I actually found the ending to come as sort of a twist/gutpunch that was satisfying. After having chased this mystery having it turn around on you and be like "No, dufus, you're still out here and your problems are still the same. Okay?". Was sort of a "Oh, shit.." moment.
The ending hit me because it's a perfect analogue for anxiety. All these horrible things you think are happening and in the end, it's fine. It's always fine.
The game is brilliant in how those "disappointing" endings exist to subvert both the protagonists and the player's expectations. The player wants to figure stuff out and feel like they are doing something important. They are not. The stories are not grand or amazing or great, they are everyday weird stuff, something unusual but not life changing at all. Firewatch is bold in that it sticks the middle finger to standard narrative expectations to show how life really is.
if you thought the jump cuts killed the pacing, when I played through it I really loved the long hikes in nature, and it being summer about halfway through the game I just stopped packed up my backpack, went to the store got some food and went backpacking for two days. That really killed the pacing
Very good reflection of this game. I am one of the people who absolutely loved the ending. I am actually not one for weird conspiracy theories in games. (Strangely, I like looking them up OUTSIDE of media, but don't necessarily find them entertaining when they are used in fiction.) The most hard hitting games to me are the ones that tell stories of relateable disappointment. I am not one to reject feelings of sadness and let-down. I found the problems the main character had to face believable, to the point where it was arousing some very emotional feelings for me, and I can appreciate that. I'm glad it took a turn. I am glad it was sad. Disappointing, even. Because that's just life. And I know some people want to escape life with high fantasy and sci fi and pure fiction, but sometimes they also want their feelings and problems justified and expressed. I think Firewatch does a great job of keeping it real. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
to me, the disappointing ending i was fine with at first, unravelled the whole writing of this game, backwards: 'it was just that? then this wasnt much either, that was fluff then, then..' to me the mc didnt escape anything. i mean i think what was really said here through the game was the sjw bs of 'stop playing videogames and care for the real world, join us become a communist too: one people one thought'; but i thought, in the story, the mc didnt know what to do, reached a fork in his life that wasnt even lit up and sat(took some time off Life) to think. a male figure i really respect(ironically, the actor he looks like the most is the villain in KungFu Hustle) a lot in my life i only knew for a year once said '..i mean, you know, when the little brat knocked down the speech you took the whole day to write, annotate, rewrite, think over and redo from scratch, while you were catering to her sister, and was still drawing on it when you stood out of your office, bewildered ... you turn around go to a tap, let the water run down your head for a while. then when you ve calmed back down you go in there and grab it off the kid.' artists&writers let their work sit there go do something else then come back with a new outlook on things. i think he needed air. he cant take care of his wife&himself,he cant rely forever on her parents. he has to take a path.
God. This video is what I needed in February, when I played firewatch while my GF watched. She quickly became invested in the whole slew of plot devices used to create tension and when we just got on the helicopter and the game ended she wanted me to refund the game, while I just had enjoyed some of the best storytelling I've ever seen in any medium and felt a little bummed out but at the same time really good about Henry maybe taking a few pointers from what happened during his time as a member of the firewatch.
I think the gameplay is a little simplistic and repetitive (with regard to the "order of events" puzzles), but it's a fantastic game, and I second the recommendation. Nevermind is also great! :)
I think "some of the best storytelling in any medium" is a bit of a stretch... I mean, it's competent, but I wouldn't put this anywhere near the best books I've read or movies I've watched.
I loved this game & it's story. It's ending felt like real life. You dramatize things in your head & expect things to play out a certain way, then it confounds your expectations in a mundane & quietly tragic way, & you move on from it. The experience of playing this was very unique & it featured some of the best writing & character work in the medium IMO
The first time I played it, I didn't ask Delilah to stay in her tower at the end and I almost wish the game made you ask. When I finally replayed it a few months later and did indeed ask her to stay, the ending had so much more narrative impact. Really great video.
The genius of the ending of this game is the same as the genius throughout it. If it feels disappointing, it's because you latched onto ideas of conspiracy or romance, etc. And like in real life, when you're attached to some grand fantasy, you WILL be disappointed. But if you can find beauty in each moment, then just putting your wedding ring on or leaving it off is packed with meaning about choosing to stay strong in your relationship or learning to let go.
The problem is if you suspected Delilah, the game just leaves so many lose ends that you don't know her motives. She can just be incompetent at her job thus didn't know the U.S Forest Service uses the citizen band thus anyone can ease drop, maybe she didn't know about the research site because she ignores her paperwork yet all that is speculation with the player having no evidence to hand wave away all of Delilah's actions. So the game does just end with plot threads still unaddressed.
But Henry would learn this during his debriefing. The game basically ends before Henry (and the player) would learn what happened as these questions would be answered as the goverment questions Henry.
Spoilers! I'll talk about part of the ending/mystery. Personally, i found the conclusion of one of the mysteries a kind of stroke of genius. The researchers were just tracking a male and female elk, and our protagonists let their imagination run wild thinking that the transcripts were about them. That i think is perfect, i can get behind that. You are alone in the woods with the only means of communication to another human being the Walkie-Talkie, yeah i would guess that a lot of people would be creeped out by that as well. Leading ultimately to similar false conclusions, as the character of Firewatch reached. What i don't agree with is that you can miss the dead Elk quite easily, leaving the whole research mystery inconclusive. I don't know, that seemed like a misstep for me. I'd imagine that a lot more people would've ultimately been happier with the ending, were that plot point a "scripted" find. Anyway, great game. I loved it.
You can still see in the researcher's notes in the tent that they are clearly tracking animals, which is not missable if you take the time to look at everything in the "main quest". They refer to a male and female and use language that obviously refer to animals, not people. That's what caught my attention like you said, it added an extra layer of confusion which finally made sense at the end when you realize the notes about Henry were planted.
I really enjoyed this game I felt like it was a very good story and was almost like a book and had a nice flow and the controls were very good and didn't distract the player the soundtrack was also very nice the ending I felt was satisfactory for the story as it developed
Errant, your videos always show me things in such a different light. They make me appreciate things in ways I didn't know I could. Keep up the great work!
Finished this today. Maybe it's because I'm in my mid 40s and have been dealing with similar things, but the ending was fantastic, and I can only see complaints as being from the unrelated. It worked, expertly so as I see it, and like other "walking sims" such as Gone Home and Dear Esther before it, I'll be thinking about this precious gem of interactive entertainment for a long time to come.
lol, had this one in a „spoilers“ playlist for later watching. Didnt know it was 4 years already. But yeah, finally played it on switch of all places. Great stuff, your video as well as the game.
I haven''t seen anyone talk about the books that are all over the game. All the spy novels I think really hit home the idea that we like to think of ourselves as someone who's stumbled on some super secret plot, when in reality we're just lost in the woods.
I agree with you about the jump cutting. I think the game would have been much more effective were it to avoid ending your days for you. It seems much more effective to developing that sense of isolation and loneliness to force the players to actually walk back to the tower every day, even if the developers chose to cut out a good number of days in the summer. I was really disappointed at the Day 2 cut. Why couldn't I have chosen when to end the day? Maybe I wasn't finished looking around their campsite. You know, I take that back, I wish they would have showed all the summer days. Make it stretch. By the time Henry went into the cave, he would have been intimately familiar with the area. But I was still fumbling with the map and compass, trying to figure out landmarks. I suppose this added to the disorientation during the evac run, but I really wish I had been less dependent on the map, been given more time to explore, feel less like I'm racing against the clock or the next jumpcut to really immerse myself. Maybe I can make the second playthrough better for that; if I know where the cuts are, I can avoid activating them until I'm ready. I'm not saying it was disappointing overall. That point at which you get the reveal about Brian, about Ned, and the fire is raging around, all this beautiful forest that will be gone. You're fleeing, and there's this real sense of numbness. What now? THAT was perfectly constructed. I was thinking while playing, this must be what watchers feel like when they're forced to flee. All this time and effort spent, and I'm just leaving it behind to burn. It doesn't feel like an action movie, like the fire is chasing right behind you, but more like a slow plod. I appreciated all the red herrings. Every good mystery should have a lot of them. It was just a different sort of resolution. In most mysteries, you have the "aha!" moment. There was no aha moment. By the time Henry finds Brian in the cave, finds Ned's hideout, you somehow already knew. It wasn't a big reveal, it was a sinking realization that Henry and Delilah's fears were true. The comparison to Gone Home is obvious. That game has so many of the same mechanics and includes a goodly number of red herrings, and the emotional construction was equally good. I hope to see more games like these in the future.
