I'm genuinely excited for Firewatch

I'm surprised how little coverage Firewatch has gotten so far, as it is shaping up nicely. The game looks fantastic (It's based off of a Painting), the voice acting is tremendous, the gameplay seems polished and well thought out, and it's written by the main guy who wrote Season 1 of Telltale's Walking Dead. I thought the first half of Walking Dead Season 1 was exceptional, it created a deep and fascinating tale full of bizarre characters and heart breaking choices. Firewatch seems to be focusing on two characters and their relationship, and the player has some leverage with how that relationship goes through dialogue choices and gameplay choices. Is anyone else excited for Firewatch?

I think I'm more intrigued than excited. I like a good mystery so I'm glad not too many details have been revealed about the game.

What is.. No. Sorry. I won't do that.

But yeah! I'm really excited for it too! It looks great and is being made by rad people.
But I think the reason it's not talked about much right now is that everyone's busy with end of year/GOTY/etc. and the guys are currently moving office anyway.
There's still time before February so I wouldn't take this as no one's paying attention to it.

I am interested. The game looks great, but right now I feel like the mystery itself is a mystery. And though I appreciate that Campo Santo decided to keep the lid tightly sealed, I would have liked a general premise like: Firewatchmen Henry goes into the forrest alone and what he sees wil change the world. Instead it's: You're a dude named Henry. On your radio is a lady, which you can talk to, Watch for fires and something might happen.

As an Idle Thumbs fan, I'm quite excited!. Not sure if I'll buy at launch (same week as XCOM 2, I think?), but looking forward to it.

Sounds like you have a burning desire to play it. Because it's not just some Johnny come flamly. But hopefully your high expectations won't light the game's overall experience on fire for you. It's rough when high expectations turn good games to ash.

What IS firewatch?

I, also, am intrigued more than I am excited at this point. I love mysteries. I love dream-logic and magical realities. So I like all the influences they rattle off, but it really comes down to whether it's a game or not, for me. If a game is a mystery, *I* want to have the locus of control in solving it. While I don't like the A story gameplay in Gone Home, and think it's a poor game because of it, the B story of the father and the house is EXCELLENT. If Firewatch has that, a story that the player has to piece together, and isn't merely a first person theme-park-ride that tells a story as you go through it, I'm super excited.

Are we all Firewatch?

I'm keen, but I'll wait until the game comes out and see what the general consensus is, before I jump in.

If this is this year's Gone Home...no

whatisfire.watch

I have a hard time getting excited for something which I know so little about. I feel like in the kickstarter/greenlight era you need to offer more than some Team Fortress 2 graphics and snarky dialogue. There's some legitimately innovative games being designed and, from what I can tell so far, this doesn't look like one of them.

They seem to know that, though.

When they had that trailer at E3, I remember thinking that I was pretty interested in the story. A lot will depend on whether the gameplay around it has anything to it. I don't want to be all "hur-durr walking simulator" but when you look at games like Everyone's gone to to the rapture where you just walk around and listen to stuff, and look at stuff, it doesn't feel like it's really a game, or well served by being one. It would be nice to have like, puzzles embedded into the narrative that you have to work out, rather than just being told the answers or where to go.

So you throw the radio in the water? Teens... what is this game?

@skyline7284: I'm super excited!
Glad I'm not the only one

I'm definitely looking forward to it. From what I've seen, the story premise and the exploration part of the gameplay seem cool. I also like what they've done with the dialogue system. Thanks for reminding me that the game is coming out soonish.

It looks interesting, if it's cheap enough I might go ahead and try it out.

Just a heads up this is out next week, we will all know "what is firewatch?"

If the Quick Look doesn't start with something like:

" - Hey [insert GB staff member name here]!
- Hi [insert GB staff member name here]. Tell me, what is Firewatch?"

I'm throwing my Premium subscription away and blocking this website on my computers.

nah, just kidding, I can't leave Giant Bomb.

I'm also genuinely excited for Firewatch, the Wyoming wilderness being the setting and the story premise seems really unique. i feel like the way Campo Santo marketed this game has been superb. Not revealing too much in the trailers/gameplay videos. After watching the gameplay clip and wondering ( " Who was that shadowy figure with a flashlight? or who ransacked Henry's Watchtower?) Overall I'm intrigued to play this game!

Oh, I thought this was still months off.

Holy cow this is out next week, damn. Super excited, I recently watched a 15-minute video of some gameplay and seeing the really neat dialogue system with your boss lady and that the map is basically an open world that you can explore as you're out fulfilling your Firewatcher tasks really sold the game for me. It's beautiful, and I'm really intrigued to see what kind of story they have play out. I expect fires will be involved at some point.

Best MOBA 2016

I'm just excited to find out what the fuck the damn game is

The cynic in me says the answer to the famous question is..

...A pretty world you can walk around with a few gimmick interactions..and a bunch of invisible walls. Limited 1-3 hours of gameplay, and a game that is more interesting before you know about it, then when you learn any real details...

I hope I am wrong, cause I like the sort of games firewatch 'appears' to be. (When they are not done by the dear ester/everyone went to rapture studio...ugh). But yah. When you literally can't explain your game enough that 'what the hell is this' becomes a marketing thing..the answer is often "All anticipation, no satisfaction."

Prove me wrong video game, please prove me wrong.

I'm genuinely indifferent towards Firewatch despite all the exposure on Giant Bomb. It appears to be another vehicle for what probably would have been a much better animated short than actual game, but who knows maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised.

@sweep: I'm sure they we're trying to be "cheeky" in their advertising through quotes within the media as you've pointed out.

