It sucks because there’s a lot about the ending (I’ll be as spoiler free as possible) but the ending basically being “And then nothing happened” is kind of the point. It’s meant to be bittersweet, because the story is about escapism but that ultimately you have to come back to reality eventually. The ending does the big lead up of oh man there’s a big fantasy and heres the happy ever after. but throughout the whole game it repeats over and over that things aren’t as magic and wild as you want it to be, that sometimes there’s a simple, boring, and sometimes sad explanation, and at the end of the day reality is the only thing that stays.
Firewatch is definitely more of a “reflecting philosophy” game than a straight up “gamer story” game.
I was actually arguing from the opposite side and thought that the game’s climax was too much :)
If it would have ended with that “present” left outside the tower door, that would have been a great ending and left me wondering what actually was going on or if there was anything going on at all.
But the whole
spoiler
coven of horned cultists conducting some sort of ritual and chasing you for no good reason
destroyed the magic and made me assume that the story teller just made up a silly, over-the-top ending in the context of the “satanic panic” some 30-40 years ago.
It sucks because there’s a lot about the ending (I’ll be as spoiler free as possible) but the ending basically being “And then nothing happened” is kind of the point. It’s meant to be bittersweet, because the story is about escapism but that ultimately you have to come back to reality eventually. The ending does the big lead up of oh man there’s a big fantasy and heres the happy ever after. but throughout the whole game it repeats over and over that things aren’t as magic and wild as you want it to be, that sometimes there’s a simple, boring, and sometimes sad explanation, and at the end of the day reality is the only thing that stays.
Firewatch is definitely more of a “reflecting philosophy” game than a straight up “gamer story” game.
I was actually arguing from the opposite side and thought that the game’s climax was too much :)
If it would have ended with that “present” left outside the tower door, that would have been a great ending and left me wondering what actually was going on or if there was anything going on at all.
But the whole
spoiler
coven of horned cultists conducting some sort of ritual and chasing you for no good reason
destroyed the magic and made me assume that the story teller just made up a silly, over-the-top ending in the context of the “satanic panic” some 30-40 years ago.