This was perfect. The ending is also meta IMHO, in that it tells you "hey, were you looking for escapism? look elsewhere", and that's its real punch for me.
Although i would appreciate it if they removed the giant "Escapism park and also pretty pictures (and some thriller) woo!" sign from the entrance. It's a tad misleading.
13:20 - I had no loading times on my computer, so I never noticed this, but even so, I wouldn't say the joke was "ruined" just slightly de-synced. If the music had continued to fade out just a second or two longer, I dont think you'd have noticed it either.
Great, and greatly needed, review. I feel like the side-stories do more than what you're giving them credit for. They are what feeds into the idea that you're running away from your troubles. You as a player start to focus on everything but Herny's issues with his wife, and in a way that is Henry also escaping his problems aswell. In the end though, the game smacks you across the head with the brutal reality that you have to face your problems. There is no conspiracy. There is no greater overmind for you to care about. There is only the here and now of your life! The duality between Henry and the other man is pretty good too. Henry goes back to the real world. The man decides to stay hidden.
You nailed it. I thought no one else considered the tension between the jump cuts and the continuity of walking around the forest. I think the latter helps add to the desire for escapism, instead of constantly feeding the plots constantly. And all the analysis about themes of escapism and anticlimax being married together. Really sharp.
Probably my favourite game so far this year, but I agree about the jump cuts. What I love about this game is how it invites you interact with it's world. No waypoints, just look at your map and figure it out. I loved simply walking about and having a say in how to get somewhere and how quickly. But the jump cuts take that away from you and I found that a little frustrating. Giving you the option to "fast travel" to the next story beat might be a little too artificial so I don't really know what the solution would be, it's just the game flows so well that they stand out in a bad way. I was also one of the people that didn't like the ending at first, but for the reasons you stated, it grew on me over time. I especially like how, if you really want Henry to "become" Ned, you essentially can by refusing to get on the helicopter at the end. Great video man.
This was a great video and really explained what I loved about this game. After getting to the end, I knew I had played something special and I loved the ending, I thought it really fit the message the game was giving and was super interesting. Parts of it and parts of this video really reminded me of the quote “When someone leaves your life, those exits are not made equal. Some are beautiful and poetic and satisfying. Others are abrupt and unfair. But most are just unremarkable, unintentional, clumsy.” - Griffin McElroy (yes, him. It's from TAZ) Julia's loss of memory and self really was a difficult situation for Henry, as she slowly faded away from him but there was no real point where she was gone entirely, making it very difficult for him to either let go or hold onto her. The whole game just fits super interesting ideas into an experience that was just so enjoyable to play through
I'm sure someone mentioned this, but did you notice how they used one of Terrence Greenbriar's books (I think The Accidental Savior?) from Gone Home in one of the cache boxes? :P
You're always the only one who really seems to get the game...I felt the same way about the ending, but you put it into words and drew conclusions better than I could. Cheers!
Just found this video. Thank you for so eloquently elucidating the feelings i had when i finished this game years ago. I definitely wasn't in the "crappy ending ruined the whole thing" camp, but neither was i in the "this is a masterpiece in every way" camp either. It's a great game and has definitely stuck with me, but something about its approach always felt off to me, though i could never place my finger on exactly why. But you've nailed it here -- it's the jump cuts, and the dissonance they create between the different storytelling techniques being used. I really wanted more of the day-to-day, semi-tedious reality of living in those woods. I really wanted more meaningless conversations and weird points of interest in the woods to call in. Basically, the first half of the game made me think I was watching a season of an intriguing character-focused dramedy TV series, then halfway through realizing I was actually watching a thriller that was already speeding into Act 3. The intentional anticlimaxes that bothered so many people were exactly right, I thought -- it's the highly compressed couple of high-tension hours that lead to them that's really the problem. Anyway, great video!
thanks so much for reviewing this game. I don't have time to play a lot of games so your analyses are fantastic for me to digest a game like this thoroughly and quickly. this video, and of course Firewatch itself, has strongly influenced the direction my own like-minded game is taking, especially with respect interactive story text and pacing. You've also cemented this as a game I need to play. this might be the first glowing review I've ever heard you make! great job as always to my favorite RUclipsr
I didn't like the ending because I play video games for escapism. I play race sims because I missed my shot at doing it for real. I play the Witcher because my real job is unfulfilling and killing monsters for gold makes me feel like I'm doing something important... if only for a fleeting moment. Firewatch reminded me of how boring and mediocre my life is when I knew that already. A bunch of people making a video game, living a dream, are telling me real life isn't about conspiracy theories and summer romances not seen since highschool. Real life is boring. Yea, no shit.
A Paranoia Based Thriller 0:42 1:50 Responses 3:07 Problems you have, Unsatisfying resolve to them 3:50 Critiquing Escapism 4:27 _Ned_ has a similar problem, taking it to a logical extreme. They both failed. They both ran away from their reality. 6:00 Middle Age. 7:04 Irresponsible. Don’t want to face loss. 8:04 _Contain The Damage_ 8:40 Why people don’t like the ending 9:22 Comparisons to other walk simulator story games Player Character--Environment 11:00 The Map 12:12 Forrest 12:42 Jump Cuts 13:59 15:20 Time/Space and Storytelling 16:24 In Summary
Dear Errant Signal, your commentary was beautifully written, and your sentiments ring true on both a game-design and human-user-experience level. Bravo on this video essay!
An effective subversion, but but not particularly satisfying for me. Less 'pulling the rug out from under me', and more like asking me to step off the rug before rolling it up and carrying it away, possibly knocking over a lamp with it on the way out. I really do appreciate the attempt, though, and everything else in it is fantastically done
You touched on something I also really liked about Boyhood, namely the way real life just has people enter and leave your life quickly and without fanfare.
I enjoyed this explanation of what the game was trying to tell, more than the game itself. I didn't like the choices I was given, since they weren't mine, but Henry's. I guess that just means I didn't like the main character... which kinda makes it obvious why I wouldn't enjoy the game then.
This game has always been really interesting to me though I can't afford to run it on my crappy PC so I haven't been able to actually play it. I see some basic similarities to The Beginner's Guide where it's really about the big consequences of seemingly little choices made, and having to learn how to cope with unhappy endings. I guess I like the idea in general of exploring a deeper, emotionally resonant theme through gameplay and story, but I'm wondering if the gameplay to Firewatch undermines that? Certainly some people are going to find it boring and some people will find it compelling, but I stand in kind of an awkward middle ground where I like games that give you a big space to explore and focuses on the space itself rather than the tasks the game has you do, but it feels almost like Firewatch doesn't really do enough with that? I feel like it could benefit from allowing the player a bit more personality with how they approach the mechanics. Like Amnesia did a really great job with the physics in that game, where you could manually move the doors open, pick up objects, etc. That meant that, while escaping monsters, you could do things like close doors behind you or just leave them open, you could hide in closets, you could throw objects at the monster, or you could even place objects in the monster's path to slow it down. Just one minor, seemingly insignificant tweak to the game made it a thousand times more enjoyable to play, and that's coming from someone who's one of Amnesia's bigger critics (I thought it was a mediocre game for the most part, but it's hard to ignore that the physics are a lot of fun). I'm not saying Firewatch needs to have those physics, or have any sort of combat mechanic or anything, I'm just saying, from what I've seen of the game? It seems like it could benefit from a few more additions to really allow the player to express themselves in interesting ways through the mechanics. They have that with the dialogue, but idk, I think for me personally, I'd definitely be much more excited to play Firewatch if I knew that there was more to the mechanics than what I've seen. I spend a good deal of time out in the woods myself and when I'm out there I'm usually doing a lot more than just walking around.
absolutely loved the game, but your interpretation of it just put it all in perspective, i was on the fence with the ending. yet now, i see how it all works perfectly.
Only the story isn't ABOUT disappointment (an interesting topic) its purposefully "disappointing". Not in any deep or meaningful way, more in a shallow "That's like, real life, man." I know. We all know. That's not interesting as a narrative though. And before you say "Being uninteresting is the point!" (Which is like saying, "being a bad story is the point"...) Great Expectations is a good story about disappointment, where the novel ends and he doesn't get the girl, doesn't get his dream job, and ends up where he started. Only it doesn't do it cause "That's real life" or "Being let down was put in there on purpose". We explore the characters disappointment, we see the effect and development of his personal story and are given an ending. We are the the subjects of disappointment in Firewatch, promised a story and denied it in the last seconds. Firewatch is meandering, self reflecting pretentious bore of a story in comparison to an actual novel. Basically the equivalent of a "It was all a dream" story.
