I love the mountains. Seriously. I think I would lose my sanity if I didn’t spend at least a few days surrounded by majestic peaks each year. In that way, Firewatch speaks to my soul.
(Image of the Grand Tetons – my favorite mountains, and also located near the setting of Firewatch)
Warning – spoilers ahead! I won’t give away all of the details, especially how the story resolves. But I am going to spoil some of the plot and the main gameplay. I went into the game knowing next to nothing about what to expect. If you want that experience, stop reading now and go play the game. It’s worth it (and it’s short).
Firewatch is a weird pseudo-video game. It’s much more an interactive narrative with some really simple gameplay mechanics thrown in. But it excels at what it is – a beautiful environment and riveting story. If you’re looking for button mashing or high level of difficulty, move along.
The basic premise of the game is as follows: You are Henry. You live in Boulder. You like to hang out at bars. You meet a great girl and start setting up a life with your dog. You and your wife discuss children, but it doesn’t happen. She’s diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease around 40 years old. You are devastated. You take a job in the Shoshone National Forrest in Wyoming as a fire lookout to escape your sad life.
That’s where the game starts.
You hike out to your lookout tower where you meet Delilah over your radio. Henry and Delilah make up basically the only dialog in the game, all of which takes place over the radio. You spend the summer watching for fires, doing basic tasks around your section of the forest, and talking to Delilah.
Sounds mesmerizing, right?
The main story plays out over the mundane day-to-day as weird events start happening. It starts with a few drunk teenage girls setting off fireworks in a fire danger area. Then there is vandalism, followed by eavesdropping, and a fenced off area no one can account for. It turns into quite a psychological thriller as Henry and Delilah try to figure out what’s going on.
Two things make this game a must play. The first is the dialog. The voice acting of Henry and Delilah is great. The back and forth is spot on. The writing is also superb. It draws you into these humans as deep and tortured people. You are interested in their back stories and want to know how their relationship will end up.
The second must-play element is the environment. It’s the wilderness of Wyoming, which is not a conventional game setting. I love novelty in games, and this provided an environment that I was not familiar with in a virtual world, yet love in real life. You want to look around and explore. The map is just big enough to make it feel appropriately tedious to get from place to place without being overwhelmingly huge.
On the negative side, the game is sadly too short. The intrigue and suspense build appropriately, and the pacing is solid, but it just doesn’t last long enough to leave you fully satisfied. The silver lining may be that Firewatch is a good bridge game to get you between AAA titles.
I really hope that Firewatch makes the jump to VR. It’s a first person exploration title. It has basically no combat and very little in the way of platforming game mechanics. But it feels completely immersive in 2D. I can only imagine how much more it would capture me if it were presented in the immersion of VR.
It may just be my love of the mountains and wilderness, but I’m hoping for more in this vein from Campo Santo. If you’re looking for a mostly chill experience that will mess with your head, Firewatch won’t let you down. And with that, I’m off to the mountains for a week!
