Played on: PlayStation 4, PC
Firewatch is one of the most famous and celebrated 'walking simulators' to come out of the 2010's. Published and developed by Campo Santo, an indie developer that's now owned by Steam maker, Valve (and has been pretty much dormant ever since that acquisition), Firewatch revolves around the job of a fire lookout for Wyoming's Shoshone Forest. This job is considered by many familiar with the profession to be one of the most boring jobs on Earth, and an ideal haven for people looking to escape the crushing weight of mainstream society for several months.
Doesn't exactly sound like it naturally lends itself to a video game environment, does it? Even so, Firewatch tells a deceptively gripping tale that combines weighty human drama with a worthy amount of exploration and things to discover. Set during the Summer of 1989, the player character, Henry spends the game's events completely cut off from any real human contact, with his only defined relationship being shared with his supervisor, Delilah, whom you never see, and only hear speaking on the other end of a walkie-talkie.
Through Henry's interactions with Delilah, many of which can even be skipped, if you want to play Henry as the tormented, silent type, both characters are developed exclusively through dialogue, which can make them more reserved, more friendly, more strained, or more cooperative, outside of the expected mandate of story missions that will play out regardless of your choices. The freedom to develop Henry, and by extension, Delilah, may not be universal, but the writing throughout Firewatch is nonetheless superb. Even with no human characters present throughout virtually all of its progression (barring a goofy task to shoo away some distant teenage girls on Henry's first day), Firewatch feels downright heart-wrenching at times. It's one of the most starkly human games I've played that's also almost completely devoid of humans.
Even being set within such a remote location, Firewatch also nicely sets the stakes behind Henry's decision to take a job as fire lookout right from the text-based opening. This establishes that Henry's much-loved wife, Julia has started to suffer from early-onset dementia, to the point where she's confined to a care home. Faced with gradually losing his true love, and being helpless to salvage the life he's built for himself, Henry feels he has no choice but to retreat entirely into his grief, struggling to process whether it's best to keep interacting with Julia, even as she's forgetting him, or to accept the situation and abandon her. This is a very tough internal struggle for your player character, and it makes Henry's reasons for retreating into the wilderness, player choices notwithstanding, feel very uncomfortably relatable. After all, how many of us have responded to an impossible situation by just having the urge to run away from it? Pretty much all of us, at one point or another.
That's the impetus behind Firewatch's narrative; Its examination of whether the desire to isolate from a difficult event is something that can help or hurt our journey to heal from it. The player can also help shape these themes through how diligent they are with both optional and mandatory tasks throughout Firewatch. There's never a time limit, so you can take as long as you'd like wandering the Shoshone Forest, possibly leading to more discoveries (and trophies/achievements to earn!), or potentially preventing the story from moving forward, on the basis that Henry will eventually have to come to a decision about how to proceed with his life, once the Summer is over.
Meanwhile, on the gameplay end, Firewatch is generally good, though admittedly, its mechanics can be a bit rougher than its storytelling at times. There are some physics and scripting bugs that I encountered across my two playthroughs, plus a couple of the trophies I earned on PS4 failed to pop the first time, forcing me to reload a scene and play it again, so I didn't miss them. Firewatch may be accessible and overall smartly designed, but it does have a few more bugs than I would have liked to see.
Even so, the simple gameplay and presentation throughout Firewatch is careful to never stop on the game's superb storytelling and dialogue. In true 'walking simulator' fashion, there is no combat in Firewatch, despite an alleged threat to Henry's and Delilah's safety being established early, and players instead proceed the entire game by wandering and exploring. As an adventure game without combat however, FIrewatch is nonetheless a gem, especially when it effectively rewards the player for wanting to proceed the game at their own pace, whatever that is.
Between the PS4 and PC versions of the game, I do have to say that the PC version of Firewatch feels generally more polished and responsive than its PS4 cousin as well. The PS4 version of Firewatch doesn't perform as well, feels a bit jankier, and suffers from a couple of those previously mentioned trophy bugs that I ran into. Firewatch doesn't even offer a Platinum Trophy for PlayStation gamers to boot, which might be predictable in hindsight, considering that it only has ten trophies/achievements to earn. I guess if its developer was acquired by Valve some time after Firewatch's release, maybe it's not surprising that Firewatch looks and plays best on Steam, with its PC version appearing to be noticeably superior to the console builds.
In any case, Firewatch is up there with What Remains of Edith Finch as one of the best 'walking simulators' that I've ever played. While What Remains of Edith Finch definitely presented more novel and ambitious gameplay, I would say that Firewatch's narrative edges it out a bit from a storytelling perspective. Both games are great though, even if Firewatch's more wide and open exploration also makes it feel just a bit less short than it is if you barrel through it as fast as possible. I completed my second playthrough of Firewatch (on PC) in just over four hours, on that note, so this is another indie gem that certainly doesn't overstay its welcome.
You wouldn't think that a game about being a fire lookout would grab your attention, but Firewatch definitely surprised me. Hopefully, Valve lets Campo Santo out of their basement at some point, because I'd love to see what other contributions this developer could offer to the indie space, especially given the modern boom of 'cozy' games that players can approach at their own pace.
IF I HAD TO SCORE IT: 9/10
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