The First Tree: Console Edition

 Switch
User Score
5.7

Mixed or average reviews- based on 23 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 23
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 23
  3. Negative: 7 out of 23

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  1. bulger_paul
    Apr 6, 2019
    5
    There is just one thing I'd like to get out of the way before I get started:

    Please, don't be fooled or offended by my score of 5/10, I'm glad that I bought The First Tree (twice), and I recommend you do too. I think David Wehle is very talented, I hope he makes more games, and I want to keep seeing emotionally driven games like this made by creators like this, so I will support them as    There is just one thing I'd like to get out of the way before I get started:

    Please, don't be fooled or offended by my score of 5/10, I'm glad that I bought The First Tree (twice), and I recommend you do too. I think David Wehle is very talented, I hope he makes more games, and I want to keep seeing emotionally driven games like this made by creators like this, so I will support them as often as I can.

    I found out about The First Tree around a year and a half ago, when I saw Wehle had posted about his first game he was in the middle of creating on Reddit, which he had taught himself how to code over the course of two years in order to make. I was intrigued by that story and I love supporting new creators, so I bought it on Steam. At that point, it was still in the middle of development, meaning it was still very buggy and unfinished, so I stopped playing after about twenty minutes, and never really got back to it. A few months ago, that same creator posted again on Reddit, announcing his game had made it to the Switch, and I was happy for him, so I put it on my wishlist, and finally bought it a second time, just yesterday, when it was on sale, and I've finally gotten to experience the finished product, and, as I said earlier, I'm glad I did, and I recommend it, even though there's plenty of issues.

    I'm a fan of walking simulators, and I've played all kinds of them. I thought The Beginners Guide was absolutely brilliant, I thought the characters in Night in the Woods were amazingly conceived, amazingly written, and I loved how three dimensional every one of them were, and the dialogue was incredible, I loved how much personality you could glean from the people you never even directly see, just by going through their things in Gone Home, I thought the Stanley Parable was an amazing addition to the pantheon of existential art, etc. I've only played around six or seven walking simulators, but I've enjoyed a few of them immensely, and I want to keep seeing them develop as a form, and I want to support creators working on them.

    So, where does the First Tree fit into my impressions of walking simulators as a genre? Well, it's certainly not the best I've ever played, but it's not the worst, either.

    I'll get my negative thoughts out of the way first, starting with my main issue, which is the fact that this game just doesn't feel good to control, at all. I get that this is a first time project from a single guy who taught himself how to code in two years, but I don't like to simply give games a pass just because they're made by smaller, inexperienced teams. Running around the terrain, jumping onto things, collecting things, it all "feels" unnatural in this game, which is especially problem because the majority of this game is spent running across long stretches of terrain for literal minutes at a time to collect some light orbs, while doing mild platforming, and for what little platforming there is, it's an absolute dreck. Controlling this fox is far more frustrating than it should be, whether you're jumping on things, collecting things, or even just running across grass, and nothing about the way it handles feels good or satisfying.

    Additionally, way too much of this game is spent running across empty terrain, or simply pushing forward forever just to get to the next thing that's clearly in front of you, or wandering around trying to figure out what you're supposed to do next. And none of these things are bad on their own necessarily. You spend most of your time in Beginners Guide pushing forward, but along the way, you're given fascinating narration to listen to, and most of Gone Home is wandering aimlessly, but the house is so packed with personality and things to look at that it never feels tedious, empty, or boring, but in the First Tree, the narrations are not long enough to get you from one location to the next before you're forced to run the rest of the way through empty terrain with nothing engaging to listen to. On top of the times where you won't know where you're supposed to go, there are also times where you'll have figured out exactly what you're supposed to do, but it will take literal minutes to actually do it, because of how long the stretches of terrain are.

    There are a lot of other smaller things I could criticize, but I don't want to diminish just how talented and creative I believe David Wehle to be, judging by this piece of work alone. The artwork is beautiful, and the story, while it does need quite a bit of work, is also moving and beautiful, and it contains a wonderful finale that I feel was definitely worth it, it's just a shame that experiencing that story only accounts for approximately 30-45mins of a 100min game that is spent mostly on tedious platforming and running around. That being said, I still ask anybody who appreciates this kind of game to support, it if they can spare ten dollars (or less, if they spot it on sale).    … Expand
  2. thaesino
    Nov 30, 2018
    9
    What a derivative, beautiful piece of ****. I love it and hate it all at once.

