This review contains spoilers
After playing a bunch of rather dark games I decided to go for something more colorful and bright next. I didn't quite remember what The First Tree was when I saw it in my backlog but it looked nice and I expected something in a similar style as Shelter. It did end up packing an entirely different punch though.
The First Tree is a mild platforming/exploration game about loss and family.
You play as a fox searching for her lost children as part of a dream a man has. While walking through the different environments you learn more and more about the man's relationship with his father.
It looks quite clean and beautiful, and the orchestral soundtrack is really nice. The voice-over dialog is pretty compelling. The controls are very simple and the platforming is rather basic but still fun. Clearly the story and philosophical themes are in the foreground here.
I was a bit skeptical at the beginning as things felt a little aimless for a bit and the transitions between levels was quite rough early on. But I eventually got more and more invested in the story that was told and was able to immerse myself into the colorful environments and relax.
I was a bit surprised when the game really got to me emotionally at the end and I even shed a few tears. A big part of that is this mechanic that I have to go into spoilers for but it's my favorite thing about this game:
While walking through the levels you keep finding these seemingly pointless collectibles. Because they are a staple of 3D platformer games it seems natural to collect them but they don't seem to have any purpose other than sometimes show you the way and increase a meaningless score. So you just go through the game collecting them as you see them without expecting anything specific from them.
Near the end, you suddenly get prompted to write a last message to your lost children and the number of collectibles you gathered becomes the number of symbols you are allowed to write. I loved that mechanic. Not that it had much effect on the gameplay but as far as the story goes and its emotional effect it was great.
So I typed my last message out, glad that I went out of my way to collect as many of these things as I could. Further down the road you eventually get a message yourself and from what I understand it's a message another player wrote in their playthrough.
If you want to see what I wrote and what I received check out my tweets about it.
It's a beautiful concept that really brought a lot of humanity to the game and really surprised me after spending an hour on simple platforming puzzles.
The First Tree is definitely a game you best play without knowing much about it. It's a rather short experience (around 60 to 90 minutes) that focuses on emotional themes rather than challenging gameplay. It's a rather tranquil game but it might stay with you for a while.
I enjoyed my time with it for sure and I would recommend people giving it a shot if they're down for something short and sweet.
The First Tree is a mild platforming/exploration game about loss and family.
You play as a fox searching for her lost children as part of a dream a man has. While walking through the different environments you learn more and more about the man's relationship with his father.
It looks quite clean and beautiful, and the orchestral soundtrack is really nice. The voice-over dialog is pretty compelling. The controls are very simple and the platforming is rather basic but still fun. Clearly the story and philosophical themes are in the foreground here.
I was a bit skeptical at the beginning as things felt a little aimless for a bit and the transitions between levels was quite rough early on. But I eventually got more and more invested in the story that was told and was able to immerse myself into the colorful environments and relax.
I was a bit surprised when the game really got to me emotionally at the end and I even shed a few tears. A big part of that is this mechanic that I have to go into spoilers for but it's my favorite thing about this game:
While walking through the levels you keep finding these seemingly pointless collectibles. Because they are a staple of 3D platformer games it seems natural to collect them but they don't seem to have any purpose other than sometimes show you the way and increase a meaningless score. So you just go through the game collecting them as you see them without expecting anything specific from them.
Near the end, you suddenly get prompted to write a last message to your lost children and the number of collectibles you gathered becomes the number of symbols you are allowed to write. I loved that mechanic. Not that it had much effect on the gameplay but as far as the story goes and its emotional effect it was great.
So I typed my last message out, glad that I went out of my way to collect as many of these things as I could. Further down the road you eventually get a message yourself and from what I understand it's a message another player wrote in their playthrough.
If you want to see what I wrote and what I received check out my tweets about it.
It's a beautiful concept that really brought a lot of humanity to the game and really surprised me after spending an hour on simple platforming puzzles.
The First Tree is definitely a game you best play without knowing much about it. It's a rather short experience (around 60 to 90 minutes) that focuses on emotional themes rather than challenging gameplay. It's a rather tranquil game but it might stay with you for a while.
I enjoyed my time with it for sure and I would recommend people giving it a shot if they're down for something short and sweet.