The First Tree made me feel things I didn’t expect to feel
I make no secret about the fact that I play a lot of games which I’m in for the long haul. You’ll often find me stuck into games like Animal Crossing: New Horizons or The Sims 4 and I won’t really play a huge amount else. But, I still seem to acquire games which I always promise I will eventually get around to and somehow never do.
The First Tree is one of those games for me. It’s a short, two hour indie game which somehow completely bypassed me when I went about organising my long backlog of games I should really try out and now that games are more expensive, I wanted to revisit something which was really short and easy to pick up and enjoy without too much thought but would The First Tree captivate me for the two hours or was it just a boredom buster?
What is The First Tree about?
The First Tree is an indie exploration game with minor puzzle elements which was developed by David Whele, a solo indie developer. The story here is that you are a fox who is searching for her missing cubs and as you go through the world and dig up wooden sculptures, you reveal a separate narrative where a man is trying to reconnect with his father.
Although the idea that there are two stories playing out at the same time seems confusing as you venture through the game, it becomes apparent that the fox’s journey is more a mirror for the man’s story. The game is a beautiful representation of the passage of time and how we should connect with our loved ones and I found that the way these two stories interconnected made for a really clever experience which had me hooked throughout my time playing it.
Stunning game which keeps you hooked
When I first went into The First Tree, I was struck by the beauty of the world around me. It is a stunning landscape which shifts and changes through the dynamics of the two stories from harsh wintery conditions to open fields where you can jump through blades of grass. Part of the story is set in Alaska and it seems to me that the landscape you walk through is inspired by the same setting. With a pale and pastel design in places, the design of the world is incredible and well worth a moment to just sit and enjoy the landscape for a moment.
Credit: David Whele
The soundtrack also adds to the style of the game with a solo piano track which is simple and unhurried allowing you time to explore the world and uncover these sculptures to flesh out what happens in this man’s life. Whilst it is not essential to find these, I was finding that the beauty of the world and the score underplaying the gameplay experience led me to want to find all the statues to reveal what happened.
This beauty also extends into some of the gameplay which I won’t spoil for you, but there is a clever implementation in the gameplay which adds into the story that I was not expected at all and it just made The First Tree more beautiful of a story and a game in my eyes than I was expecting it to be.
Controls are helpful but clunky at the same time
The one thing that I felt was a bit of a let down though through the game was the controls of the fox. The fox for me felt quite clunky in her movement with some pretty large turning circles and a jump mechanic which felt really floaty. This jump really concerned me and made some of the puzzle elements harder than I thought they should be, but as the narrative reveals that the story with the fox and her cubs is supposed to be a dream, I feel like this was a development choice which makes sense for the setting even if the experience of playing with a floaty jump was not the best thing for me.
Credit: David Whele
I also found that the movements were slower and more difficult to make when you were in snowy parts of the world, which may again have been an intentional choice, but made the experience slightly frustrating when I was going about exploring the world.
What I did like though was that there was an option for auto run which is definitely needed in the game as the world itself is pretty large, but I did find that once I had auto run on, I never turned it off. So, if you do play The First Tree, I would recommend you do the same if you don’t want to walk through the whole game.
Accessibility in The First Tree
Accessibility in The First Tree, like with a lot of indie games, is pretty limited, but it’s not the worst I’ve seen. You have the option to invert the camera axis and turn on subtitles, but that’s really it and in all honesty, you really don’t need much else in the game. It’s too short to really be taxing and there was nothing really overly complicated where I would have needed extra help whilst I was working on the puzzle elements.
Credit: David Whele
However, there is one thing which could be improved on and that is the twinkling of the stars which are in the world to help you navigate around to find the next collectible. These are useful and I’m so glad they are there. It was very subtle and fit in with the landscape perfectly, but I did find at times that it was hard to see in some of the brighter scenes you run through. The twinkling is not distracting at all, but I think what would have really helped is an option to increase the brightness of this twinkling to make it easier to see in some of the brighter moments of the game.
Summary
For the two hours I spent with The First Tree, I was not expecting it to be as good as it was. Despite the controls being a little difficult to adjust to and not being as smooth as I was expecting, I really enjoyed spending a chilled evening in a game which was short, simple and incredibly sweet. The ending of the game was cleverly implemented and left me feeling in lots of ways I wasn’t expecting to feel. To me, it was the perfect way to sum up the main story of the game and I haven’t experienced that in a long time.
I would gladly replay this game over and over again if I could. It was short, sweet and incredibly moving in ways I genuinely wasn’t expecting and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to try a new game which isn’t too long and different from some of the other long haul games you may be playing.
