preface
Burning Man is an action-adventure game that has been released on PC, Switch, and PS4. The work was developed by Campo Santo, a studio co-founded by executives of the company that previously developed The Walking Dead: Season One and Ninja Seal. The art style of Firewatch is both cartoonish and realistic, and the combination of the two makes the game look as realistic as real life.
Walking simulator in an open world
When I first came across this 6G-sized game, I didn't believe it was an open-world game and that the graphics were so good. In this walking game, there are many beautiful scenery: endless mountains and sunrises, natural canyons and waterfalls, and deep and lonely underground caves. Of course, the game also designs a private villa for the player - the watchtower of the foresters, where we can rest and start a new story. Open world type games I think in addition to beautiful scenery, free and open high degree of exploration, but also have to have scenes and characters related to the game's plot.
"Watching The Fireman" basically satisfies these points, first of all, the vast and boundless forest lays the foundation and picture for the player to explore the scene; the free and open plot does not restrict the player's footsteps, and the player has many ways to reach the destination; in the shaping of the plot role, it is also ingenious, in order to shape the no-man's forest and choose the emergence of "hidden" NPCs, the player only continues to explore the plot, there is a chance to find the answer, which can be described as the appetite of the player.
A lone watchman in the endless forest
In the world of Firewatch, the player plays a lonely forester who chooses to escape the mountains because his wife is infected with Alzheimer's disease, hoping to find comfort and inner peace. By driving away the sisters who strayed into the forest to play with fire, and the encounter with the female boss on a lonely exploration journey, we discover the stories of the previous forest keepers step by step, and discover the conspiracy behind the forest arson in the laboratory deep in the woods. I think this is the first layer of content that the developer wants to pass on to the player, that is, to pay tribute to the great foresters, who in order to ensure that the natural environment is not damaged, animals and plants can survive with peace of mind, almost give up their contact with the outside world, most of the time is a lonely person living alone in the no-man's land deep in the dense forest, the loneliness in the heart can only have a pot of turbid wine, a few birds calling, and the mountain ghosts listen.
Love and responsibility that cannot be escaped
Love and responsibility is the second meaning that the developer wants to pass on to us, the whole game is around the love between the protagonist and his sick wife, the responsibility of the former forester and the child, as the game plot advances, one by one appears in front of our eyes. In the game, we will choose to escape from our wives, forget our troubles, and come to the mountains alone to be a forester, after taking office, we will have a "long-term relationship" with our female boss Deila, and it is because of her presence that we add a touch of humanity to our lonely forest exploration. At the end of the game, it will also make us choose whether to escape from the wife of the chaff or find a new love, which is also the developer's choice to give each player a love and responsibility.
The game also mentions a pair of forest keeper fathers and sons, who are still hiding in the forest after work, one reason is because the child likes the beautiful nature, and the other reason is that the father who loves rock climbing wants to exercise the child's ability, but the opposite happens, the child's accidental death gives the father a heavy blow, he began to escape, and chose to set fire in the forest to cover up all this. But how to escape love and responsibility, the biggest difference between humans and animals is our human nature: love and responsibility between each other, together to build this society. The child is dead, but the responsibility of being a father should continue.
The inadequacies of the game
The game also has many shortcomings, the first is the delay in screen synchronization, after I opened the vertical synchronization, the screen still appears frame drop and stuttering when running. The second is the lack of collectible and interactive elements, which led to the creation of the title of walking simulator. Finally, there is a short and concise plot, the game plot is nearly 80 days, but for the development of the plot, the official will be appropriately accelerated, such as the completion of the second task, directly jump to the eighth day, what happened in the middle is fast-forwarded, resulting in a further decline in the player's playability, but the plot is easier to connect, making it easier for players to accept the unexpected ending.
epilogue
As a small-scale open-world adventure game, Firewatch is a landscape simulator on the screen, introducing a realistic style and engine into the game to make the game more beautiful. In terms of gameplay, it is more single, in addition to the unlock box supply of the plot, it is the collection of postcards containing stories, and there are fewer interactive elements. The more successful plot design not only includes the respect for the noble profession of the forest keeper, but also hides the central idea that love and responsibility cannot escape at the end, so that the player can face the game ending and benefit a lot.
This article is written by Star Tour Society Sweet Potato