Firmament

I have quite a lengthy wishlist of computer games I am awaiting to be released. When one of these games is finally published what typically happens is that I don’t have the time to play it because, well, adult life. But not this time. Firmament, a new game by Cyan, was released two weeks ago and I jumped right into it. Cyan is a studio that’s been around since the late 80s, and when you think of it this in itself is a remarkable achievement¹. They are most famously known for the Myst series, which I am ashamed to admit I have not played (yet?). But I did play their previous game, Obduction, and it was remarkable. I was impatiently awaiting Firmament in hope of getting more of the same. I finished Firmament today and sadly didn’t exactly get what I was hoping for, but it definitely wasn’t a bad experience either.

Just like all games made by Cyan, Firmament is a game where you explore stunningly beautiful worlds, discover their story, and solve environmental puzzles. In Firmament there are three main Realms. Firstly, mountainous and icy Curievale:

Then there’s lush St. Andrews with its conservatory:

And rocky Juleston where you’ll find an array of electrical batteries and a sulphur processing facility:

Finally there’s The Swan, a tiny hub world that allows you to travel between the Realms:

Each world also contains an Arch, a sky-reaching metallic construction, as well as a tower. You play the role of a Keeper and your task will be to raise these towers from beneath the surface and get to their tops. You do this using a tool called the Adjunct that allows you to manipulate surrounding environment by connecting to sockets located on doors, lifts, and other mechanical devices.

Firmament has three core elements that make up the experience. Firstly, there are the visuals, which wowed me from the first minutes of the game. In case the screenshots above weren’t enough here are a few more:

One of Cyan’s trademarks is their design of steampunk machines and environments, and Firmament delivers on that front. However, while all the Realms are beautiful, they are also quite similar to each other in that they are all worlds filled with nature and similarly looking devices. This is a huge step back compared to Obduction, where all the worlds were truly distinct from one another.

The second element of the experience are puzzles. They form core part of the gameplay. Unfortunately this is where Firmament should have been a lot better. There were few puzzles that I really liked: ones where the rules of the puzzle and its goal are easy to understand, but the solution itself requires thinking. Unfortunately, most of the puzzles don’t fall into that category, having all sorts of design problems. Some puzzles were tedious: I knew the solution but was forced to walk back and forth to implement it. Others were totally obscure and I solved them with trial and error. One of the reviews I saw online compared the puzzles to towers of Hanoi, and that’s an accurate comparison. Even if I knew what needed to be done, actually doing it often required lots back and forth attempts. Again, Obduction had much better puzzles, especially those that required combining elements between various worlds.

The last part of the experience is the plot, and this is what Firmament does very poorly. In Obduction there was lots of environmental storytelling and many bits and pieces to put together, allowing to recreate what has actually happened. Granted, Obduction’s storytelling wasn’t perfect - a kind soul went through the effort of explaining everything for those who got lost - but it was much better than what Firmament has to offer. In Firmament the player is accompanied by Mentor, an avatar who acts as a narrator and tells successive parts of the story as player progresses through the game. And that’s it. There’s nothing to be figured out from the environment, nothing for the player to piece together.

I also have to mention technical problems of Firmament. After the release many people complained about getting softlocked due to puzzle bugs, or narrator voice completely disappearing after certain point in the game. I was spared these issues, but my playthrough was plagued by repeated crashes to desktop:

If I was lucky crash to desktop would happen once an hour. If I was less lucky I would experience seven crashes in 30 minutes. I reported these bugs to Cyan support, but to this day these crashes have not been fixed². They are the primary reason why it took me 2 weeks to finish a game that ultimately takes less than 8 hours to play. I also have to mention the menus. While the game visuals are stunning, the menus look like prototypes that made it into production:

Menu’s are not the most important thing, but they certainly make for a bad first impression of the game.

My overall impressions of Firmament are good, but aside from the visuals it certainly is a step back compared to Obduction. If you haven’t played any game from Cyan and would like to give it a try, Obduction would definitely be my recommendation, not Firmament. And if you want to give Firmament a try I recommend waiting for more bugfixes and a sale.

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