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Firewatch, Days 78 and 79
Mar. 13th, 2016 09:42 amI can understand why so many people have been upset with the ending of this game. It's harsh.
The closing conversations re-established my trust in the game devs, though. All the fetch quests and ill-considered cave diving and other macho bullshit were definitely avoidance. The three main characters begin as cowards, and I'm not entirely sure that the process of becoming more aware of consequences of their decisions does anything except cause them pain.
The near-constant orange lighting turns out to have served as foreshadowing for the endgame, when the forest catches on fire. This is an interesting backdrop to the theme of "running from something." It seems easy to judge the characters, but their emotional weakness is juxtaposed against them running away from a literal fire, so it's not as if you can blame them.
It turns out that Henry is 39, while Delilah is 43. I'm always getting down on teenage protagonists in video games, but what I keep forgetting is that adults don't get happy endings. I feel like, once you reach a certain age, the best you can do is minimize defeat. I suppose this doesn't gel with the gaming medium, in which the player expects to be able to make some sort of progress and receive a reward for success.
The ending of Firewatch forced me to confront my own cowardice, but it didn't offer any solutions, just a vague sense that none of us are alone in being broken as we try to muddle through our lives as best as we can. Although hey, at least I managed to save a turtle from the forest fire?
If I play this game again, I'm going to see what happens if Henry doesn't tell Delilah about his wife Julia. I'd also like to try to figure out if the northwest quadrant of the map can be explored. I hear that there are raccoons somewhere in the game, and I need to find them so that I can take tons of pictures.
The closing conversations re-established my trust in the game devs, though. All the fetch quests and ill-considered cave diving and other macho bullshit were definitely avoidance. The three main characters begin as cowards, and I'm not entirely sure that the process of becoming more aware of consequences of their decisions does anything except cause them pain.
The near-constant orange lighting turns out to have served as foreshadowing for the endgame, when the forest catches on fire. This is an interesting backdrop to the theme of "running from something." It seems easy to judge the characters, but their emotional weakness is juxtaposed against them running away from a literal fire, so it's not as if you can blame them.
It turns out that Henry is 39, while Delilah is 43. I'm always getting down on teenage protagonists in video games, but what I keep forgetting is that adults don't get happy endings. I feel like, once you reach a certain age, the best you can do is minimize defeat. I suppose this doesn't gel with the gaming medium, in which the player expects to be able to make some sort of progress and receive a reward for success.
The ending of Firewatch forced me to confront my own cowardice, but it didn't offer any solutions, just a vague sense that none of us are alone in being broken as we try to muddle through our lives as best as we can. Although hey, at least I managed to save a turtle from the forest fire?
If I play this game again, I'm going to see what happens if Henry doesn't tell Delilah about his wife Julia. I'd also like to try to figure out if the northwest quadrant of the map can be explored. I hear that there are raccoons somewhere in the game, and I need to find them so that I can take tons of pictures.