I want to thank you for this video. I realize I maybe shouldn't have actually watched it before playing Firewatch myself, but I think I kind of crossed that bridge when I watched a let's play of it.
I actually really liked the ending of the game. To me it felt like the ending just perfectly fit the theme of the story. Glad I'm not the only one to think that :)
Dang, now I wish I would have played the game before watching this video. All reviews so far turned me off, but now I hear that the reason why everyone said, the ending is a disappointment, is actually something I am interested in...
I think that Firewatch might actually be my favorite video game. It's such a touching, heart-breaking story, which uses subversion of expectations to drive home its point on multiple levels. I can understand why someone who engaged less strongly with the backstory between Henry and Julia, or isn't such a fan of anti-stories in general, might not fall for the game like I did, but not every story needs to be for everyone. I was actually shocked to find out that so many people thought that the ending was some kind of low effort cop-out, though. To me, at least, it was so deliberate and carefully constructed to tear down your expectations, one by one, in rapid succession. That wasn't an accident
Honestly, if that was the point of the game, they should have implied it more and not have a "did you get it?" ending. MGS2 is a good example of subverting expectations and being clear about it. After the 2nd act, Firewatch narrative feels more like a mistake more than intentional.
For what it's worth, MGS2 was generally considered baffling and disappointing immediately after its release. It took quite a while for it to build up the reputation it has today.
I quite liked the ending of firewatch. It subverts the grand story of adventure and danger that would have killed any effect the narrative had, while still giving you the excitement during the meat of the game. Yes, it's clunky, but also effective.
I don't like it not because I thought it WOULD be any of those things, but because there was no payoff for the character. There was no moment of reflection on how he jumped to all these conclusions and ran away from these things. It also doesn't give any "okay, well, what's next?" in any sense. There's a thing I hate with defensive critiques where they say "yeah but, it was supposed to be that way." By that reasoning it was supposed to be bad and unsatisfying. And yeah, maybe it was meant to be that way, but that says nothing on whether that then justifies it as the ending. I stick with my initial reaction of disliking it, even though I do understand what the intentions were. And I still think, even after a long time since I first saw the end of the game, they could have easily book ended it with another simple adventure game-y style text portion. AND in doing that it would have also wrapped up with this idea of having an illusion of control. There are numerous ways that could have been written in a way that at least gave some completion to the emotional journey. And that's not to say all endings need to be 100% fulfilling. But this was unfulfilling in an anticlimactic sense, not a meaningful one. Things that don't give the viewer everything they want but do it so that it still teaches something and gives insight to the lives of these characters that you wouldn't have had without that ending are things I find I can enjoy. But the end of him getting on the chopper and leaving the fire crew to handle the rest doesn't tell me any more about Henry than I already knew. He still has his wife in Australia. He still ran away from that. That's the scenario we /began/ with. But the end doesn't give any more than that. It's not even about the missing girls or the conspiracy theory. I always kind of got the idea that it was in his head anyway. Creating these fictions, plausible or not, was just another distraction. Narratively, those "non-payoff" endings both made sense and--in my opinion--worked. My complaint isn't the end of those numerous B-plots, but of Henry's story. Those have an end, even mundane as they are. But Henry just....gets on the chopper. That's it. That's where we part ways. I wouldn't be quite as frustrated with it if the rest of the writing hadn't been quite so wonderful. Especially considering at the time, all the excuses I heard were budget related, even though there could have been things done to give something of an ending. And no, I honestly don't think that a full, conclusive ending that serves as Henry's canon would have been good either. But something that hints at his future, at these potential paths he could have chosen to go on, would have been enough. Whether it was presented as a choice to the player choose your own ending style or just given as something ambiguous, though still clearly there. Photos in the credits, maybe. Pins in a map. Something to indicate that he did eventually, one way or another, /move forward./
Great review! I was also more than okay with anticlimax being a central theme of the narrative. The one issue I had with it though, is that to realise the whole potential government conspiracy thing into a more realistic anti-climax took a but if work on their part, and I just didn't find myself all that convinced by the 'antagonists' reasons for doing what he did, and to what extent he went to, especially when taking into account his general tone in the tape he leaves you at the end of the game. It ironically needed more of a suspension of disbelief than a conspiracy story would have needed. Apart from this, I thought they executed the game splendidly, and it would have been worse and, as you said, thematically inconsistent if they had changed the ending if the main story. The other thing that was very much consistent with the theme is the choices in dialogue (and at the start) lacked consequence, and sometimes they didn't even encourage the player to really deliberate over them, but they did have an emotional context, and developed the relationship between the two characters, leading to a potential emotional affair if you didn't stop and restrain yourself as she ultimately succeeds in doing at the end. I'm not going to lie, I ended up being the arsehole at the end and was fully prepared to cheat. That's a rare thing for a game to do
10:26 Something similar to that "building of exposition" happens when you do _not_ carry a save from Witcher 2 to Witcher 3. You can get a conversation (optional) in which you retrace some of the choices of W2, something that was painfully missing from Mass Effect 3 (the default save has Legion missing). The big difference is that it is made for people who _did_ play the previous game, otherwise you would have no idea what the characters are talking about.
My problem with the game is that the reveal that all the weird stuff was due to a creepy veteran stalking you through the woods wasn't interestingly mundane even though the game and the discussion surrounding the game keeps trying to sell me on the idea that being stalked by a crazy man in the woods is super mundane and plays with my expectations about what a story like this does even though it doesn't really do that. Basically we're supposed to think there's some weird government conspiracy and then we find out we were being stalked by a crazed veteran who lives in a cave and we find his son's body and both are too separated from experiences anyone playing it has ever had to have the impact that the game expects it to. I've seen films that do something similar and better then this game like the pledge, affliction and night moves and the difference is that in the end of those films I felt as lost as the characters did and here I understood what happened and why it just didn't resonate
The problem most people had with the ending wasn't its resolution but how abrupt it was. The revelation of who is following you and why happens in a cassette that you can miss by blinking. then there's the last conversation and the game is done. the problem is that the game is mostly build up, and when comes time for the conclusion it doesn't feel meant and planed, it feel rushed and amateurish. well anyway love your videos :)
My build up to playing this was several people (reviewers and friends) explaining how it was good but then had this huge letdown of an ending. Once I actually got to that point myself I was confused for a while about what the part of the ending everyone had disliked so much even was, I couldn't see anything wrong with it. The game directly references Gone Home and plays with its narrative in similar ways, that with paranormal stories and this with thrillers, but I don't think either game tricks you. There are reminders throughout that you're set in a grounded reality, but it just gives you the fragments you need to start buying into Henry and Delilah's paranoia, all the banal solutions to the mysteries you're told don't come from nowhere, they fit perfectly with what you've seen, but before you were looking at them through the lens of someone looking for an adventure to escape into, and at the end the adventure is over, and with clear eyes those same things look different.
There was this theory floating around that Delilah knew about Ned being in the forest for the whole time, but not about the fact that his son died, and they were purposefully messing with you until the truth came to light. I was hoping you make a mention of that. I was interested in someone else's opinion of how legitimate it could be and how it would _change_ or _not change_ the story overall. There are both evidence to support it and deny it. Questions left unanswered that support the theory are ones like: - Who is Delilah talking to on day 2 when the power lines are cut? - She can clearly see Wapeti station from her outpost, and she doesn't know about university teachers and students doing research in her own area? - She doesn't know that switching walkie-talkies won't solve the "listening in" issue since that's not how it works? She should know this. And the ones denying it: - She is a pretty awesome actor if she knew about Ned, yet acted surprised by the new twists all the time. - She just "let" Ned burn down a university's property, just to mess around with Henry, as well as other reckless endangerment just for the sake of a "prank". (Like with the firefighters.) - They are not close to eachother, otherwise what is the point of their relationship? Did Delilah never question why Ned was still there, or left his son behind, if she knew about him.
