Indie Rapidfire Review Extravaganza (The Guest, Hyper Light Drifter, Firewatch)

Hello, readers! I am very far behind on my reviewing. And when I say very far behind, I mean very far behind. My goal this year is to review every single game that I play, so when GOTY comes around, there is an entry for every item on the list, which historically has not been the case. At this point, I have to review a remastering of an 80's command line game called "Battlequest", The Guest, Hyper Light Drifter, Firewatch, Far Cry: Primal, and I'll be starting to play "Oxenfree" very soon, so I'll have to review that when the time comes as well. With that in mind, a lot of these are smaller indie titles that wouldn't be as long as your average Right Trigger review, so I figured I would kill a few birds with one stone and review the three smaller indie titles that I currently have to review in kind of a rapidfire fashion. Each game will be reviewed in full here, but because there is generally less to say, they will all be shorter, and there will just be less fluff in these. So, without further ado, lets get started.
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"The Guest" is what is described as a "gloomy first-person exploration game," and right off the bat, let me tell you that this description is a little misleading. The Guest is not so much an exploration game as it is an "escape the room" game rendered in 3D in the same vein as games such as "The Room". As far as I'm concerned, that isn't a negative thing at all. In fact, I kind of have a weakness for games like The Room. I love extremely intricate puzzles that rely on critical thought as opposed to in-game logic. So, just know that going in.
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When I started off playing The Guest, I was ready to write it off as just another cheap steam game. All the evidence was there in the first room. The curser icon was far too small, the text often clashed with the lighting, and overall the game was just too dark. Even on the highest brightness in a perfectly dark room, there was times where I could absolutely see nothing. I get that it is supposed to be a dark, gloomy kind of game, but when your players have to really squint in order to see anything even on the highest brightness setting, you know that maybe there is a problem.
After the first room, thankfully, things start to pick up. Unfortunately, the technical problems from the first room never go away. You still have to squint to see if the cursor icon has changed to a magnifying glass and there are times where you'll only be able to find an item by blindly clicking in the dark. On the opposite side of this issue, there are items that will be lit far too well, so they will be glowing white without having any in-game lights shining on them. Those issues never once go away, and they will be removing plenty of points from the final score of this game. What I mean when I say that after the first room things pick up is that the situation becomes more compelling.
At the start of the game, there is a knock on the door, and you spend about half an hour trying to find the doorknob. Not the best start to a game. However, after you put the doorknob in, you are faced with secret rooms and cryptic puzzles each more intricate than the last. I can't say too much about these puzzles without spoiling them, but let me say this: These are the kinds of puzzles where you will undoubtedly need to bring out a piece of paper and a pen in order to solve them. I am a sucker for those kinds of puzzles, so I loved them, but if you're the kind of person who doesn't enjoy heavy logic-based puzzle solving and pattern-finding, then I would recommend that you not purchase this game, because you will have a horrible time.
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The Guest also has better atmosphere than your average steam game. Sound design is downright professional, despite the fact that Team Gotham (the developers of the game) are about as small-time as you can get. There is also a record that you can play in one of the rooms, and I get the impression that the song on the record is an original song by someone involved in the development of the game. It is a jazzy kind of song with vocals and lyrics that fit the atmosphere of the game perfectly. I found myself singing the song to myself for days after I finished playing, and I even considered recording a cover of it for my music channel because I liked it so much. My one complaint about it is that the song is quite short and it is the only song on the record, so it ends up looping over and over and over again. As much as I loved this song, after about the 1000th time it got old. I understand that it was well within my power to turn the record off at any time, but I really would have liked for there to be more songs by this artist on the record. That would have been a wonderful bit of detail. I won't take any points off for the looping music, because, like I said, it is within your power to turn it off at any point. However, I really would have liked to have heard more of that music.
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To wrap up and summarize, the odds are stacked against The Guest. It is a steam escape-the-room game with themes of drug abuse, but it manages to not only be non-cliche, but actually unique and compelling in the face of these cliche-bait building blocks. The puzzle solving is intricate and fascinating, the atmosphere is gloomy and suffocating, but the technical problems make it very difficult to play throughout. In addition, the beginning section was about as lame as a section can get, but it was the only section that was subpar. All in all, it is definitely one of the better small indie games that I've seen on steam, especially for its price.
So, here is the breakdown:

Horrendous lighting problems - 1
Other various technical problems - .3
The beginning section - .4

So, the final verdict for "the Guest" is:

8.3/10 - Good
Nice work, Team Gotham, nice work!

