I've had my eye on
Firewatch for a while now, ever since seeing the initial trailers. The game seemed to have a lot going for it: appealing visuals, generally great writing, and the hint of a possibly sinister plotline. Developed by
The Secret of Monkey Island and
The Walking Dead alumns, it appeared to be one of the safer bets for this releases this year. I don't think many people imagined that
Firewatch would turn out like it did, but it's certainly not what those trailers and early previews may have indicated.
A lot of people are probably going to feel kind of cheated by this game. While it does feature all the mechanics shown off in pre-release trailers and materials -- rappelling down/up cliff faces, mantling over rocks, locating supply caches, and navigating your way with a physical map and compass, that's the entirety of
Firewatch's mechanical depth. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing as long as the rest of the package holds up, but it's just an unfortunate cost of doing business with narrative-heavy games like this -- there really isn't an awful lot of meat and potatoes "game" to show or surprise players with once they get it. With most games, that's not a huge deal since the "gameplay" chunk is usually like 70% of the whole lot in most cases. Since
Firewatch seems more interested in using it's mechanics as ways to further the narrative rather than to facilitate play, that may leave some players feeling a bit cold (Personally, the physical map and compass just made me remember how cool
Far Cry 2 was)". Certain objects can be interacted with or stored in your backpack and manipulated with the mouse/thumbstick similar to a Frictional Games title, but you can only pick up and carry with you items that are necessary to advance the story, so there isn't much adventure game style inventory management to speak of -- no inventory at all, actually.
Another big part of the game is it's presentation, and I actually was just a little disappointed by
Firewatch's visuals. Style and lighting-wise, it's a slam dunk -- the Wyoming skyline is gorgeous at any time of day: sunsets and rises drench the drape the landscape in a ruby red blanket, while the midday sun paints a fantastic picture of the harsh terrain. Draw distance is alright, as are shadows, but the grass and trees themselves never looked quite right, and some textures are noticeably sharper than others. Henry's animations are universally solid (although a bit repetitive) and Campo Santo's depiction of the wilderness manages to evoke "the good outdoors" rugged beauty and a mysterious, all-encompassing loneliness that is always just a plot beat away.
Narrative is where
Firewatch's heart truly lies, however. The central relationships in the game -- Henry's with Julia and separately with Delilah -- are the main focus of the game. The game is set up as a pretty standard thriller: a man who has lost everything removes himself from the world to escape, before stumbling on a sinister conspiracy. It's absurd, of course, and the game constantly reminds you of this fact by throwing mock spy thrillers a la Robert Ludlum in your face up to the finale as cheap paperbacks read by the staff of the park in their ample downtime. The bulk of the plot is almost an exercise in suspension of disbelief up until the ending, which is probably going to upset some, despite it's obviousness. The logical conclusion of the shadowy doings at the supposed center of
Firewatch are illuminated to be something far less exciting than we had dared to hope: simple
human behavior. By the time the credits role, the mystery of Brian's death is mostly resolved, as is the shadowy person listening in on you and Delilah. Mostly. It was all just smoke and mirrors -- nothing that interesting was going on. Just like in real life --
your life.
In the end, I don't think
Firewatch is that great of a game. It's a bit overpriced respective to it's length and it doesn't really say anything new, but that doesn't mean it isn't redeemable. If you never played
Gone Home,
Firewatch has a similar thematic bent towards banality, and
Far Cry 3 and
Spec Ops: The Line closed the door on escapism pretty firmly. What worries me is that
Firewatch won't be remembered for it's sharp dialogue or reminding of the player to embrace life with all it's problems, but just for it's pretty visuals and "misleading" marketing.