    At $10, this game is a steal. Yes. Yes and no. No, and yes. See? That's the feeling I had the whole time playing the game. The music is really nice. Wow... oh wait... wtf? The scene is so beautif... huh? Neverm-- Oh wait! Wow that's pretty. Very clever. The story is so heartwarming and uniq... oh    What a derivative, beautiful piece of ****. I love it and hate it all at once.

    At $10, this game is a steal. Yes. Yes and no. No, and yes. See? That's the feeling I had the whole time playing the game.

    The music is really nice. Wow... oh wait... wtf?

    The scene is so beautif... huh? Neverm-- Oh wait! Wow that's pretty. Very clever.

    The story is so heartwarming and uniq... oh nevermind, another sappy, badly written piece of cr-- oh that's so lovely. Very nice momen... what the hell is this derivative plot tw...

    And just like that, I went through the whole game.

    You'll have to give it a chance, that's all I can say. And no, I'm not saying this like some people out there out of some pity bullsh*t that... "Oh, just one guy developed this to deal with depression so you should buy it to support him." Nope. That's $10 you could spend somewhere else if you wanted so I won't say that to you. What I will say is that this game has a lot of unexpected moments of beauty, and that, quite possibly, because as a creator with depression myself, I know what the highs and lows can be like, this developer has tremendous potential which, every now and then, was thwarted by his depression.

    There are moments of beauty in this game, to say the least, which I wish could've been in Breath of the Wild... whether it's some of the scenes we're talking about, or the music.

    Anyway, that's all.    … Expand
  3. khejit
    Dec 1, 2019
    2
    It's really bad. I appreciate the effort, but storytelling was boring, mechanics cheap and crappy. You have to travel big distances in environments that are so ugly that my first thought was that something is broken. I honestly remember this game as one the worst experiences on Nintendo switch.
  4. alexbarea
    Mar 14, 2021
    10
    an amazing experience. Beautiful music. Beautiful story... I play nintendo switch version
  5. dannyk_115
    Feb 9, 2020
    8
    Are the controls perfect? No. Is there much to do in this game? No. Do these things matter in what this game is trying to achieve? Absolutely not. The atmosphere is pretty, the music soothes the soul, and the theme, while bittersweet, is spiritual in its message. I enjoyed the game very much, and the last few parts of it are a real treat.
  6. Cathartic
    Sep 18, 2020
    0
    I rely on metacritic reviews before buying a game. This one helped me to decide.

    Buy this game for the ending scene. See how everything connects! Other players shape your ending and you shape theirs! Your level of exploration determines how much you shape their ending! Superb music, with some tracks needing to be a bit longer to avoid repetition. There's an oboe melody that is so    I rely on metacritic reviews before buying a game. This one helped me to decide.

    Buy this game for the ending scene. See how everything connects! Other players shape your ending and you shape theirs! Your level of exploration determines how much you shape their ending!

    Superb music, with some tracks needing to be a bit longer to avoid repetition. There's an oboe melody that is so reminiscent of Tomb Raider (PS1) it brought back that nostalgic feeling of exploration.

    I have no problem with the controls but could have used a controls reminder screen in a couple of places. The run/walk function could have been placed somewhere else but there is a problem with the movement of the fox: completely rigid, like it was stuffed. A few more frames of animation, perhaps turning its head when you move the camera...anything extra would have helped here. Jumping isn't well animated either. There's a waggle in walking mode, but I cannot (unless I'm forced to later on) walk for long in this game. Even the run is slower than I would like.

    The open world feel of Breath of the Wild is present in this game - but with loading screens between areas (so, more like Ocarina of Time?) I would happily keep exploring were it not for the invisible walls about 7/8 of the way up a rocky hill. This immediately suppresses the open world feel and the desire to explore! Where there is no indication where the next pick-up is or where to explore next or where you have explored on a HUD map, this is where the area becomes a chance to memorise landmarks.

