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"You're swimming against the tide making games like this": Why more developers didn't copy Firewatch's reactive storytelling (www.rockpapershotgun.com)
submitted 4 months ago by to c/games@lemmy.world
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Firewatch was meant to spark a subgenre but its influence didn't spread. A decade on, we ask why Roblox and Minecraft are more

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[–] 13 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I think they had something great there, I very much enjoyed playing it but the ending was so awful that every time I see a game that looks similar, I do not engage with it.

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  • [–] 17 points 4 months ago (3 children)

    Hated the ending. I thought the game was finally about to get good, then it was the end, and a bad one.

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  • [–] 8 points 4 months ago

    I thought it was a clever take on why isolationism leads to theories and assumptions about everyone else. The rangers are isolated and created their own paranoia. Obviously, they couldn't readily get more information, so it's not their fault for being in the dark.

    The only thing I specifically didn't like about the ending was how this whole manifesto of sorts was presented. I get that it gives closure on the writer's intended narrative, but it admits a lot of legal guilt for the antagonist.

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  • [–] 8 points 4 months ago

    I feel like the theme of "The hero being disappointed with the reality of their mission" has good ways of executing that are hard-hitting rather than just dismal. Spec Ops: The Line, The Fall, Papo & Yo, and The Sexy Brutale were all great iterations of this, building up to harsh late-game revelations.

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