I didn't like the ending, and it has nothing to do with any Chekov's Gun. It's because the game presents staying with Julia as the only outcome, regardless of any of your previous choices, and worse, it seems to imply that's the only moral choice to take. I've seem what situations like hers can do to an entire family. Henry is essentially putting his life on hold indefinitely, to become a caretaker, potentially the rest of his life, to someone whose life wouldn't change at all whether he is present or not and likely wouldn't even notice his presence. Her parents don't even want him there, but he goes to her anyway. All because of guilt. That's a recipe for bitterness and resentment, and the game trapped me into this fate I did not choose implying it was the right thing to do.
Angry Goat Yes. I had control over most of his choices up until that point, and I think they all reflected wanting to start anew. So the ending did feel out of left field.
I don't think so. Delilah clearly said that you just can't run away and have to make things up with Julia, that's true. But first of all Henry doesn't need to take that advice, that's just Delilahs opinion and second "making up to her" could also mean to just end things with her, but at least talk to Julia instead of running away. Delilah said she'd think about moving to Boulder, so potentionally it's not impossible that she and Henry eventually end up together. It's simply open to your own imagination.
I'm very happy to see this - everyone else I've seen critiquing the game has always broken with the ending for being disappointing and saying that the rest of the game was misleading (and, fair enough, the game *was* misleading but not in a way I felt was inappropriate). While, I admit that part of me was rooting for a sPoOkY turn that the game seemed to be going, I think that we need more games that have the confidence not to fall back on the supernatural, and overblown spectacle. I felt it somewhat refreshing to see that, in the end, this game had forgone this to just tell a relatively simple, well-designed, mature story. (in comparison, see Life is Strange - which I thought was a decent enough game, but I honestly was more invested in the story of the friendship of the main characters than I was the supernatural time travelling dealies. I had kind of just wanted to see a straight-up story about two girls and their friendship)
My issue with it was the way that it started off highlighting player choice but immediately made it apparent through the lack of difference in my options that I wasn't actually going to be able to make any notable impact on the course of events. Games don't have to give you choice, linear narrative stories are fine but when the first thing I get to do is make narrative decisions its very jarring that they are immediately and consistently unconcequential. It'd be like if the first thing you did in a game was drive a car and then immediately you realized you couldn't actually steer.
I mean. There aren't actually that many story-focused RPGs with set characters. I guess Witcher, and new Deus Ex games? But Witcher has the characters choices already set in stone by the books that are preceeding it. System Shock 2 did the very exact same thing you're talking about, though - in fact 'questionnaire' style character creation style has been a thing since some of the Ultima games, I think?- Ancient Domains of Mystery and Morrowind did that, too. So if anything, it seems more popular with RPGs with characters that are more of a blank slate, as a way to have a more natural character creation system than assigning abstract points.
I wasn’t disappointed that there was no stalker organisation- I much preferred the twist with Ned. I was disappointed that we didn’t get to meet Delilah, and that it’s just a depressing ending no matter what
It definitely was a great game, but I do wish there was more development between Delilah and Henry when it came to their relationship. The big day jumps seemed to take a lot away from the story. I'm sure it was because of money and time that led to it, but it still would've been nice to have witnessed more bonding between the two, and more answer choices on what kind of relationship they build together.
I can't understand anyone who says the game was good up until the end. What made me dislike the game was the game itself. The intro is great, but it's followed by incredibly contrived dialog and events where the characters make decisions that don't make any sense. I'd really love a game similar to Firewatch that told its story in a better way.
While it's easy to see parallels between Twine and the beginning of Firewatch, I was struck by the similarity of purpose between the beginning of Firewatch and Pixar's Up.
Bit of trivia: Wapiti Station, which the game claims doesn't exist is actually the only thing in the game that exists in the real world. It's also the oldest USFS ranger station.
l dont really think its about environmental storytelling all that much, yeah, the area is important to the story but it's a backdrop. Specifically referencing the turtle comment on day 2. lt's mostly empty and only has wildlife that you can directly interact with. lm not saying that's a bad thing and l love the forest for what it is but l never thought it was a big deal to the point of being brought up.
A great video. Even if you disagree with certain things Errant Signal says, you can't knock the quality of his writing, analysis, and presentation. I really wish there were more games like Firewatch, games that are about basically realistic people and situations. Personally, my biggest problem with Firewatch is that it is in first-person. Given what a distinctive character the protagonist is, and the neat style he seems to be drawn in, I don't understand why it's not in third person. Most of the problems that are enumerated in the video seem unimportant to me.
I watched this game, it was an ok game. I kept thinking that they didn't want their cartoony character models from breaking immursion and thus wrote around any actual encounters that would logically have you actually meeting anyone. But hey, just my opinion.
I think that they should have kept the current ending, but also of added the “smashing satisfying” ending. Two separate endings depending on your choices. It would be the best of both worlds
Dear Errant dude! I understand that you didn't want to write subs to all of your talking' and didn't release script on a pastebin or such, but is it that hard to have subs on on gameplay? This is will be helpful for an non English speakers like me, it is hard on itself to watch your videos 2-5 times to fully understand what you talking about, but why didn't use subs at least on a gameplay? Thank you for your channel, i like it a lot.
This annoys me greatly. These videos are entirely scripted -- why can't he subtitle his videos? Why can't he have viewers submit subtitles based on his script? Some people are deaf, some people are learning English, some people can't turn their volume up. All of them should be able to watch the video.
And it is weird because a lot of people now are using subs when the video is scripted, those english subs HELPS a lot. Now I have improved more my level of english but I remeber that last year the difference between not subtitles or subtitles was the difference in following the channel or not :(
Thanks for making all this great, contemplative content. I was wondering if you could also give us your take on the mechanics and general themes of No Man's Sky?
"It's a game about how you deal with the ending" For most people I know who played it the answer was "Check to see if I beat it in under 2 hours and get a steam refund"
My real problem with the game is that there WAS a conspiracy. There IS a strange man spying on you and fucking with you. It's just a *really stupid* conspiracy. I'd be happier if the end result was literally nothing, and the main characters figure it out on their own.
The game hit me very strongly as a pretty darkly perfect alegory of my divorce from my wife after 10 years together. It ended with a wimper... and it left me broken and unable to get things moving forward again. Your analysis is pretty much exactly how I felt after the game ended... and it left me pretty much as empty as you suggest.
I hated this game after it finished. Not only did the story totally flop over near the end, but it implies freedom, freedom once taken can completely break the game skipping large portions of it, on top of a number of mechanical and technical issues. It would've been better as an actual fire watch simulator that told a realistic story along the way. Instead they chose to force things to happen arbitrarily with video game magic, and then got bored and quit when it came time for them to justify it. There's a moment where it skips months ahead after you've warmed up to Delilah, and they reference those fun times that the player didn't even get to experience... I'd have been far happier with that VS the mess that happens after that jump.
I actually found the ending to come as sort of a twist/gutpunch that was satisfying. After having chased this mystery having it turn around on you and be like "No, dufus, you're still out here and your problems are still the same. Okay?". Was sort of a "Oh, shit.." moment.
The ending hit me because it's a perfect analogue for anxiety.
All these horrible things you think are happening and in the end, it's fine. It's always fine.
Well, not exactly fine. Just not as bad as you thought.
So long as you eventually stop running and just work on your problems.
it's not always fine, so stop the bullshit.
tell that to alberta.
That's not a story, that's a self help leaflet.
The game is brilliant in how those "disappointing" endings exist to subvert both the protagonists and the player's expectations. The player wants to figure stuff out and feel like they are doing something important. They are not. The stories are not grand or amazing or great, they are everyday weird stuff, something unusual but not life changing at all.