    The fox starts with double jump ability - something I discovered half way through the game. The dig function happens for about 1 second, before hidden items are dug up. Plenty of these items could have used a better look - maybe to show detail in the photos or the blueprints? Each time I had to zoom in and even then, I wasn't sure what I was looking at. Weren't these clearer in the trailer?!

    There are three areas with so little illumination it's hard to see where to go and if you are actually moving or just stuck on a wall. These could all use a little brightening up. The frustration at a tree root in the evening sun will be with me long after I finish this review. The rocks and the house are the other two places.

    The music track with lyrics was a highlight of the game - it started to sound so much like Sigur Ros I thought it might actually be them! That is wasn't isn't a disappointment, because the effect was enough to heighten the entire scene.    … Expand
  7. JMan182
    Feb 4, 2020
    10
    Incredible game so relaxing and beautiful, music it's atracting and inmersive.

    Simple gameplay but it depends how much do you want to explore and narrative gives you a good feeling.
  8. GamingCouchSpud
    Dec 8, 2021
    8
    From the mind of David Wehle comes The First Tree. A 3rd person exploration / walking (galloping??) sim, that has you playing the part of a fox trying to find her missing cubs, which itself is part of a retelling of a dream that the narrator is talking to his wife about, but that also becomes a story of a son reconnecting with his estranged father in Alaska.

    That might sound slightly    From the mind of David Wehle comes The First Tree. A 3rd person exploration / walking (galloping??) sim, that has you playing the part of a fox trying to find her missing cubs, which itself is part of a retelling of a dream that the narrator is talking to his wife about, but that also becomes a story of a son reconnecting with his estranged father in Alaska.

    That might sound slightly complicated, but it isn't really. You play as the fox, but as you progress through the game, you will hear the conversation of the narrator. The story he tells of reconnecting to his father, becomes a parallel story to that of a fox trying to find their missing cubs.

    As this is an exploration game /walking sim, this is more about the story, than the gameplay itself, you will explore areas, collect artifacts, dig up things that expand the story being told. And if you play with commentators' mode on, you can also find audio clips that further tell the story from the game makers perspective, and give insight into how the game was made, the thought processes and so on. I would highly recommend playing with the commentator's mode turned on.

    You will play through various landscapes, each one as beautiful as the last.

    The First Tree really is a game created by one man, and although his real-life wife is part of the narration, and a beautiful musical score, you can really feel that this is a creation by one man, and his love for the game shines through.

    The stunning cell-shaded graphics are gorgeous to look at, the music is great, and although a relatively short game, about 2 hours to complete, the meditative nature of the game will leave you feeling quite fulfilled. I was slightly reminded of Journey on the PS4. If you were a fan of that, then you will like this.

    There are puzzles to solve, and platforming elements, but nothing too difficult, mainly how to reach areas, powering up your jumps with butterflies, but in general this is more a game that you should play to really lower your heart rate, to relax to.

    The Good
    This is more of an experience than a game, and it's a good experience, a deep and meaningful story, mixed with beautiful music and stunning graphics. A truly meditative game.

    The Bad
    There are sometimes long periods of you just going in one direction without much else going on, but if you have headphones on, and are relaxed in the moment you won't notice. And also, the game is quite short.

    Overall
    The First Tree is a meditative experience, that is the best way to explain it. No enemies to kill or avoid, just a chill out experience.

