Firewatch

What is Firewatch? You could say it’s an experimental approach to the story driven experiences in games that we’re used to. You could say that it’s a relatable tale that manages to encapsulate the humanity of our lives better than most virtual worlds have in the past. However, you could also say that it fits the definition of “tripping at the finish line.” That the game had all the parts in place to produce an unforgettable experience, but that it unfortunately fell flat in the end, leaving only disappointment as a result.

Back in 2012, one of the biggest surprises in recent memory was released with the arrival of Telltale’s The Walking Dead. Even though its gameplay was as bare bones as it could be, it showcased a strength in its narrative attributes. Two of the creative leads from that game, Jake Rodkin and Sean Vanaman, would leave to form the new studio Campo Santo. With a small team, the new development group set out to create their own take on interactive fiction, but this time based almost strictly on player-engagement, rather than cut-scenes and quick-time events. The first aspect designed was the constant interaction with the walkie-talkies, inspired from the conversations between the protagonist and Atlas in BioShock, as well as the dialogue branches from The Walking Dead. Then came the setting, in which the vacant forestry of Wyoming was designated for the game’s location, inspired from two employees’, including Vanaman, childhood experience. Restricting the perspective to first-person was chosen to not only avoid unnecessary lip-synching, but to also enhance the narrative in the direction they wanted. Firewatch saw an announcement in 2014 with the intent on shipping sometime in 2015, but it would not actually see a release until February of 2016.

Welcome to the heart of Wyoming, also known as that US state everyone forgets about. The year is 1989, and you are thrown into the forest regions of the vacant state. You are Henry, and as a fire lookout, you are the only person out in the wild; at least you’re supposed to be. While you start out just investigating some teenagers messing around amongst the wilderness, a legitimate threat begins to arise in the wake of the idea that there may be someone else out here. All of this is driven through your conversations with your supervisor, Delilah. Even though Henry never actually sees the face of a fellow human being during his time out here, Delilah is just as important in terms of the narrative’s arc. The story is almost entirely told through their walkie-talkie conversations, which is a good showcase of the game’s impressive writing and the great performances from the actors.

Where the story actually loses me, is how it handles all of its narrative’s various arcs. There’s a commendable establishment of the game’s themes and characters at the start, and for the first two thirds or so of the game I was very interested to see where it was going, but the final third proved to be an absolute trainwreck. This game’s only about five hours long, give or take, but the end portions just came off as a completely rushed product to me. The final “reveal” was incredibly underwhelming, and even the way they chose to present that “reveal” was poor. Maybe this was a part of their original vision, but I can’t think of the last time I left an ending of a game as disappointed as I was here.

Keep in mind, Firewatch is completely a story-driven experience. There’s little replay value, it’s short, and there’s next to no side-content. That said, Firewatch never leans too heavily on its story-related material in the form of intrusive cinematics, which is where it shines its most ingenious aspects. I’ve never really seen a game that presented itself like this before, which is refreshing, but that doesn’t excuse it of its issues.

For the most part, the gameplay consists of roaming the forest regions of this Wyoming setting, but there’s little exploration, and when you can do that, there’s little incentive. All of the “collectibles” only provide further background on the story; that’s it, and if the idea of further establishing this game’s lore intrigues you, then go right ahead. However, going out of your way to discover that lore may be troublesome. Firewatch gives you a kind of Marauder's Map to track your positioning across the map, and I have to say, I commend them for giving the player something a little different, but I just don’t think it was necessary. I understand that they want to authenticate actual exploration as possible, but I just often found myself getting lost most of the time. To the game’s credit, they were pretty good with getting you back on track via walkie-talkie hints, but it was just tedious for me at the end of the day.

I also found the game’s choice system to be a fair bit in underused territory. The Walking Dead was almost solely about player choice, and it seemed like Firewatch was heading in that direction as well, but the final impact was almost non-existent. In fact, aside from a few branching dialogue sections, I don’t believe there was a single decision that meant anything here. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying every title needs to force a mechanic like that in its own blueprint, but it’s just perplexing because it really seemed like Firewatch was heading in that direction.

Firewatch attains an astounding art style. Apparently completely deriving from just a painting, the visual approach with its focus on specified lighting and colors, is nothing but appealing. My technical issue that I did have this game was with its performance. I’ve heard the PS4 version has encountered its own set of problems, but I feel like the PC is a bit unoptimized. I don’t currently hold the optimum build on the market, I have a GTX 760 as a video card, but Firewatch doesn’t strike me as a demanding game. This is only the second title I’ve had to put settings significantly down because of FPS issues, the only other one being The Division’s Beta. Maybe I’m underestimating the power required to run a game like this in 2016, and I’ll be the first to admit that I am not an expert on this matter, but I think some work may need to go into making the game perform better on a larger range of machines.

I wanted to like Firewatch a lot more than I did. Maybe I personally hyped myself up too much because of its coverage on Giant Bomb, but I found the entire experience to be extremely underwhelming by the time the credits rolled. Firewatch has a lot going for it, and if nothing else it’s worth noting that there’s nothing else out there exactly like it. If mere intrigue is enough for you to want to pick it up, then by all means look into breaking into its $20 asking price. However, if you’re like me, then perhaps it would be better to leave it in a way just like the state it’s based in - completely forgotten.