Firewatch is bold in that it sticks the middle finger to standard narrative expectations to show how life really is.
if you thought the jump cuts killed the pacing, when I played through it I really loved the long hikes in nature, and it being summer about halfway through the game I just stopped packed up my backpack, went to the store got some food and went backpacking for two days. That really killed the pacing
Very good reflection of this game. I am one of the people who absolutely loved the ending. I am actually not one for weird conspiracy theories in games. (Strangely, I like looking them up OUTSIDE of media, but don't necessarily find them entertaining when they are used in fiction.) The most hard hitting games to me are the ones that tell stories of relateable disappointment. I am not one to reject feelings of sadness and let-down. I found the problems the main character had to face believable, to the point where it was arousing some very emotional feelings for me, and I can appreciate that. I'm glad it took a turn. I am glad it was sad. Disappointing, even. Because that's just life. And I know some people want to escape life with high fantasy and sci fi and pure fiction, but sometimes they also want their feelings and problems justified and expressed. I think Firewatch does a great job of keeping it real. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
I would have been hugely disappointed if this game had ended with Henry and Delilah actually uncovering a dark government conspiracy.
to me, the disappointing ending i was fine with at first, unravelled the whole writing of this game, backwards: 'it was just that? then this wasnt much either, that was fluff then, then..'
to me the mc didnt escape anything.
i mean i think what was really said here through the game was the sjw bs of 'stop playing videogames and care for the real world, join us become a communist too: one people one thought';
but i thought, in the story, the mc didnt know what to do, reached a fork in his life that wasnt even lit up and sat(took some time off Life) to think.
a male figure i really respect(ironically, the actor he looks like the most is the villain in KungFu Hustle) a lot in my life i only knew for a year once said
'..i mean, you know, when the little brat knocked down the speech you took the whole day to write, annotate, rewrite, think over and redo from scratch, while you were catering to her sister, and was still drawing on it when you stood out of your office, bewildered ...
you turn around go to a tap, let the water run down your head for a while.
then when you ve calmed back down you go in there and grab it off the kid.'
artists&writers let their work sit there go do something else then come back with a new outlook on things.
i think he needed air. he cant take care of his wife&himself,he cant rely forever on her parents. he has to take a path.
Same. That would have disappointed me too.
why?
PushingUpRoses
why?
God. This video is what I needed in February, when I played firewatch while my GF watched. She quickly became invested in the whole slew of plot devices used to create tension and when we just got on the helicopter and the game ended she wanted me to refund the game, while I just had enjoyed some of the best storytelling I've ever seen in any medium and felt a little bummed out but at the same time really good about Henry maybe taking a few pointers from what happened during his time as a member of the firewatch.
Just play "The Vanishing of Ethan Carter", you, and your GF would not be let down.
I think the gameplay is a little simplistic and repetitive (with regard to the "order of events" puzzles), but it's a fantastic game, and I second the recommendation. Nevermind is also great! :)
I think "some of the best storytelling in any medium" is a bit of a stretch... I mean, it's competent, but I wouldn't put this anywhere near the best books I've read or movies I've watched.
I am so glad the game didn't have some conspiracy murder madness thing on it.
I loved this game & it's story. It's ending felt like real life. You dramatize things in your head & expect things to play out a certain way, then it confounds your expectations in a mundane & quietly tragic way, & you move on from it. The experience of playing this was very unique & it featured some of the best writing & character work in the medium IMO
The first time I played it, I didn't ask Delilah to stay in her tower at the end and I almost wish the game made you ask. When I finally replayed it a few months later and did indeed ask her to stay, the ending had so much more narrative impact.
Really great video.
This is one of my favorite videos you've ever done. Just really really satisfied with how you explained all of this. Great job.
Wait .. pet turtle? HOW DID I MISS THE PET TURTLE??
same
The genius of the ending of this game is the same as the genius throughout it. If it feels disappointing, it's because you latched onto ideas of conspiracy or romance, etc. And like in real life, when you're attached to some grand fantasy, you WILL be disappointed. But if you can find beauty in each moment, then just putting your wedding ring on or leaving it off is packed with meaning about choosing to stay strong in your relationship or learning to let go.
The problem is if you suspected Delilah, the game just leaves so many lose ends that you don't know her motives. She can just be incompetent at her job thus didn't know the U.S Forest Service uses the citizen band thus anyone can ease drop, maybe she didn't know about the research site because she ignores her paperwork yet all that is speculation with the player having no evidence to hand wave away all of Delilah's actions.
So the game does just end with plot threads still unaddressed.
It's intentional. If you're stuck on needing there to be reasons for things, you're still stuck.
But Henry would learn this during his debriefing. The game basically ends before Henry (and the player) would learn what happened as these questions would be answered as the goverment questions Henry.
Spoilers! I'll talk about part of the ending/mystery.
Personally, i found the conclusion of one of the mysteries a kind of stroke of genius. The researchers were just tracking a male and female elk, and our protagonists let their imagination run wild thinking that the transcripts were about them. That i think is perfect, i can get behind that. You are alone in the woods with the only means of communication to another human being the Walkie-Talkie, yeah i would guess that a lot of people would be creeped out by that as well. Leading ultimately to similar false conclusions, as the character of Firewatch reached.
What i don't agree with is that you can miss the dead Elk quite easily, leaving the whole research mystery inconclusive. I don't know, that seemed like a misstep for me. I'd imagine that a lot more people would've ultimately been happier with the ending, were that plot point a "scripted" find.
Anyway, great game. I loved it.
Yeah, I definitely missed the dead elk the first time 'round. Adds replayability value, at the least.
Holy shit I’ve played this twice and this is the first I’ve heard about a dead elk.
You can still see in the researcher's notes in the tent that they are clearly tracking animals, which is not missable if you take the time to look at everything in the "main quest". They refer to a male and female and use language that obviously refer to animals, not people. That's what caught my attention like you said, it added an extra layer of confusion which finally made sense at the end when you realize the notes about Henry were planted.
I really enjoyed this game I felt like it was a very good story and was almost like a book and had a nice flow and the controls were very good and didn't distract the player the soundtrack was also very nice the ending I felt was satisfactory for the story as it developed
Errant, your videos always show me things in such a different light. They make me appreciate things in ways I didn't know I could. Keep up the great work!
Finished this today. Maybe it's because I'm in my mid 40s and have been dealing with similar things, but the ending was fantastic, and I can only see complaints as being from the unrelated.
It worked, expertly so as I see it, and like other "walking sims" such as Gone Home and Dear Esther before it, I'll be thinking about this precious gem of interactive entertainment for a long time to come.
lol, had this one in a „spoilers“ playlist for later watching. Didnt know it was 4 years already. But yeah, finally played it on switch of all places. Great stuff, your video as well as the game.
I haven''t seen anyone talk about the books that are all over the game. All the spy novels I think really hit home the idea that we like to think of ourselves as someone who's stumbled on some super secret plot, when in reality we're just lost in the woods.
I agree with you about the jump cutting. I think the game would have been much more effective were it to avoid ending your days for you. It seems much more effective to developing that sense of isolation and loneliness to force the players to actually walk back to the tower every day, even if the developers chose to cut out a good number of days in the summer. I was really disappointed at the Day 2 cut. Why couldn't I have chosen when to end the day? Maybe I wasn't finished looking around their campsite. You know, I take that back, I wish they would have showed all the summer days. Make it stretch. By the time Henry went into the cave, he would have been intimately familiar with the area. But I was still fumbling with the map and compass, trying to figure out landmarks. I suppose this added to the disorientation during the evac run, but I really wish I had been less dependent on the map, been given more time to explore, feel less like I'm racing against the clock or the next jumpcut to really immerse myself. Maybe I can make the second playthrough better for that; if I know where the cuts are, I can avoid activating them until I'm ready.
I'm not saying it was disappointing overall. That point at which you get the reveal about Brian, about Ned, and the fire is raging around, all this beautiful forest that will be gone. You're fleeing, and there's this real sense of numbness. What now? THAT was perfectly constructed. I was thinking while playing, this must be what watchers feel like when they're forced to flee. All this time and effort spent, and I'm just leaving it behind to burn. It doesn't feel like an action movie, like the fire is chasing right behind you, but more like a slow plod. I appreciated all the red herrings. Every good mystery should have a lot of them. It was just a different sort of resolution. In most mysteries, you have the "aha!" moment. There was no aha moment. By the time Henry finds Brian in the cave, finds Ned's hideout, you somehow already knew. It wasn't a big reveal, it was a sinking realization that Henry and Delilah's fears were true. The comparison to Gone Home is obvious. That game has so many of the same mechanics and includes a goodly number of red herrings, and the emotional construction was equally good. I hope to see more games like these in the future.
This was perfect. The ending is also meta IMHO, in that it tells you "hey, were you looking for escapism? look elsewhere", and that's its real punch for me.
Although i would appreciate it if they removed the giant "Escapism park and also pretty pictures (and some thriller) woo!" sign from the entrance. It's a tad misleading.
or it's just a bad ending.
Thanks for putting words on why I loved this game so much and why it stucked with me days and weeks after completing it.
Great video
13:20 - I had no loading times on my computer, so I never noticed this, but even so, I wouldn't say the joke was "ruined" just slightly de-synced. If the music had continued to fade out just a second or two longer, I dont think you'd have noticed it either.
