Death Stranding is possibly the best video game ever made. It certainly has impressed, exhilarated, and stayed with me more than any other game before or since.

Death Stranding has completely reinvented social interaction in games. Although Death Stranding is a single-player campaign, it necessitates a connection to the internet. It is here that Kojima's purpose begins to take shape; the theme of "we are stronger when connected" bleeds into every aspect of gameplay. As Sam reconnects the chiral network and puts America back online, portions of the map connect to the grid. This means that the player can build structures like generators, rain shelters, player homes, zip lines, bridges, roads, etc using a PCC kit to 3D print structures out in the world. Once another player connects that same area to the grid in their own game, there's a chance that your structure will appear in their world, and vice versa.

You can also collect lost cargo from other people's games and request deliveries from other players. Once, I desperately needed a floating carrier but didn't have the resources. I estimated I'd arrive at the Distro Center West of Lake Knot City in about 30 minutes, so I requested that someone deliver a floating carrier. Lo and behold, it was waiting for me when I arrived! I felt loved at that moment; some stranger had put aside what they were doing and spent 30 minutes of their time bringing me this carrier for no reward or recognition.

Each structure has the name of the player floating above it, and you can "Like" other players' structures if they helped you. I cannot begin to count the number of times other players' structures saved my life. BTs are chasing me - I come upon a shelter. BB is crying, and my exoskeleton is sputtering out - there's a generator. My boots have worn out, and the MULEs are charging at me - but someone has left a motorcycle at the edge of the road for me. A ladder to cross a chasm, a belaying hook to scale a cliff, all left by strangers for strangers.

I felt truly connected to everyone else playing Death Stranding because everything I did had real-world implications. These were real people out there, with real goals and real aspirations. This infinite loop of everyone in the world delivering packages to each other, Liking each other's structures, and positively affirming each other was beautiful. If we all give, no one is left wanting.

One of the "sweetest" games I've ever played. I don't really know what I mean by "sweetest" but this game just TASTES sweet, ya know?

For a game that was developed by a never-before heard studio with barebones budget, Firewatch sure as shit feels, looks and plays 10 times better than most of the AAA games I've played in the past few years. I don't even know where this little gem came from or how it came to be but I seriously have been such a fan of this game ever since I first played it and I'm glad I got to experience it.

Firewatch is a game that, at its core, is not a game. It's an interactive story that, by the end of it, leaves you with something. And I think nowadays, less and less games are focused on TRULY making you get to the end credits with a sense of satisfaction and a new-found purpose. That's why I have a hard time labeling Firewatch as a walking simulator. It's true that wandering about and listening to dialogue are the main ways of interacting with the game, but the freedom to roam where you choose, the option to respond as you please, and the tools you'll find to enhance those abilities, give the game a level of agency usually absent from the genre. I didn't feel like I was being led around an already plotted out course, I felt like I was actively crafting it.

And what a pleasant course it was to craft! The Shoshone mountains may be more cartoony than realistic here, but they are still striking in the same way, if not more, that I would imagine that wilderness to be, producing some truly "it was worth lugging this camera all the way up here" shots. The natural beauty, freedom, and isolation inherent to a post deep out in the wilderness feed straight into the game's narrative.

It's a game that, on a surface level, is just about some guy protecting a forest in bumfuck nowhere. But as soon as it starts, you truly GET what this game is about. It's about loss, coping, forgiveness and acceptance. It's a game that looks like it's made for children, but it treats its player like adults because IT IS a game for adults. The themes that are discussed and tackled in this game are done with such care and honesty that I often found myself feeling in Henry's shoes in ways that made me uncomfortably comfortable, if that makes sense.

Henry is sort of an everyman, but that just serves to represent just how much Henry is us. We all have baggage, we all have fears, we all have doubts, and we all have things we want to run away from. And while not many of us have the first instinct of simply running to a remote forest to live in a firewatch tower for the summer, that does not mean that we can't empathize and BE Henry. Because, like I mentioned earlier, Firewatch often feels more like an exploration of one's soul instead of a game.

While you're stuck there in the woods, wandering through the seemingly endless trees and trying to follow your map, you're just bound to drift off with your mind. Whether you start thinking about the game, about your life, about the world, or about that leftover pizza in your fridge that's been there for 3 days and it probably sucks now... This game is bound to make you think. It's bound to make you feel.

The feeling of loneliness you feel for the majority of the game is probably why I love this game so damn much. Because while you have Delilah, your trusty companion and/or life coach on the other side, talking to you through a walkie-talkie, you never truly feel NOT alone. The sense of solitude and at times distress you feel are never able to go away, because there will always be a barrier between you and Delilah. Maybe it's a metaphor for an emotional drift between you and the people you care about, or maybe it's simply a physical distance. But at the end of the day, the blockade between you and the only other person you ever interact with is what separates this game from any other of the genre.

Because even though this game probably looks more like What Remains of Edith Finch or Gone Home, I can only compare what I felt to the feeling that I had when I played Silent Hill 1 & 2. You feel alone, but never quite alone enough to warrant fear. There's things to be seen and stories to be experienced in this game and it's all in your hands. You're gonna laugh, you're gonna be confused, you're gonna be afraid but most importantly... You're gonna feel free. Free from the restraints that every game has nowadays, free from the problems of your life, free from life itself. And towards the end of the game, that's when consequences of both yours and other people's actions begin to set in and there's almost an incredible tonal shift in the game which not only serves to give you new purpose, but it makes the game feel fresh once again. And although the ending is a bit more lackluster than one would expect, this game is not about the ending. It's about the journey, and what you're left with after those credits roll.

I loved Firewatch, and you should too. It's an underrated, undernoticed game that is something very well needed in this day and age. It can be enjoyed by almost everyone, and there is no real difficulty to it. Firewatch is one of the best videogame journeys I've ever experienced in my life. And even if it's not in my Top 10 Games of All Time, it's a game that I will always be fond of.

"You are here, and it's beautiful. Escaping isn't always something bad."