But, just wow... that super group bit is just insulting enough to kill interest for me. I know they didn't "say" it themselves but that just seems needlessly insulting and that's not mentioning how "Click-bait" the other claims are.

Something about those quotes and the lack of information just rubs the wrong way. Hopefully it's not a bait and switch but hey, the gaming community has been fooled before and will let itself be fooled again.

@sweep: Same. There's just so little out there about it, which I'm sure is the point, but right now my "mystery box" game is already getting it's fix via The Witness, which at least I knew was about solving hundreds and hundreds of puzzles. And I wasn't even super excited for The Witness either.

Firewatch is on the other end of the Ubisoft scale of advertising and promotion and now days I think for me, that's just as bad.

I'm all up for interactive story experience things if they're interesting. The voice acting in the trailers seemed very well done. It's weird to think it's actually this close to release. This and the Witness releasing so close to each other feels funny lol

No. No no no no no no no no.

I like the fact that Sean Vanaman is writing it and that Olly Moss did the art. I don't like that every indication of the gameplay has made it out to be Gone Home/Everybody's Gone to the Rapture-esque. I do not want more of that type of video game. These are the games better served as animated shorts, youtube movies, or books.

Definitely a game I'll be spoiling the shit out of online for myself and maybe watching bits of a lets play for general story beats.

I think the lack of coverage is that they havent sent it out to anyone. Or if so, its fully embargoed, possibly to preserve the mystery for the people who want to avoid spoilers.

The game looks great. I've been intentionally steering clear of info on it, this seems like the type of game that would be more fulfilling seeing it for myself.

I don't care if it is just an Interactive Walker. It looks intriguing.

I didn't realize the release date was so close. Coming out less than a week after XCom2 is not an ideal situation. Still, I'm pretty excited.

@ottoman673: would you say you would feel obliged to buy the game then, if in your opinion that's all the game has to offer?

This just seems to be more and more of an issue when you are able to experience the entirety of narrative based games without having to pay.

Definitely getting this day one. I've said multiple times, as a fan of Idle Thumbs, with how critical they can be of certain aspects in games, I really want to see what they produce with full control. Also, I really like the premise and I'm a fan of walking simulators, (even though I don't think that's all this game will be).

@ripelivejam: I feel like if this game were presented in a different format, as I mentioned, I'd pay to read a book or watch a short film of it.

The argument here is that the thing that defines the medium - the interactive part of the game, and the reason why I buy video games - does not appeal to me based on what I have seen. Now, i get what you're saying, and totally agree that the devs deserve their money, but to me it doesn't make sense to pay for the package when I'm only interested in a piece of it.

If we took the example to another medium, someone could ramble off Force Awakens spoilers and share the soundtrack, but I paid to see that movie three times in theaters because I enjoy the package as a whole.

Am I making sense?

But what IS firewatch?

Uh, I wonder when will they announce the price. Hopefully today? Seeing as the game will be released exactly in one week.

@ottoman673: I'm confused by your belief that the gameplay is like Gone Home and Everyone's Gone to the Rapture. This game has a multiple-choice dialogue system, character inventory, puzzle solving, and exploration of a large landscape. It's much more similar to a classic adventure game than the "walking simulator" genre from everything I've seen. Not trying to discount your plan to just watch the game and spoil it for yourself, but I think there's probably going to be a lot more interesting choices and engaging gameplay than you believe.

@uninvincible: well from everything I've seen of this game up to this point I too was under the impression that this is yet another walk-and-look-around sort of game as some narrative unfolds around you. If it's an actual adventure game then awesome, especially if it's a half decent one.

@uninvincible: @humanity: I was also under the impression that this was a "walking simulator". That it's a week out from release and people still think this can't be a good thing.

Even on their own site they don't mention anything about dialogue, inventory or puzzles.

"Firewatch is a single-player first-person video game where you, as a man named Henry, explore the Wyoming wilderness after taking a summer job as a fire lookout. What is supposed to be a peaceful respite from your complicated life takes a turn when you start to question some of the things that are happening to you. Your only human connection is over a handheld radio, which you’ll use to speak with Delilah, your supervisor, about the things both of you are experiencing."

And the steam page doesn't mention anything about any of that either.

I think it's pretty easy to see why people might think this is just a "walking simulator".

Here's the video of 17 minutes of gameplay with Sean and Jake from Campo Santo since people aren't familiar with the actual gameplay mechanics. When I watched this the first time I was sold. Really like the ideas that went into the walkie talkie dialogue system, and the using a camera to capture evidence.

I feel the same way. I'm blown away by the concept, but I'm skeptical on the execution. I'm eagerly following it.

i think this game might be soma in a forest. But you're looking for missing teens, so maybe it's the bridge between until dawn and soma. But it looks like the witness island, so maybe if you find the teens, the island comes to life just you wake up at the bottom of the ocean.

I'm intrigued to hear what it is but I can't say I'm excited to "play" it.

Seems to me like they want to sell this game and make money, that's why they made it in the first place. I'll take a look at it but if I get the impression they are only interested in me for my money then I'll hold off on it. I don't trust capitalism.

I'll be watching this for a Quick-look or review. Then again, I hope it is a short QL because I want to play it too.

Maybe they could touch their nose at the start of the video 'if' the game is good, so we could stop watching.

@militantfreudian: they've announced the price. it's $20

this game looks really good. i fully expect it to just be gone home in the woods, and that's all fine by me.

@uninvincible: Huh, didn't realise that Harry Crane was doing voice acting for this.