Great, and greatly needed, review. I feel like the side-stories do more than what you're giving them credit for. They are what feeds into the idea that you're running away from your troubles. You as a player start to focus on everything but Herny's issues with his wife, and in a way that is Henry also escaping his problems aswell. In the end though, the game smacks you across the head with the brutal reality that you have to face your problems. There is no conspiracy. There is no greater overmind for you to care about. There is only the here and now of your life!
The duality between Henry and the other man is pretty good too. Henry goes back to the real world. The man decides to stay hidden.
Absolutely loved this game - it was a surprising and welcomed change
You nailed it. I thought no one else considered the tension between the jump cuts and the continuity of walking around the forest. I think the latter helps add to the desire for escapism, instead of constantly feeding the plots constantly.
And all the analysis about themes of escapism and anticlimax being married together. Really sharp.
Probably my favourite game so far this year, but I agree about the jump cuts. What I love about this game is how it invites you interact with it's world. No waypoints, just look at your map and figure it out. I loved simply walking about and having a say in how to get somewhere and how quickly. But the jump cuts take that away from you and I found that a little frustrating. Giving you the option to "fast travel" to the next story beat might be a little too artificial so I don't really know what the solution would be, it's just the game flows so well that they stand out in a bad way.
I was also one of the people that didn't like the ending at first, but for the reasons you stated, it grew on me over time. I especially like how, if you really want Henry to "become" Ned, you essentially can by refusing to get on the helicopter at the end.
Great video man.
This was a great video and really explained what I loved about this game. After getting to the end, I knew I had played something special and I loved the ending, I thought it really fit the message the game was giving and was super interesting. Parts of it and parts of this video really reminded me of the quote “When someone leaves your life, those exits are not made equal. Some are beautiful and poetic and satisfying. Others are abrupt and unfair. But most are just unremarkable, unintentional, clumsy.” - Griffin McElroy (yes, him. It's from TAZ) Julia's loss of memory and self really was a difficult situation for Henry, as she slowly faded away from him but there was no real point where she was gone entirely, making it very difficult for him to either let go or hold onto her. The whole game just fits super interesting ideas into an experience that was just so enjoyable to play through
I'm sure someone mentioned this, but did you notice how they used one of Terrence Greenbriar's books (I think The Accidental Savior?) from Gone Home in one of the cache boxes? :P
You're always the only one who really seems to get the game...I felt the same way about the ending, but you put it into words and drew conclusions better than I could. Cheers!
This is why I love this channel, get to see so many unique games I wouldn't have known about normally. Game definitely looks interesting
Just found this video. Thank you for so eloquently elucidating the feelings i had when i finished this game years ago. I definitely wasn't in the "crappy ending ruined the whole thing" camp, but neither was i in the "this is a masterpiece in every way" camp either. It's a great game and has definitely stuck with me, but something about its approach always felt off to me, though i could never place my finger on exactly why. But you've nailed it here -- it's the jump cuts, and the dissonance they create between the different storytelling techniques being used. I really wanted more of the day-to-day, semi-tedious reality of living in those woods. I really wanted more meaningless conversations and weird points of interest in the woods to call in. Basically, the first half of the game made me think I was watching a season of an intriguing character-focused dramedy TV series, then halfway through realizing I was actually watching a thriller that was already speeding into Act 3. The intentional anticlimaxes that bothered so many people were exactly right, I thought -- it's the highly compressed couple of high-tension hours that lead to them that's really the problem. Anyway, great video!
Excellent video! This is one of those games, where you show me the visuals or audio in 10 years, it will create this profound feeling of nostalgia.
thanks so much for reviewing this game. I don't have time to play a lot of games so your analyses are fantastic for me to digest a game like this thoroughly and quickly. this video, and of course Firewatch itself, has strongly influenced the direction my own like-minded game is taking, especially with respect interactive story text and pacing. You've also cemented this as a game I need to play. this might be the first glowing review I've ever heard you make! great job as always to my favorite RUclipsr
I didn't like the ending because I play video games for escapism. I play race sims because I missed my shot at doing it for real. I play the Witcher because my real job is unfulfilling and killing monsters for gold makes me feel like I'm doing something important... if only for a fleeting moment.
Firewatch reminded me of how boring and mediocre my life is when I knew that already. A bunch of people making a video game, living a dream, are telling me real life isn't about conspiracy theories and summer romances not seen since highschool. Real life is boring.
Yea, no shit.
A Paranoia Based Thriller
0:42
1:50 Responses
3:07 Problems you have, Unsatisfying resolve to them
3:50 Critiquing Escapism
4:27 _Ned_ has a similar problem, taking it to a logical extreme. They both failed. They both ran away from their reality.
6:00 Middle Age.
7:04 Irresponsible. Don’t want to face loss.
8:04 _Contain The Damage_
8:40 Why people don’t like the ending
9:22 Comparisons to other walk simulator story games
Player Character--Environment
11:00 The Map
12:12 Forrest
12:42 Jump Cuts 13:59
15:20 Time/Space and Storytelling
16:24 In Summary
Dear Errant Signal, your commentary was beautifully written, and your sentiments ring true on both a game-design and human-user-experience level. Bravo on this video essay!
For me the ending was, just done right, the melow and hopeful feal was hard, but it gave closure for me.
Good video! I like how you brought a strong interpretation to the ending of Firewatch that I otherwise would have missed.
So happy to see this video on my feed--crit on one of my favorite games from my new favorite channel. Thank you for your work!
As a 55 year old gamer for me Firewatch ended perfectly logical
An effective subversion, but but not particularly satisfying for me. Less 'pulling the rug out from under me', and more like asking me to step off the rug before rolling it up and carrying it away, possibly knocking over a lamp with it on the way out. I really do appreciate the attempt, though, and everything else in it is fantastically done
You touched on something I also really liked about Boyhood, namely the way real life just has people enter and leave your life quickly and without fanfare.
Firewatch took twelve years to make, too
I enjoyed this explanation of what the game was trying to tell, more than the game itself.
I didn't like the choices I was given, since they weren't mine, but Henry's. I guess that just means I didn't like the main character... which kinda makes it obvious why I wouldn't enjoy the game then.
As much as we disagree on artistic choices, I absolutely love that your videos always make me think and carefully question my own opinion.
This game has always been really interesting to me though I can't afford to run it on my crappy PC so I haven't been able to actually play it. I see some basic similarities to The Beginner's Guide where it's really about the big consequences of seemingly little choices made, and having to learn how to cope with unhappy endings. I guess I like the idea in general of exploring a deeper, emotionally resonant theme through gameplay and story, but I'm wondering if the gameplay to Firewatch undermines that? Certainly some people are going to find it boring and some people will find it compelling, but I stand in kind of an awkward middle ground where I like games that give you a big space to explore and focuses on the space itself rather than the tasks the game has you do, but it feels almost like Firewatch doesn't really do enough with that? I feel like it could benefit from allowing the player a bit more personality with how they approach the mechanics.
Like Amnesia did a really great job with the physics in that game, where you could manually move the doors open, pick up objects, etc. That meant that, while escaping monsters, you could do things like close doors behind you or just leave them open, you could hide in closets, you could throw objects at the monster, or you could even place objects in the monster's path to slow it down. Just one minor, seemingly insignificant tweak to the game made it a thousand times more enjoyable to play, and that's coming from someone who's one of Amnesia's bigger critics (I thought it was a mediocre game for the most part, but it's hard to ignore that the physics are a lot of fun).
I'm not saying Firewatch needs to have those physics, or have any sort of combat mechanic or anything, I'm just saying, from what I've seen of the game? It seems like it could benefit from a few more additions to really allow the player to express themselves in interesting ways through the mechanics. They have that with the dialogue, but idk, I think for me personally, I'd definitely be much more excited to play Firewatch if I knew that there was more to the mechanics than what I've seen. I spend a good deal of time out in the woods myself and when I'm out there I'm usually doing a lot more than just walking around.
absolutely loved the game, but your interpretation of it just put it all in perspective, i was on the fence with the ending. yet now, i see how it all works perfectly.
Only the story isn't ABOUT disappointment (an interesting topic) its purposefully "disappointing". Not in any deep or meaningful way, more in a shallow "That's like, real life, man."
I know. We all know. That's not interesting as a narrative though.
