The First Tree

This game feels like it was a hobby project done for the creator himself as a form of dealing with the loss of his father.

While I appreciate and can admire this form of grieving and processing and I encourage the indulgence in game creation for the sake of enjoying oneself and creating just for oneself, I want to review the game from my perspective as a player uninvolved with the creator or his feelings.

The game is without a doubt a walking simulator. So what do we expect of a walking simulator? I'd say (a) beautiful environment, (b) a fitting score / musical ambiance, (c) immersion in said environment, (d) good walking mechanics, and (e) a good story or reason to continue walking.

I'd say for what this game is, the environment is pretty enough and the music is amazing. I'd listen to that outside of the game while relaxing. Maybe I'll make it my new study music. It's calming and it does perfectly what it is meant to do for the game. But I can't say that the environment was immersive. This is mainly due to the immense pop-in you have. I played this on Nintendo Switch and watching the grass, bushes and trees appear and disappear in front of my eyes hurt my immersion and focus on the story/environment immensely. On top of that, I found the environment often too empty. There was little to see and experience and at times it felt too open and vast, hence boring to traverse. And my last gripe with the environment are the invisible walls. If the game consists mainly of two aspects - environment and the story told - I expect not to face invisible walls. Why weren't there other, more natural ways to block me from going there? For an exploration based game, this feels unsatisfying.

But let's get to the walking of the walking simulator. You're a little fox and it's cute enough. The fox has two speeds: walking and running. Walking is so slow, you're never gonna use it. It's also never needed. And running is still too slow for the exploration and at time backtracking you'll want to do. The speeds should have been running and then press and hold for double running speed.

Jumping... oh god jumping. First of all, the way the fox jumps is immersion breaking because it will stretch out its legs and float through the air without movement, the landing making it look loke a stick figure unable of fluid movement. I can accept that, mainly because the music lulls me in so much everything seems a bit more forgivable, but the fox has a double jump that just has its jump ascend a bit more when in outstretched stick figure mode without any new movement of the fox. Though that's just the aesthetic part of if - which could be forgiven if other parts would be better.

Jumping is a pain. I personally find the jumps hard to direct because I find the word doesn't always give a clear idea of how far something is away from you, making me miss stars I wanted to collect mid-jump multiple times. Also something I can totally forgive by itself. But the way the fox just sticks to a wall when you try to jump where you shouldn't has me annoyed. Trying to see if you can jump up an incline will have the fox stand at the incline after dropping due to the jump bot being high enough and from there you'll have to wait for the fox to slide down the incline as you can't jump while on the incline to "unstick". At times it may allow you to run down the incline but most of the time you're unable to move the fox and will have to wait as it slides down and unsticks itself. I'm not sure if that's a me problem or anyone else had it but it really annoyed me.

Lastly, the story. The reason you walk and keep walking.

I honestly have nothing to say. I personally found it weak as I've engaged with media trying to convey a similar message that I've found to be deeper or more relatable. I'm sure other people disagree and that's fine. We all have different tastes. For me the story didn't do much.

Commentary mode. So the game offers you the option to toggle commentary on or off. Commentary mode leaves the areas with a few more points of interests you can find that will then

Mostly you're just running around the pretty scenery with nice music interspersed with a story. Like, really there's almost nothing else to the game. If that's your jam, go for it. For me it was boring.

it is a cute game but honestly the story was weak in my eyes, but hey, the fox was super cute 😅

Played on: Playstation 4 (Standard)
Version: Playstation 4
Edition: Digital

Started out being really curious & drawn in. After about 90 minutes I became extremely bored & felt underwhelmed even for a small indie title such as itself. Visually nice but the gameplay & storytelling is very flawed.

Final verdict: Wait for a sale

Indeed very pretty game with a great music score. The story was... ok, especially by the end, it was very heart-warming. However, it's good to finish the game in one sitting, because otherwise your progress may be lost (at least chapter-wise). It may be boring, but I guess it depends on what you want from the game. Overall it was just fine.

Short and beautiful ❤️
but we could use a little less walking.