You will never make sweet love with Delilah

By the end of the game both Delilah and Henry, as close as they are, know too much about each other: they know what they are running away from.
In order for them to move on from that very thing they're trying to avoid, meeting each other simply would not work.
It would just be another reminder of that pain.

Yeah, the ending is thematically consistent, but it's kind of a letdown after the mystery of the early game.

No man, it's laziness disguised as le art.

Point being that Henry was just being delusional on purpose.
He wanted to believe that there was something bigger, more grand, and important than the loss/pain he is currently feeling.
In the end, there is nowhere to run away to, no grand adventure, no conspiracy, there is only the uncaring wild and his pain.
Henry was trying to delude himself, but he realizes that he must confront his pain and not just run away from it with delusional conspiracies

No, there was no point, it just went nowhere. The romance story went nowhere because the entire point was that Henry couldn't run away from his problems forever, since his escapist fantasy was quite literally up in flames; that was the ultimate payoff to his and Delilah's stories, the realization that Henry needs to man the fuck up and deal with his dying wife. Conversely, everything else, with the recordings, and Henry being knocked unconscious, and the girls going missing, it was all buildup with absolutely no fucking payoff.

/thread

Except that doesn't work, because Delilah and Henry weren't seeing make believe patterns in nothing. The two girls he pissed off who trashed his cabin were actually reported missing; the note he found and the taped recordings meant that he and Delilah actually were being followed; the binders he finds at the abandoned wildllife camp means someone was actually building a psychological profile on them. It's not delusion or paranoia if you're demonstrably being followed.

The thing is I understand where is coming from.
It's an indication that the developer intent worked: it was supposed to be a let down.
It was a subversion of the escapist fantasy that games usually provide, it plays with the players expectation of that escapist fantasy with Henry's and succeeds in delivering a strong message about dealing with real life pain, not some big government evil

And in fact they were, but the reveal turned out to be less grand and more grounded in reality than both of them expected.
It turned out to be a delusional father, who can't cope with the loss of his son and the realities of society.
It was another wake up call for Henry that this might be him if he doesn't somehow confront the real problem at hand: not some wild conspiracy, but his loss and pain

ITT:
>IT SUBVERTS YOUR EXPECTATIONS THATS MEANS ITS ART

if i wanted to be dissapointed in a medium i'd just go outside

both by the book games and games with stories that try to go in other directions can exist.

It wasn't just subversion for the sake of it or shock value.
It was subversion in order to mirror the player's experience with Henry's, and thus convey the message in a visceral way.
If you want a game where you fight and defeat a big evil or escape into a fantasy land, than this game isn't for you.
Which is FINE I like those games more as well.
But it is a mistake to call this game bad because it sets out what it intends to do, and it achieves its goal in a new and creative way that can be only be done by gaming as a medium.

>Campo Santo got bought up by Valve
>Campo Santo now has the nearly infinite time and resources of Valve at their disposal
>hasn't made a VR version of Firewatch

>anons who don't understand the point of the nothingness payoff
It IS the point, finding out that it's nothing and that both of them have been deluding themselves to feel important and disconnect from their past lives, only to suddenly realise it was all bullshit is a HUGE FUCKING POINT

I don't see how this is something that can't be done by a movie or a book?

The art style and setting is wasted on a walking sim, imo

>The art style and setting is wasted on a walking sim
the fact that you think like this is evidence that Firewatch worked better as a game.
You/Player WANTS a grand conspiracy adventure that can distract you from your reality and have fun.
Henry also WANTS this to be a grand conspiracy adventure, because he needs something to run away to and distract him from his reality.

It could be - and has been - but games are inherently more immersive.
If you’re reading a book and the protagonist gets knocked out, that’s one thing - if you’re playing a game ‘you’ get knocked out. It’s more personal.
So you want and expect there to be something going on, because someone attacked you. It’s more visceral than if it has been a book or film, because you’re not expecting to turn the page and read about the protagonist getting attacked again, you’re expectibg to turn a corner and get jumped.
And in another game where combat is the focus you might be perfectly confident in that because you know the system; in this there’s no combat mechanics and no way to easily defend yourself.

but the person you play as is a loser

I didn't like her at all. Not one bit. She comes across as so erratic and needy. I didn't care much for the protagonist either. I think you have to be a special kind of self absorbed to relate to these people.

To add on, this motif is sprinkled throughout the game.
When you find the locked boxes for example.
Usually in games you expect a hard lock/puzzle you can solve to open the box for grand loot.
In Firewatch, it's a banal "1234" code with useless twigs and trash that does seem like a box in the woods would have in real life.
It actively uses videogame languages to portray the overall problem with Henry and the game's message in general

Imagine keeping someone a fucking vegitable. I wish he died in the fire