And before you say "Being uninteresting is the point!" (Which is like saying, "being a bad story is the point"...) Great Expectations is a good story about disappointment, where the novel ends and he doesn't get the girl, doesn't get his dream job, and ends up where he started. Only it doesn't do it cause "That's real life" or "Being let down was put in there on purpose". We explore the characters disappointment, we see the effect and development of his personal story and are given an ending. We are the the subjects of disappointment in Firewatch, promised a story and denied it in the last seconds. Firewatch is meandering, self reflecting pretentious bore of a story in comparison to an actual novel. Basically the equivalent of a "It was all a dream" story.
I want to thank you for this video. I realize I maybe shouldn't have actually watched it before playing Firewatch myself, but I think I kind of crossed that bridge when I watched a let's play of it.
An engaging masterwork of analysis. That word gets thrown around far too much on RUclips but here it is fitting
I like how his paranoid ideations don't end up having any truth. That's how it is most of the time.
I actually really liked the ending of the game. To me it felt like the ending just perfectly fit the theme of the story. Glad I'm not the only one to think that :)
for a game I likely would never play this was fascinating, thanks as always.
These are my favourite games and style of reviews from ES
Dang, now I wish I would have played the game before watching this video. All reviews so far turned me off, but now I hear that the reason why everyone said, the ending is a disappointment, is actually something I am interested in...
Get it for a friend?
I think that Firewatch might actually be my favorite video game. It's such a touching, heart-breaking story, which uses subversion of expectations to drive home its point on multiple levels. I can understand why someone who engaged less strongly with the backstory between Henry and Julia, or isn't such a fan of anti-stories in general, might not fall for the game like I did, but not every story needs to be for everyone.
I was actually shocked to find out that so many people thought that the ending was some kind of low effort cop-out, though. To me, at least, it was so deliberate and carefully constructed to tear down your expectations, one by one, in rapid succession. That wasn't an accident
I'm so happy to see someone made this video
Honestly, if that was the point of the game, they should have implied it more and not have a "did you get it?" ending. MGS2 is a good example of subverting expectations and being clear about it. After the 2nd act, Firewatch narrative feels more like a mistake more than intentional.
For what it's worth, MGS2 was generally considered baffling and disappointing immediately after its release. It took quite a while for it to build up the reputation it has today.
I was pleased to find that your interpretation of the game was along the same lines as mine once I finished this game recently.
I quite liked the ending of firewatch. It subverts the grand story of adventure and danger that would have killed any effect the narrative had, while still giving you the excitement during the meat of the game. Yes, it's clunky, but also effective.
I don't like it not because I thought it WOULD be any of those things, but because there was no payoff for the character. There was no moment of reflection on how he jumped to all these conclusions and ran away from these things. It also doesn't give any "okay, well, what's next?" in any sense.
There's a thing I hate with defensive critiques where they say "yeah but, it was supposed to be that way." By that reasoning it was supposed to be bad and unsatisfying. And yeah, maybe it was meant to be that way, but that says nothing on whether that then justifies it as the ending.
I stick with my initial reaction of disliking it, even though I do understand what the intentions were. And I still think, even after a long time since I first saw the end of the game, they could have easily book ended it with another simple adventure game-y style text portion. AND in doing that it would have also wrapped up with this idea of having an illusion of control. There are numerous ways that could have been written in a way that at least gave some completion to the emotional journey.
And that's not to say all endings need to be 100% fulfilling. But this was unfulfilling in an anticlimactic sense, not a meaningful one. Things that don't give the viewer everything they want but do it so that it still teaches something and gives insight to the lives of these characters that you wouldn't have had without that ending are things I find I can enjoy. But the end of him getting on the chopper and leaving the fire crew to handle the rest doesn't tell me any more about Henry than I already knew.
He still has his wife in Australia. He still ran away from that. That's the scenario we /began/ with. But the end doesn't give any more than that.
It's not even about the missing girls or the conspiracy theory. I always kind of got the idea that it was in his head anyway. Creating these fictions, plausible or not, was just another distraction. Narratively, those "non-payoff" endings both made sense and--in my opinion--worked. My complaint isn't the end of those numerous B-plots, but of Henry's story. Those have an end, even mundane as they are. But Henry just....gets on the chopper. That's it. That's where we part ways.
I wouldn't be quite as frustrated with it if the rest of the writing hadn't been quite so wonderful. Especially considering at the time, all the excuses I heard were budget related, even though there could have been things done to give something of an ending.
And no, I honestly don't think that a full, conclusive ending that serves as Henry's canon would have been good either. But something that hints at his future, at these potential paths he could have chosen to go on, would have been enough. Whether it was presented as a choice to the player choose your own ending style or just given as something ambiguous, though still clearly there. Photos in the credits, maybe. Pins in a map. Something to indicate that he did eventually, one way or another, /move forward./
Love how elaborate this is. It's really good, cheers.
Great review! I was also more than okay with anticlimax being a central theme of the narrative. The one issue I had with it though, is that to realise the whole potential government conspiracy thing into a more realistic anti-climax took a but if work on their part, and I just didn't find myself all that convinced by the 'antagonists' reasons for doing what he did, and to what extent he went to, especially when taking into account his general tone in the tape he leaves you at the end of the game. It ironically needed more of a suspension of disbelief than a conspiracy story would have needed. Apart from this, I thought they executed the game splendidly, and it would have been worse and, as you said, thematically inconsistent if they had changed the ending if the main story.
The other thing that was very much consistent with the theme is the choices in dialogue (and at the start) lacked consequence, and sometimes they didn't even encourage the player to really deliberate over them, but they did have an emotional context, and developed the relationship between the two characters, leading to a potential emotional affair if you didn't stop and restrain yourself as she ultimately succeeds in doing at the end. I'm not going to lie, I ended up being the arsehole at the end and was fully prepared to cheat. That's a rare thing for a game to do
10:26 Something similar to that "building of exposition" happens when you do _not_ carry a save from Witcher 2 to Witcher 3. You can get a conversation (optional) in which you retrace some of the choices of W2, something that was painfully missing from Mass Effect 3 (the default save has Legion missing). The big difference is that it is made for people who _did_ play the previous game, otherwise you would have no idea what the characters are talking about.
My problem with the game is that the reveal that all the weird stuff was due to a creepy veteran stalking you through the woods wasn't interestingly mundane even though the game and the discussion surrounding the game keeps trying to sell me on the idea that being stalked by a crazy man in the woods is super mundane and plays with my expectations about what a story like this does even though it doesn't really do that. Basically we're supposed to think there's some weird government conspiracy and then we find out we were being stalked by a crazed veteran who lives in a cave and we find his son's body and both are too separated from experiences anyone playing it has ever had to have the impact that the game expects it to. I've seen films that do something similar and better then this game like the pledge, affliction and night moves and the difference is that in the end of those films I felt as lost as the characters did and here I understood what happened and why it just didn't resonate
The problem most people had with the ending wasn't its resolution but how abrupt it was.
The revelation of who is following you and why happens in a cassette that you can miss by blinking.
then there's the last conversation and the game is done.
the problem is that the game is mostly build up, and when comes time for the conclusion it doesn't feel meant and planed, it feel rushed and amateurish.
well anyway love your videos :)
My build up to playing this was several people (reviewers and friends) explaining how it was good but then had this huge letdown of an ending. Once I actually got to that point myself I was confused for a while about what the part of the ending everyone had disliked so much even was, I couldn't see anything wrong with it. The game directly references Gone Home and plays with its narrative in similar ways, that with paranormal stories and this with thrillers, but I don't think either game tricks you. There are reminders throughout that you're set in a grounded reality, but it just gives you the fragments you need to start buying into Henry and Delilah's paranoia, all the banal solutions to the mysteries you're told don't come from nowhere, they fit perfectly with what you've seen, but before you were looking at them through the lens of someone looking for an adventure to escape into, and at the end the adventure is over, and with clear eyes those same things look different.
There was this theory floating around that Delilah knew about Ned being in the forest for the whole time, but not about the fact that his son died, and they were purposefully messing with you until the truth came to light.
I was hoping you make a mention of that. I was interested in someone else's opinion of how legitimate it could be and how it would _change_ or _not change_ the story overall. There are both evidence to support it and deny it.
Questions left unanswered that support the theory are ones like:
- Who is Delilah talking to on day 2 when the power lines are cut?
- She can clearly see Wapeti station from her outpost, and she doesn't know about university teachers and students doing research in her own area?
- She doesn't know that switching walkie-talkies won't solve the "listening in" issue since that's not how it works? She should know this.
And the ones denying it:
- She is a pretty awesome actor if she knew about Ned, yet acted surprised by the new twists all the time.
