Firewatch was meant to spark a subgenre but its influence didn’t spread. A decade on, we ask why Roblox and Minecraft are more
Firewatch was meant to spark a subgenre but its influence didn’t spread. A decade on, we ask why Roblox and Minecraft are more
Huh new subgenre? I always considered it already part of the well-established genre of narrative driven walking simulators.
Yeah I don’t know that Firewatch was a significant divergence from the rest of the walking sim genre, let alone establishing is own subgenre. But it is weird that there did seem to be a bubble of these sorts of experiential/narrative walking sim games for a minute. Some of them pretty popular. Firewatch, Gone Home, The Stanley Parable, etc. Maybe 10ish notable titles all within the few years between 2013-2017. Then nothing significant for nearly a decade now. But thank God we’ve had 40 more online battle Royale shooters since then!
Radiolight came out last fall and looks good! But I agree in general that there aren’t as many or frequent releases of them as during that boom.
Gone home was great, another good one was Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture.
The Long Dark feels similar in style, though it has a lot more game elements to it.
Now if only they’d finish the actual fucking game instead of tweaking the multiplayer no-one asked for, releasing a full six part DLC or developing and getting a significant way through finishing a full sequel.
Not salty about that one at all, nope.
Recently tried to start a new run of The Long Dark. But holy shit, the whole survival mechanic is so bothersome. Even on easy or medium setting you can’t walk 500m without your character literally starting to tumble from hunger or exhaustion.
If I ate what my character in the long dark eats, I would be rolling through the snowy forest, yet he is constantly on the verge of starving to death. 2 entire rabbits for breakfast? 2h later and he acts like he hasn’t eaten in weeks… Same for water, energy or warmth.
I agree it’s a bit stark but it does ease up once you get used to the hunting and gathering mechanics, not by much though.
I think the in game reasoning is that the cold your experiencing is already coldest canada, but has an element of extra ice age cold.
Coldness increases calorie consumption due to the heating requirements i think , but i can’t say I’ve been anywhere cold enough to say if it’s accurate or not in the game.
I friggin loved Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture! It was like listening to those dramas on british radio, but set at your own pace. And it had the most excellent 80s UK vibe.
Is it really still not finished? My god.
I picked it up in early access for nothing and honestly never got round to going back to it after all these years. I really enjoyed the hour or so I spent messing about and then life got in the way.
I really enjoyed the first two chapters, it’s up in my top 50.
To be honest I’ve only made it to the beginning of the third chapter but that’s mainly because i didn’t want to get further into something that wasn’t complete yet.
Which was more prescient than i imagined because it was 6 years ago.
One that came out more recently that I thought was decent is Don’t press the button
Hmm, i slept on that one because i got it mistaken with Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes which is multiplayer and therefore not my usual jam.
I’ll give it a look.
I mean, it’s multiplayer, sure, but it’s a different sort of multiplayer than most. I freaking love disarming the bomb.
I’m sort of disappointed to hear about the long dark though. I’ve had that one on my backlog for when I finish the current survival crafting game I’m working through.
Honestly it’s still an excellent game, I’m just salty about the nearly 8 year delay.
As it so happens i checked on it and the release date for the last part is apparently the end of march 2026.
I’m not holding my breath, but if it comes out on time, that’ll be a nice bonus.
Dear Esther was the first I played, that soundtrack is great