Consider this a spoiler warning. If you haven’t already played Firewatch, I give it my recommendation and suggest knowing as little about it as possible when you start.

There’s a moment about halfway through Firewatch where the game clicked for me. I was sitting in my tower one night, watching a controlled blaze off in the distance, and chatting away with my only companion in the wilderness, Delilah. Only, Delilah’s not there, she’s talking to me through a radio from her own distant fire tower watching that same inferno. She and I have gotten close as the summer dragged on, chatting away about anything we saw, be it significant or otherwise. I’ve grown fond of her. We even make plans to finally meet in person once the summer is over and maybe share a drink or two. And then she casually mentions that every fire is given a name by the firewatchers, and suggests that I do the honors for this one. For a brief moment I consider naming the fire “Delilah”. It’s a gorgeous summer night, with the sky full of stars, and a fire that made it feel like Delilah and I were nestled together at a campsite. Naming the fire after her would have felt right. Sweet, but not saccharine. But then I notice the wedding ring on my finger.

Firewatch puts players in the role of Henry, a man who has come out to the Wyoming wilderness to escape his problems. His wife of many years, Julia, has been suffering from early onset Alzheimer’s. As they are a couple in their late 30s/early 40s, this was an unexpected development that put tremendous strain on their relationship. Things come to a head when Henry is arrested for drunk driving during one of his many late night coping visits to the local bar. Julia’s family whisks her away, feeling that Henry cannot take care of her on his own. But rather than follow and be by his wife’s side, he takes a job as a firewatcher in Shoshone National Forest, far away from anyone.

So, on that beautiful night, secluded away in the majesty that is nature, I had a decision to make. Do I embrace the moment, acknowledging how wonderful it is to spend the summer with Delilah, or do I steadfastly stay true to my wife? The guilt gets to me and I name the fire “Flapjack” after an inside joke that Delilah and I share. It’s friendly and funny, but signals no romantic interest. Crisis averted.

Beneath the gorgeous Olly Moss directed setting and the ultimately underwhelming conspiracy subplot, Firewatch is about a man working through his guilt. Like many of us, he took his vows, promising to be always be there for the person he loved so dearly. And now, he reflects back on his decisions and the impossible scenario he was put in. It’s easy to dismiss Henry as a coward for what he did. What kind of man abandons his partner? How can he be so selfish? But dementia forces us to answer questions we’d rather not confront. It’s a disease that robs people of themselves, of their essence. It’s simpler to think about caring for a spouse who is dying of something like cancer. It’s not easy, but for the most part that person you love is still there with their mind intact throughout. You both are in it together. But with the late stages of dementia, that person is essentially gone. I’d imagine for most long term partners this is a nightmare scenario that they hope will not befall them. But for Henry and Julia, it’s happened, and at a fairly young age to boot. It’s an absolutely hellish fate.

Firewatch’s most brilliant decision was to give the player control only after Henry has made his fateful choice. It firmly establishes that he is a distinct person rather than a simple player avatar. Despite the first person view, stoic Master Chief he is not, and Henry is never shy to assert his opinions. One of the unstated rules in games is that first person is used for player avatars (i.e. Skyrim, Call of Duty, Gone Home) and third person is used for characters (i.e. The Witcher, Max Payne, Mario). This isn’t a hard-and-fast rule, as you can occasionally have chatty first person protagonists. However, they tend not to be as well drawn out as Henry. A good example of this is the fact that Henry is white. Admittedly, as a person of color I tend to notice race in games a fair bit, but for the most part I gloss over the ethnicity of characters. Sure, Gordon Freeman is a white dude on the box cover, but in-game I never see his face and his body is covered in a hazmat suit. It’s easy for me to just picture myself as that character. Alternatively, Lara Croft is white, but she’s her own sketched out character and presented in a third person perspective, so there’s some distance between me and her. But Henry is presented in a first person view, is clearly white from simply looking down, and Delilah even makes a comment on how white he is. To be clear, his race itself doesn’t matter, but what does matter is Campo Santo has crafted him to be a very specific person with his own needs and desires. By doing so, the line between me as the player and Henry as the protagonist becomes wonderfully complex.