- She just "let" Ned burn down a university's property, just to mess around with Henry, as well as other reckless endangerment just for the sake of a "prank". (Like with the firefighters.)
- They are not close to eachother, otherwise what is the point of their relationship? Did Delilah never question why Ned was still there, or left his son behind, if she knew about him.
I didn't like the ending, and it has nothing to do with any Chekov's Gun. It's because the game presents staying with Julia as the only outcome, regardless of any of your previous choices, and worse, it seems to imply that's the only moral choice to take. I've seem what situations like hers can do to an entire family. Henry is essentially putting his life on hold indefinitely, to become a caretaker, potentially the rest of his life, to someone whose life wouldn't change at all whether he is present or not and likely wouldn't even notice his presence. Her parents don't even want him there, but he goes to her anyway. All because of guilt.
That's a recipe for bitterness and resentment, and the game trapped me into this fate I did not choose implying it was the right thing to do.
Do you think Henry -- not anyone else, not you, not your friends, but HENRY -- do you think *Henry* could have made any other decision?
Angry Goat
Yes. I had control over most of his choices up until that point, and I think they all reflected wanting to start anew. So the ending did feel out of left field.
TheBlackCloakedMan
That's fair.
I don't think so. Delilah clearly said that you just can't run away and have to make things up with Julia, that's true. But first of all Henry doesn't need to take that advice, that's just Delilahs opinion and second "making up to her" could also mean to just end things with her, but at least talk to Julia instead of running away. Delilah said she'd think about moving to Boulder, so potentionally it's not impossible that she and Henry eventually end up together. It's simply open to your own imagination.
You've gotten a lot better at these videos.
Thank god another Errant Signal before work.
I'm very happy to see this - everyone else I've seen critiquing the game has always broken with the ending for being disappointing and saying that the rest of the game was misleading (and, fair enough, the game *was* misleading but not in a way I felt was inappropriate).
While, I admit that part of me was rooting for a sPoOkY turn that the game seemed to be going, I think that we need more games that have the confidence not to fall back on the supernatural, and overblown spectacle. I felt it somewhat refreshing to see that, in the end, this game had forgone this to just tell a relatively simple, well-designed, mature story.
(in comparison, see Life is Strange - which I thought was a decent enough game, but I honestly was more invested in the story of the friendship of the main characters than I was the supernatural time travelling dealies. I had kind of just wanted to see a straight-up story about two girls and their friendship)
My issue with it was the way that it started off highlighting player choice but immediately made it apparent through the lack of difference in my options that I wasn't actually going to be able to make any notable impact on the course of events. Games don't have to give you choice, linear narrative stories are fine but when the first thing I get to do is make narrative decisions its very jarring that they are immediately and consistently unconcequential. It'd be like if the first thing you did in a game was drive a car and then immediately you realized you couldn't actually steer.
I mean. There aren't actually that many story-focused RPGs with set characters. I guess Witcher, and new Deus Ex games? But Witcher has the characters choices already set in stone by the books that are preceeding it.
System Shock 2 did the very exact same thing you're talking about, though - in fact 'questionnaire' style character creation style has been a thing since some of the Ultima games, I think?- Ancient Domains of Mystery and Morrowind did that, too. So if anything, it seems more popular with RPGs with characters that are more of a blank slate, as a way to have a more natural character creation system than assigning abstract points.
I wasn’t disappointed that there was no stalker organisation- I much preferred the twist with Ned. I was disappointed that we didn’t get to meet Delilah, and that it’s just a depressing ending no matter what
Henry's attempt to escape from his problems is played by gamers who avoid facing their own.
It definitely was a great game, but I do wish there was more development between Delilah and Henry when it came to their relationship. The big day jumps seemed to take a lot away from the story. I'm sure it was because of money and time that led to it, but it still would've been nice to have witnessed more bonding between the two, and more answer choices on what kind of relationship they build together.
I can't understand anyone who says the game was good up until the end. What made me dislike the game was the game itself. The intro is great, but it's followed by incredibly contrived dialog and events where the characters make decisions that don't make any sense. I'd really love a game similar to Firewatch that told its story in a better way.
Glad I wasn't the only person who thought Henry sounded like Chris.
While it's easy to see parallels between Twine and the beginning of Firewatch, I was struck by the similarity of purpose between the beginning of Firewatch and Pixar's Up.
Bit of trivia: Wapiti Station, which the game claims doesn't exist is actually the only thing in the game that exists in the real world. It's also the oldest USFS ranger station.
l dont really think its about environmental storytelling all that much, yeah, the area is important to the story but it's a backdrop. Specifically referencing the turtle comment on day 2. lt's mostly empty and only has wildlife that you can directly interact with. lm not saying that's a bad thing and l love the forest for what it is but l never thought it was a big deal to the point of being brought up.
Henry sounds a lot like you. In fact, I think you would be an excellent voice actor in these kinds of games.
Really excellent analysis of a flawed but enjoyable game. Thanks for making this.
A great video. Even if you disagree with certain things Errant Signal says, you can't knock the quality of his writing, analysis, and presentation.
I really wish there were more games like Firewatch, games that are about basically realistic people and situations.
Personally, my biggest problem with Firewatch is that it is in first-person. Given what a distinctive character the protagonist is, and the neat style he seems to be drawn in, I don't understand why it's not in third person. Most of the problems that are enumerated in the video seem unimportant to me.
I watched this game, it was an ok game. I kept thinking that they didn't want their cartoony character models from breaking immursion and thus wrote around any actual encounters that would logically have you actually meeting anyone. But hey, just my opinion.
I think that they should have kept the current ending, but also of added the “smashing satisfying” ending. Two separate endings depending on your choices. It would be the best of both worlds
Dear Errant dude! I understand that you didn't want to write subs to all of your talking' and didn't release script on a pastebin or such, but is it that hard to have subs on on gameplay? This is will be helpful for an non English speakers like me, it is hard on itself to watch your videos 2-5 times to fully understand what you talking about, but why didn't use subs at least on a gameplay?
Thank you for your channel, i like it a lot.
This annoys me greatly. These videos are entirely scripted -- why can't he subtitle his videos? Why can't he have viewers submit subtitles based on his script? Some people are deaf, some people are learning English, some people can't turn their volume up. All of them should be able to watch the video.
And it is weird because a lot of people now are using subs when the video is scripted, those english subs HELPS a lot. Now I have improved more my level of english but I remeber that last year the difference between not subtitles or subtitles was the difference in following the channel or not :(
I know I'm a little late to the party, but I went ahead and spent a few hours putting in subtitles for the whole video because, why not?
you sir, deserve a cookie. A lot.
Adam Dormier Thanks a lot dude, people like you makes this place better :D
Thanks for making all this great, contemplative content. I was wondering if you could also give us your take on the mechanics and general themes of No Man's Sky?
Great video, sums a lot of my thoughts about Firewatch.
"It's a game about how you deal with the ending"
For most people I know who played it the answer was "Check to see if I beat it in under 2 hours and get a steam refund"
My real problem with the game is that there WAS a conspiracy. There IS a strange man spying on you and fucking with you.
It's just a *really stupid* conspiracy. I'd be happier if the end result was literally nothing, and the main characters figure it out on their own.
Finally got around to play the game. Now I can also watch your video on it. :D
This reminded me of the movie The Village, I feel like I was duped at the end.
The game hit me very strongly as a pretty darkly perfect alegory of my divorce from my wife after 10 years together. It ended with a wimper... and it left me broken and unable to get things moving forward again.
Your analysis is pretty much exactly how I felt after the game ended... and it left me pretty much as empty as you suggest.
A good video. But the first thing I thought of when I played the game was that you were Henry, ho ho ho.
The jump cuts work better now playing with a modern SSD
7:24 Jesus Christ I didn't know I could think like that
I hope you make a video about The Long Dark when it's out of early access... thanks for the material.
I hated this game after it finished. Not only did the story totally flop over near the end, but it implies freedom, freedom once taken can completely break the game skipping large portions of it, on top of a number of mechanical and technical issues. It would've been better as an actual fire watch simulator that told a realistic story along the way. Instead they chose to force things to happen arbitrarily with video game magic, and then got bored and quit when it came time for them to justify it. There's a moment where it skips months ahead after you've warmed up to Delilah, and they reference those fun times that the player didn't even get to experience... I'd have been far happier with that VS the mess that happens after that jump.
I loved the ending of the game...