    I score The First Tree a fair 8/10    … Expand
  9. SuperkenGaming
    Apr 28, 2021
    7
    The First Tree
    Short But Sweet
    The first tree is a 1 hour long adventure game with light platforming where you play as a fox, inside of a dream. This is game about loss.. both in the perspective of the fox looking for her pups, and of the man narrating the game, talking about his dream, and losing his father. There isn’t much to do here in this game but go forward, collect the stars    The First Tree
    Short But Sweet
    The first tree is a 1 hour long adventure game with light platforming where you play as a fox, inside of a dream.
    This is game about loss.. both in the perspective of the fox looking for her pups, and of the man narrating the game, talking about his dream, and losing his father. There isn’t much to do here in this game but go forward, collect the stars that lead you to the next part of the game, soakin in the beautiful worlds, listen to the stories, and hope for the best for your little fox friend.
    And in general this is a beautiful game, from its message, to its world,
    I loved every minute of it.
    Again there isn’t much here to this game other than an emotional experience through its unique story telling, but this is one worth taking.
    I give The First Tree
    a 7/10    … Expand
  10. RedPixel
    Jul 21, 2019
    6
    Frustrating to have to run such long distances... run, run, run... I know it's deliberate, to set the mood and control the pacing of the game. And, right, it's quite beautiful, when you're running around. Some of the gestures/actions were kind of annoying, like gathering butterflies, and although I eventually got past the obsidian, it was never quite clear what the correct action was thatFrustrating to have to run such long distances... run, run, run... I know it's deliberate, to set the mood and control the pacing of the game. And, right, it's quite beautiful, when you're running around. Some of the gestures/actions were kind of annoying, like gathering butterflies, and although I eventually got past the obsidian, it was never quite clear what the correct action was that enabled that.

    It's a relatively quick play, and it's beautiful and sweet and thoughtful. I'm glad I got it and played through, but I was swearing a lot.    … Expand
  11. towibabe
    Jun 16, 2019
    1
    Biggest waste of $10 and 2 hours of my life. Save your money, don't try it out of curiousity...just trust me.
  12. TomMonday
    Apr 5, 2022
    7
    The main character handles like a shopping cart. The voiceovers are precious. The writing is overly sentimental. The graphics seem 80% done. And yet ... the last few scenes of the game had me in tears. If you like Gone Home or Edith Finch or Disco Elysium, this "playable novel" will satisfy. Everyone else should rightfully stay away.
  13. WolfgangBlue
    Jun 28, 2020
    7
    This games visual are pretty amazing, controls pretty weirdly and the atmosphere is pretty great with even good voice acting it, a great game to get at a discount like I did, 10 dollars is a bit much, but the story is confusing and it’s not that long, the controls are fine but this game does have some glitches, I get a few more hours out of games then most people which led to around 5This games visual are pretty amazing, controls pretty weirdly and the atmosphere is pretty great with even good voice acting it, a great game to get at a discount like I did, 10 dollars is a bit much, but the story is confusing and it’s not that long, the controls are fine but this game does have some glitches, I get a few more hours out of games then most people which led to around 5 hours of total play time and I think since it was around 3 dollars to get it I think it was money well spent, just get it at a discount and play it because it was in more than one ways, a entertaining expo.… Expand
  14. r0mer0
    Jan 18, 2022
    1
    Can't recommend The First Tree. The colors are nice, the models are not. The fox animations are bad. Some game mechanics are redundant. One can, for example, toggle between run or walk. There is never a need to walk, and no limit to running – why not make running the default? The music is generic and uninspired and loops to often, as do environmental sounds (like rain). Neither can beCan't recommend The First Tree. The colors are nice, the models are not. The fox animations are bad. Some game mechanics are redundant. One can, for example, toggle between run or walk. There is never a need to walk, and no limit to running – why not make running the default? The music is generic and uninspired and loops to often, as do environmental sounds (like rain). Neither can be muted, nor lowered in volume. Turning the sound off is the only way to go. That also stops the narration. That makes the game actually more enjoyable, not the best thing to write about the developers obviously very personal story.… Expand
  15. chilidogtrainer
    Mar 31, 2022
    1
    TL;DR: This is *not* a game for kids, the mechanics need heavy refinement, the gameplay is just waypoints for a hack melodrama, and the sad, sad, sad soundtrack is just aggravating. It needs a hell of a lot of refinement and doesn't need to so ham-fistedly try to pull heartstrings. This was a self-serving project that may have helped the developer, but it's not for public consumption.TL;DR: This is *not* a game for kids, the mechanics need heavy refinement, the gameplay is just waypoints for a hack melodrama, and the sad, sad, sad soundtrack is just aggravating. It needs a hell of a lot of refinement and doesn't need to so ham-fistedly try to pull heartstrings. This was a self-serving project that may have helped the developer, but it's not for public consumption. You'll lose more in your own personal time than whatever money you pay for it.

