The last campfire tries to be a puzzle adventure game with a story. The game fails at what it tries to do, and consists of a set of mediocre elements that work in an anti-synergistic manner. The game is pretty, but that is about it. Who is this game for? Only for those adults that wants to turn their brains 30% off and go along with a sweet narrative and occasionally think.
The game includes a narrator that narrates the story and dialogue in a manner that you would expect of a children’s movie or game. Both the story itself, and the world would make you think that the target audience is children. The narrative is told in pieces where you are constantly drip-fed small sections, but the story is not interesting or engaging and feels like a very generic story. Having a generic story would be fine if this was in fact a children’s game, but I don’t think it is.
The puzzle elements are on the other hand way too hard for children to solve by themselves. The puzzles are mostly tedious to solve, and while it is too hard for children, it is probably not engaging enough for most adults. They are more annoying than interesting or challenging. Even if you like the puzzles the time between them are long enough for you to lose interest in the puzzle aspect of the game.
The adventure aspects of the game is essentially you walking around for several minutes doing chores or trying to figure out where to go. There are very few interesting things to discover or do in the world apart from looking at the pretty environment. You don’t have a map, and the level can get pretty large and hard to keep track of. Tedious and dull are the best words to describe the adventure sections of the game.
To make matters even worse the game feels like a port from mobile. The interfaces and controls makes completing the puzzles even more frustrating than the puzzle design would indicate. The amount of times the controls screws you over are significant and creates a frustrating experience.
The last campfire is an overall bad game who’s only redeeming feature is its looks. These looks might allow you to enjoy your time with the game while you turn your brain off and just click on things. Occasionally you might need to have a slight focus to solve the puzzles before you can turn the brain off again. The gameplay elements are mediocre in isolation, but in combination they create an even worse experience.
| Playtime | 3 Hours (I quit before finishing) |
| Game release date | 27 August 2020 |
| Review release date | 18 August 2024 |
| Light sensitivity | No issues |
| Sound sensitivity | No issues |
| Motion sickness | No issues |
| Steam | Metacritic – Metascore (83) |