The Fire Tower

Knowing that The Fire Tower was an entry in the IF Art Show, and was praised for its environment, I was kind of expecting a game with a huge number of meticulously described scenery objects - something that I'd find a chore to get through. With this unfortunate expectation set in my mind, my first experiences with this game were a little confusing. There weren't that many things to examine - although they were very nicely described - and when I typed LOOK to remind myself of what there was I found the locations' descriptions to be abbreviated to a brief summary that focused on the exits.

That's when I realised that I needed to take The Fire Tower on its own terms. This is a game about hiking a route that the author is familiar with through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. While it is possible to stop and smell the flowers and run your hands through the waters of Tom's Creek, the most significant interaction in this game is simply moving and reading the description for the next location.

I'm sure that for many players this is too little interaction and too linear a journey, but if you're not looking to solve puzzles or map rooms, if you're quite happy to just read succinct and evocative descriptions of a real world place and your movement through it, then I think this game is in fact very substantial, in its own way.

One thing that makes The Fire Tower stand out to me, from a lot of other IF games, is not just that it's firmly grounded in everyday life, but that it feels like a very personal story. I'm sure that in reality this is a careful fictionalisation of the author's real journeys, but it's full of great little details - stopping to adjust your socks, for example - that very much convey a lived experience.

Depending on what you look for in IF, you may find The Fire Tower to be a very flimsy game. But if you're looking for ambience and a sense of place, you'll find them here in rich abundance.

I liked the lyricality of this, the fact that the author didn't have to use overly-flowery words and phrases to effectively convey the scenes. The journey at the center of this game; a hike, feels very personal, makes it feel very personal to the reader. For me, at least, the first reaction I had to the story after spending some time getting to a certain level of acquaintance with its text was this: familiarity. The scenes and experiences described in this game were somehow very familiar to me. I'm most definitely not an experienced hiker, though I do have the memories of going on long walks with my family whenever we could in my childhood; on trails, through neighborhoods and suburban blocks. But I think, mostly, it's the love of nature in this that attracts me; I experience nature in perhaps much the same way that the protagonist of this work does, and it is always deeply gratifying to have your experiences written down on paper (or, in this case, on the screen), to have a sudden epiphany of, oh, so there are other people out there who think like me too, and to not feel so alone or lost or strange about yourself and your beliefs for a little bit after.

Rarely do I find games that are like this, games that are purely about exploring a space without the additional baggage of puzzles/plot being incorporated somewhere, that don't end up just being boring. In fact I read the reviews by the other reviewers on this game and was astounded to see some of the things that I had missed in my playthrough; (Spoiler - click to show)a bear?! a bear, of all things? and you could stay in the woods 'til evening and see fireflies and even get a search party sent for you??? I had no idea, not a single clue. Just goes to show how expansive this work is, or could be, if you let it.

This game is a peaceful, calm exploration of nature, the way She's Got A Thing For A Spring or A Change In The Weather would have been without puzzles.

This game was a Landscape entry in the IF Art Show, so the emphasis here is on detail, setting, the five senses, and so on. I loved the nature feeling here.

There are multiple paths you can take, but I just played through once. There are some exciting random events, and some philosophy.

Recommended for everyone.