    Longer version:
    I think I'm playing a different game than those giving this a high score. The game opens with a low-polygon, snowy mountain scene where a fox mother wakes up and you hear narration between a man and a woman talking about some event. Sixty seconds later you're looking at a dead fox cub; if you turn on the commentary, the game's developer talks about this as being an exercise done after his father has died and says that he showed this sorry game to children at Pax West. What? What in the hell were you thinking? "Gee, young kids love seeing dead baby animals, and this is going to tug at those heart strings. Wait, maybe a sappy score and a winter environment will seal the deal." That is, of course, if you can turn your attention from the camera being pinned to the fox in a way that makes it feel like you're driving a tractor trailer down the road.

    It doesn't get any better from there. Glowing waypoints are just a way to tell a story about finding the other fox cubs. The game's premise that this is a dream is a weak excuse for it not making any sense; honestly, it would have made more sense if there were crazier transitions. The only way to play this is with the sound and subtitles off - you'll just miss out on hearing about some failed teenage rebellion and a wife who sounds more like a podcast co-host than a partner. And the story - sweet baby Jesus it's bad. Just imagine that you've gone to a poetry reading by a high school teenager. Yup, that's exactly what it's like.

    If you're working through grief, then don't play this game - take an actual walk outside. It will do you a lot more good than the time sunk into this game.    … Expand
  16. helenapee
    Mar 18, 2023
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. i bought this game wanting an emotional play-through, tears, warmth in my heart. its pretty easy for me to feel this way for a piece of media, but this didn't make me feel much emotionally, except fear when the fox explodes and it switches to a first person horror game type feel. i honestly jumped when i went in that tent and saw the deer, i was on edge. this game's screen captures looked beautiful and drew me in, accompanied by the description talking about the game 'exploring the meaning of life'. Of course, the visuals are beautiful in most areas, yet some parts are barren and i found it quite funny that the only things you can really interact with in the game from the fox's view is the objects found under dirt which add a bit more explanation to the story, and your dead children on the floor. it may have been something to include more collectables that build up to extra scenes and such, because at first i was looking everywhere for those little crystals to collect because they were the only things i could collect, and as i played for longer i was just overlooking areas if i knew nothing was over there. now obviously i understand the game-play is a 'parallel' to the writer's own story and that the game will focus on explaining it, but the narration just got kind of tiring? like there would be silence and i'd be enjoying the scene just looking at the nature and then they'd talk and it would throw me off in a sense. i don't think it necessarily fits for the visuals in the fox's perspective to be accompanied by narration and then a second setting. the more compelling scenes which i enjoyed had no speaking, and those scenes did grab my attention and were able to make me feel something. and i kept thinking "yes its here when it gets good" but then it just loses it and i feel nothing again. at a point, i was just wanting to finish it to see if my children were still alive and i wasn't focused at all on the other story. however, the ending, it did make me feel something warm in my soul, a fiery rage when i could hardly even see my ghost children leave with my ghost self being only a few pixels big. anyways. media that will want to do what this game tried to do, will usually be vague enough to make you think about the people important to you in your own life that will get you feeling emotional, yet still be specific enough to explain the story being told in an original way. and if that's not its goal then they create compelling characters to make you feel for, and i only felt pain seeing the baby foxes dead on the floor... because they're dead baby foxes. i appreciate the writer's desire to tell their story, i just think that they should have either fully focused on a completely non-narrative story following the fox finding items and we the users piece together the story ourselves, or make it a narrated piece in the second, realistic world explaining it instead.… Expand

Critic Reviews

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No score yet - based on 2 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 2
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 2
  3. Negative: 0 out of 2
  1. PLAY! Zine
    Mar 5, 2019
    70
    Clumsily narrated yet strongly delivered tale, told through the eyes of a seeking fox and set in a gorgeous dream-world, The First Tree is an hour long video game you will not forget for some time after beating it.
    Read full review
  2. NintendoWorldReport
    Dec 7, 2018
    65
    The First Tree only lasts about 2 hours and is essentially a walking sim through a handful of gorgeous settings with bits of narrative threaded throughout. That being said, the ending truly is something special, and if you choose to get this game in the future, I’d recommend enduring through the rough narration and reaching the finale. The finale is worth it.
    Read full review