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"Hyper Light Drifter" is a game that I've heard referred to as the indie-retro Dark Souls. The pieces are all there: challenging gameplay, vague story, compelling world building, and unique boss design. The Dark Souls label is fitting, and it is also well-earned. Everything that Dark Souls does well, Hyper Light Drifter does well. It actually pains me to be doing my review of it in a rapid fire fashion, but I'm trying to not get any more behind on my reviewing, so here we go.
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One of the most compelling things about Hyper Light Drifter is the fact that there is no dialogue or text in it. All story exposition is given in the form of pictures in dialogue boxes, and every in-game system (upgrades, etc) is represented visually, and it is up to you to figure it all out. With that in mind, there is a very steep learning curve that some might say is too steep. You have to figure out pretty much every game mechanic by yourself. I didn't have a problem with it, but I still need to mention it because others might not feel the same way.
Because all the story is explained with pictures, the story itself is pretty vague. Let me just say this: By the end of the game, you still will not have any idea what was going on or why things were the way they were. In my opinion, this degree of vagueness worked in Hyper Light Drifter's favor.
Some of the reasons why the world is so compelling are the soundtrack and the art style. This game features a retro-style soundtrack that fits every situation and is downright beautiful at times. The soundtrack has a lonely feeling to it that makes the bleakness of the world all the more evident. The fact that the world is so bleak is amazing, considering the beauty of the art style. Everything is done in a neon techno kind of art style, the farthest thing in the world from bleakness, but Heart Machine manages to pull it off.
However, I would have liked to have known more about the Protagonist's goal. Even in Dark Souls, the protagonist had some kind of goal they were reaching for and they had an idea of how to get there. In Hyper Light Drifter, however, you basically just walk around killing things. The fact of the matter is that, when it comes to the protagonist, the game is too vague. I don't need to know absolutely everything about them or a detailed description of what they want, but I would have at least liked to have had some idea. Take the other drifter in the game, for example. He talks for a second and one of the pictures that comes up is his wife and child dead in their sleep. There are a lot of unanswered questions surrounding that, but it gives some clue as to what drives this other drifter. I would have liked for Heart Machine to have treated the protagonist like they treated other characters in terms of their development.
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I started out playing Hyper Light Drifter with the keyboard and mouse, but I switched to a PS4 controller connected to my computer at a quarter of the way through. When the game says that it plays better on a game controller than with the keyboard and mouse, it isn't lying. The reason for this is that the gameplay gets quite intense and fast-paced as the game progresses.
The way gameplay works is this: You have a sword, a variety of guns, and the ability to dash. You combine these three things to tackle enemies. Your guns have different amounts of "bullets" and function differently depending on which one you use, and you "charge" your guns by using your sword on enemies and objects. Guns tend to do more damage, but you have to use your sword in order to use them consistently. It is ingenious, really, how the game forces you to skillfully use all of your skills in order to survive. This is another way in which Hyper Light Drifter is like Dark Souls. Folks can call it "hard", but what it really is is "challenging." It forces you to become better in order to progress, and it is entirely possible to beat the game without purchasing a single upgrade, provided you are skilled enough.
There is, however, one aspect of the gameplay that makes me angry, and that is the autosave system. Not even the original Mass Effect's autosave was this horrible. The thing about it that makes it so horrible is the fact that it doesn't save any of your pickups. If you entered the room with no gun charges and no med kits but pick them up after entering the room, if you die, you have to recharge your gun and pick up the med kits over and over again. In a game in which you die as often as Hyper Light Drifter, this problem really takes away from the experience.
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Hyper Light Drifter is a bleak, lonely game that oozes beauty. Its world is compelling and the gameplay is challenging, but rewarding. Here is the breakdown:

Horrible Autosave - .6
Too vague Protagonist -.2

So, the final verdict for Hyper Light Drifter is:

9.2/10 - Fantastic
Excellent work, Heart Machine, excellent work.

