those people who like to follow what the game wants me to follow, and because I care about Delilah I want to get to the bottom of the plot so she stops freaking out. Save for that nice scene where you both watch the June fire together, there's not a lot of downtime in the middle of the game. Might have been nice, but who knows if you could do that without also boring the player.

 

I don't think the design of the game is inherently flawed. The game suggests that you will be rewarded with specific content if you go exploring, and that's good (i never found the raccoon). But with the day-skipping structure, the game doesn't say to you "this stuff is important enough to detour from the imminent plot".

 

However, when this non-crit path stuff DOES show up on the way to crit stuff, it's AMAZING. Finding the pork pond sign in Delilah's tower is juxtaposed with her breaking it off with you. Really crushing moment. I wish I found more of that stuff.

[syntheticgerbil]

Did you not find the raccoon behind the Pork Pond sign?!

[Coods]

Did you not find the raccoon behind the Pork Pond sign?!

 

Is that where it actually was???? damnit

[singlespace]

I don't think the design of the game is inherently flawed. The game suggests that you will be rewarded with specific content if you go exploring, and that's good (i never found the raccoon). But with the day-skipping structure, the game doesn't say to you "this stuff is important enough to detour from the imminent plot".

 

There's actually one point where they explicitly telegraph that you can explore, I think maybe on Day 2? It's when Delilah asks if you're ready for work and then the conversation has an unnatural beat added where you can say either you're ready or that you'll hike around a bit.

[Cbirdsong]

There's actually one point where they explicitly telegraph that you can explore, I think maybe on Day 2? It's when Delilah asks if you're ready for work and then the conversation has an unnatural beat added where you can say either you're ready or that you'll hike around a bit.

 

It was a bit unnatural in that moment, which seemed like it should be where you see what Henry's day-to-day life will be like. I wish they had broken up the "DAY XX" title cards with more vignettes of Henry doing whatever (like the sandwich), but ending with the ability to explore and that kind of explicit "let's advance the story" choice available to cut to the next title card.

 

Aside: Did anyone else dread the moment when you'd be rappelling and a silhouette would come and cut your rope? Once the paranoid atmosphere was in full effect, I figured this moment was inevitable, which I guess means I was just as gullible as Henry and Delilah.

[singlespace]

Yeah, I really liked that small vignette, but I doubt they had the budget to really lean into that kind of content.

 

I think maybe I had a slightly atypical experience with the rappels: they didn't really seem that bad, just some scree slopes as opposed to verticals. If pressed, you can sprint and slide down those kinds of things, though it's really not advised since it erodes the scree and is a bit treacherous. Most of the time people will switchback up and down those kinds of slopes, it's a bit rare to bother with fixed lines.

[osmosisch]

I think maybe I had a slightly atypical experience with the rappels: they didn't really seem that bad, just some scree slopes as opposed to verticals. If pressed, you can sprint and slide down those kinds of things, though it's really not advised since it erodes the scree and is a bit treacherous. Most of the time people will switchback up and down those kinds of slopes, it's a bit rare to bother with fixed lines.

Oh yeah, that bothered me a bit too haha

[singlespace]

Oh yeah, that bothered me a bit too haha

 

Haha, yeah -- there's a lot of things that you have to let go to enjoy the game and that's fine. After some of the early footage, I sent this crazy long rant on things that didn't make sense to the Thumbs that I regret.

[syntheticgerbil]

WHY IS HENRY SO BAD AT CARING FOR HIS TURTLES?!

WHY CAN'T I KEEP THE RACCOONS IN A CARDBOARD BOX?

Also Reddit says you can die in a fire at the end. Special ending sounds awesome.

 

Can I also just say I was disappointed the hat you could wear was not the hat yellow hat Sean Vanaman lost years back. If it could exist again in polygons, it's almost like having that one last dance.

 

 

CalumOMG 

LOL, been carrying around the radio in Firewatch with this playing on repeat.

 

Does this mean you can literally take this boombox with you through the entire game and never have this song stop playing? Can someone do a boombox run?

[singlespace]

By hat, do you mean one that says Cody Wyoming with a rodeo rider on it? Because if you do, you can pick that up at the very start of the game.

[syntheticgerbil]

Are you serious? Argh I failed. I must have missed that. Maybe I was sneezing a lot and didn't see it.

 

I meant the one in one of the supply caches.

[singlespace]

Ah, yeah, the Cody cap is in front of your right truck wheel when you arrive at the trail head.

[syntheticgerbil]

I already had the bad ending before I even started.

[Chris]

You can hear the windchimes in the clearing—maybe even at the beginning of the game?  As I was playing I kept walking back and forth in a certain spot, trying to tell if the chimes were actually part of the game.  When I felt they were, I thought, "oh, I guess there is a location up there that I will get to later."  And there was!

So glad someone found this!

[Twig]

Hahaha, I ran around for like ten minutes trying to find the source of those goddamn bells. When I found the cave later I was so relieved to learn I wasn't just hearing things. PHEW.

[juffowup]

Thoughts I had:

 

--I found two baseball caps and wore them every day.  I kept hoping the game would acknowledge I was wearing two hats at the same time like an idiot.

 

--During the scary parts, instead of reassuring myself that it's only a game, I was reassuring myself that modeling and animating people is expensive to there's definitely not going to be anyone there.

 

--Near the medicine circle, I found the path south early in the game (before the controlled fire opens it up).  Not knowing there would be a path there later, I assumed that there would later be a scripted sequence where I had to hide there, so I was terrified of this area and went around whenever I could.

 

--I love the invented stats on the Wizards and Wyverns character sheet.

 

--Weird to me that Delilah thinks revealing Brian's body means saying she knew he was there.  She can't say Ned lied to her about him not being there, but Henry found out he actually was?  That she said the kid waving at the planes was Ned because Ned said it was?

 

--During the credits roll I felt bad that half the pictures I took were of glitchy trees.  I'd love to order prints, but I think I'll get a better video card and play again.  

 

--Bummer that the press-y-for-text text on my psyche eval was different than the text that appeared on the image in my inventory.  Nice to know that yes, it was reactively created I guess.

 

--I sure would like to assemble the saga of Ron and Dave.  I wonder to what extent their correspondence was altered by the fact that someone was stealing all their notes to each other.  

 

--In my playthrough I kept thinking that the twine-ish intro went way more different places than I guess it does; that my dementia backstory was just one of many possible.  It seems like it's always that though I guess.