Firewatch

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Made an english essay about this game once, so I'd say it's amazing, saw a clip recently so you know i had to come back to talk abt the game, although i might be a little biased lol. Overall it's a slow burn, there's tonnes of little easter eggs (even stuff from other games) and hidden passages that you don't necessarily have to explore to progress the story, but every encounter, the characters slip out a little bit of information, and you get to learn more about the backstory making the ingame world feel just a bit more life-like & relatable. The main point being you play this game for the story, to experience the characters, not for the gameplay, although there are some light puzzle, parkour, and rock climbing elements. For those interested in my essay, firstly it's a bit more subjective, beyond the literal setting of the game, with all the spoilers & plot twists, that I won't get into. However, i wanted to believe there was a hidden message. Initially this bit below was much longer, and I explained the characters a bunch, but went back and realised I wanted people to actually play the game themselves, and then draw their own opinions about each character rather than take what I say as face value, so everything below is a bit vague and might sounds insane, but the beauty of this, is that it isn't shoved in your face, everything i'm about to say is so subtly hinted by the devs, you could finish this game, and never realise any of it, but if you take your time to enjoy the journey, rather than rushing to the end, you'll see. To me, the game isn't just about being in a forest, it's an analogy that forces the player to question whether [spoiler]ignoring your responsibilities/commitments is sometimes justified or unexcusable (i'll refer to this as escapism)[/spoiler]. The beauty of the dev's narrative choices is that the game doesn't present it as a black & white topic, obviously ingame you'll talk to, meet, and interact with other characters and it becomes apparent [spoiler]they all have issues of their own, some different then other[/spoiler], but the developer's put you in a tough spot on purpose, Isolation is a big part of the game the devs do this in several ways, wind, diegetic sound, a general lack of communication (don't get me wrong there's still a fair bit of dialogue) but[spoiler] in addition, the isolation isn't just used in the literal sense, it's used symbolically, think about it, when you have an argument, a bad take, or controversional opinion, it's often said "You're on your own". Hence why I believe that the forest is the perfect analogy for escapism.[/spoiler] and [spoiler]initially you feel guilty about your character's past (rightfully so), but as the game goes on, you run into other characters with their own problems/commitments they're running from, and you can't help but feel for sorry for some of them, and judge some others (however the devs make you contemplate if it's really your place to judge)[/spoiler] One thing that I regrettably never wrote alot about was the forest fire, (surprise surprise the game about fire lookouts has a forest fire.) I didn't think much of it at first, but it serves as the perfect [spoiler]way to showing ignoring problems will always come back to bite you.[/spoiler] What disappoint me is that some character had good redemption arcs [spoiler]Ned, when he spills everything about his past and lifts the guilt from his shoulders[/spoiler], while others are never fully explored, even by the cliffhanger at the end of the game. Although i'd still have to say that game was amazing, it's a slow burn, it's about the journey not the destination, silly dialogue., 10/10.