I bought Firewatch on the Steam Sale.

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I'm not discussing games over at Caltrops anymore, fuck that place.

It was over within four hours (but cleverly, not before the Steam refund limit had expired), so I'd only recommend it if:

1. It was on sale.
2. You got a Steam gift card for Christmas.
3. You like walking simulators.

One thing I'd like to point out is that most of the reviews speak glowingly of the "wonderful, and wonderfully voice-acted dialogue". I take UMBRAGE with that statement. Neither the acting nor the writing is outright terrible, but it's still cringe-worthy enough that when I'm forced to engage in conversation (which you are, a LOT, in Firewatch), I am happier for the conversation to be over than to have begun.

That being said, it is tremendouly good-looking, and exploring the rocky Montana terrain is by itself enough to justify the relatively steep cost of the thing.

Criticism that the story ends up being less than what it might have been are valid, but again, the story is less important than the experience, as you traipse around (and under, ^______^!!!) the landscape, as the environment continues to change from day to day to very striking effect.

As far as walking simulators go, I'd probably put this ever-so-slightly ahead of Dear Esther (though Esther's caves beat Firewatch's caves) if only because while Firewatch hasn't much of a story, at least it has one that anyone can figure out.

Both, of course, fall far behind "The Witness Without Doing Any of the Puzzles", but I've said enough (and not very much) on that topic.

I give it... 7/10? Well, I give it 4/10 if you bought it full price and wanted a great story. I give it 9/10 if you got it cheap/free and enjoy beautiful-looking walking sims. So yeah. I'll average it out to about 7/10.

I'm comfortable with that.

[RealNC]

It was over within four hours (but cleverly, not before the Steam refund limit had expired)

The refund limit is two hours.

[RealNC]

The refund limit is two hours.

(I'm not promoting refund abuse with the above post. Just, you know, make sure you finish the game faster. Oh, wait...)

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I'm saying, the game takes longer than 2 hours, but not much longer. So you can't just finish it and refund it, but close.