As I reflect on that night with Delilah, and how I struggled to decide on a name for the fire, I can’t help but second guess myself. Was my decision to name the fire Flapjack the same one that Henry would have made? When I saw his wedding ring, was I really just looking at my own? Should I even be considering Henry’s wants in this situation, or should I play the angel of his better nature, reminding him of his commitments? The game passes no judgement either way, and it doesn’t seem like the choices made have much effect on the plot. Instead, Firewatch simply gave me a breathtaking view to sit and think. I can’t imagine a better way to spend a summer.

This is a great summary of why I liked Firewatch so much. At least at this point in 2016, it's has the clear-cut best narrative and characters in a video game this year. It's especially interesting to hear the little twists in each person's experience based on how they decided to play Henry.

One of the more interesting industry narratives to me this year has been what former Telltale employees are doing with the adventure game genre. Firewatch went in one direction, utilizing elements of Telltale-style dialogue driven conversations while expanding world exploration and utilizing elements of walking simulators. Meanwhile, Night School Studio put out Oxenfree, which features a much more intuitive and streamlined dialogue system while sticking to a more traditional adventure game structure. And both of these games came out right at the point where I think a lot of people hit a wall with Telltale games. While I'm not dismissing what Telltale is still putting out(Tales from the Borderlands was one of my favorite games from last year), it gives a view into what people at that studio might have started developing if they weren't caught what that studio is at this point.

Interesting thoughts on the role of character and first person perspective. I'd never really considered how that might affect the way you play through the game.

it's interesting to hear about how your relationship started with Delilah and progressed, and how that was ultimately different to my experience!

Good write up anyway man! Just goes to show how even almost entirely linear experiences can be enjoyed on completely different levels!

I had a similar experience with a very specific moment in that game. I don't know when it is exactly, but Delilah asks Henry why he took the job and why he's there. The question had me considering and analyzing my role as Henry's forward momentum but also my take on who Henry was or if I was taking the role of Henry. Would Henry want to discuss that with someone he didn't know fully? Did he go there to take a mental break from everything so not talking about it might be better? What would I do if I was Henry? I wrestled with these thoughts for a while.

Playing through that game, I found myself having a hard time separating myself from Henry in some areas. I noticed that a pure version of "Henry" came out when it came to the overall mystery and his relation to the immediate. But my own complex history with relationships shaped how I steered Henry in his pursuit of Delilah (or, more accurately, what she represents). When the game ended I was happy for Henry and his journey to find some inner peace. But I couldn't help feel like I was once again emotionally duped by an unattainable illusion.

@cav829: I absolutely cannot wait to play Oxenfree. I had no idea that it was made by former Telltale employees, but that's made me even more excited. After the first season of The Walking Dead I kind of stopped being interested in Telltale's specific format, but I'm glad it's legacy has impacted games such as these. Heck, from what I've seen of the new Batman adventure game, even Telltale looks like they're getting their mojo back.

@kmfrob: While I do think we experienced the game differently, I'll admit that I agreed with a lot of what you wrote in your post. I just chose to focus on the fire scene as I thought it would make for good writing fodder.

@pezen: It's interesting to hear what part clicked with everyone. I remember that conversation you mentioned, and I ended up picking the "I shouldn't be here" answer, which in retrospect was me judging Henry for what I then thought to be his terrible decision. I'm curious how you felt that a purer version of Henry came about when you were focused on the mystery subplot. I personally felt that those parts were a little less character heavy and Henry's actions felt a bit more constrained than his conversations with Delilah. Also, did your Henry pick up the trash he found?

I picked up the game in the steam sale and just finished up playing through it. Just wow, I thought it was fantastic. The character development was spot on and the conversations between Henry and Delilah felt incredibly natural (similar to how many, including myself, felt about Chapter 4 of Uncharted 4).

I had a similar experience during the controlled fire scene, but during it, I found myself naturally looking up and over towards Delilah's tower as we spoke. She asked if I was actually looking at the fire, which gave Henry a pause as he slowly admited 'Nooo...' and I spun round as if caught in some form of awkward guilt - that's when I knew this game's interactions and character development was something special and something I was truely invested in.

It might be a short experience, but it was an absolute blast for me, and its pushed Firewatch high up on my GOTY contenders list for sure.

@darth_navster said:

While the mystery didn't explore Henry as much as his conversations with Delilah, I felt as though my own picks for his thoughts on the mystery felt less about how I would react and more how I viewed Henry and his reactions as a character by the traits I noticed about him. But when it came to his conversations with Deliliah, I felt like I was steering Henry according to my own preferences rather than listening to Henry the way I did with the mystery. Haha, yes, my Henry respected nature.