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. 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
  3. 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
  4. 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.
  5. 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
  6. 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.
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  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