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"Firewatch" is the kind of game that I have wanted to experience for about as long as I've been a gamer. Basically, the idea behind Firewatch is that the protagonist, Henry, needed to get away from his life after his wife began struggling with mental illness, so he got a new Summer job at Yellowstone National Park as someone who watches for fires in the park. From there, he starts a friendship with another fire watcher, Delilah, and uncovers secrets within the park.
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Right off the bat, lets talk about the story and character development. For the most part, it is a cut above the rest. The story is intriguing and suspenseful, and it definitely keeps you on your toes throughout. There are really only two characters in the game: Henry and Delilah, and they are flawlessly developed and their chemistry is believable. My impression was that the actors must have spent a lot of time together. That is how believable the chemistry between Henry and Delilah is.
There is, however, one problem with the story and the character development, and that is the decision to jump forward in time. Let me explain: After every mission, the story goes to the next day. However, after certain missions, the story will jump forward a few weeks. It brings to mind the end of Fable III, where you had 100-something days left and then it jumped to the end. I understand that it would be darn near impossible to have a mission for every single day of summer, so jumps in time are necessary. However, where they chose to put these jumps takes away from the appeal of the story and the characters. One moment, you have just uncovered a shocking secret, the next, it is a few weeks later and it is business as usual. It is kind of jarring. Likewise, one moment Henry and Delilah will be flirting shamelessly, then it is a few weeks later and it is once again business as usual. The point is, the jumps forward in time are a liability to an otherwise fantastic story and character study.
That is not where the problems in the story stop, however. I found that the ending was unsatisfying. I can't really say much about it without spoiling, but given the huge build up, I was expecting something a little bit more interesting. Had the big reveal at the ending been any of the endings I could logically expect from the events of the game, I would also have been disappointed. The problem is that with the events of the game they ran the risk of ending on either a totally boring or completely cheesy note. I was hoping for a happy medium: something that made logical sense but was still a shock. Unfortunately, however, they ended on the boring note.
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When I said that Firewatch is the kind of game that I have wanted to experience for as long as I've been a gamer, I meant that in terms of the gameplay. Basically, the game gives you an objective and tells you roughly what part of the park you need to get to. Then, you get yourself to that part of the park using just your compass and map (which you need to manually bring up and look at). You have all of Yellowstone to explore, and it truly feels like an adventure for normal people. Whereas games like Uncharted spell out adventure for people with infinite history knowledge and no problem risking their lives for treasure, Firewatch spells out adventure for the rest of us. It is adventure in that you are out in the wilderness and you have no built-in map. You must depend upon your own orienteering skills to get places, even in the dead of night.
However, and I'll discuss this more in a second, Firewatch doesn't play to this strength as much as it should. There are maybe two sections that tell you to go crazy and hike your way around. The rest tend to be fairly linear "go here and then you're done" missions. It was as if the developers were afraid that if they gave us too much freedom we would lose track of the story. Look, I am all for making storytelling a priority, but when you've developer gameplay as fascinating as these guys have, you ought to really let it shine. As the saying goes, "if you've got it, flaunt it."
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On that note, my biggest complaint with Firewatch has been stated in a number of ways at this point. The fact of the matter is that it didn't play to its strengths enough. In the story and character development, they were in such a rush to get to the next plot point that they sacrificed what could have been even better character development and more saturated storytelling with leaps forward in time. In gameplay, they were in such a rush to keep us on the path of the story that they sacrificed the greatest aspect of their gameplay, the freedom of wandering in the wilderness, in favor of more linear orienteering sections. It is such a shame that each of these things takes points off separately, because Firewatch had so much potential. What it did with its story, characters, and gameplay was fresh and well-designed, but it was as if they were afraid to let these things shine. So, lets break it down.

Jumps in time - .7
Restrictions in exploration -.3
Boring ending - .3

So, the final verdict for "Firewatch" is:

8.7/10 - Quite Good
Great work, Campo Santo, great work.