Critical Play: Firewatch

This week I played Firewatch (by Campo Santos) as my choice for a walking simulator.

You play as a fire lookout in the wilderness of Wyoming.

The main kind of fun that’s intended, at least from my short playtime experiencing it, is narrative and fantasy. The very start of a new game begins laying out the background of your character and as you take on this new job, pieces of the story begin to appear. The setting and the visual design is really well done to make it feel like you’re actually out in these remote woods, and combined with your role as a fire lookout, an uncommon occupation, it creates a compelling fantasy to experience vicariously.

Walking is the main mechanic but navigation is another mechanic to guide “how” or “where” you walk.

The main game mechanic is walking, but other mechanics include using the radio, referencing your map and compass, and picking up and examining objects. That’s about it. Using the radio to communicate with a fellow lookout and having the option to examine objects make for another type of fun of discovery. What can I interact with? What does my character and his partner say about this thing I’m looking at? It’s really fun choosing the dialog/banter for your character when using the radio.

Nonetheless, it all boils down to walking (or running, climbing over rocks). They’ve built this vibrant world for you to explore and while it’s not totally open-world, there’s much to see and more areas unlock as you progress. The only way to progress, in fact, is by walking and accomplishing the “quests.” By walking, you’re always moving forward, but you can retrace your steps or go back to areas that you’ve already seen before and they will be different. The time of day changes or other people or animals may make slight changes to the environment. And as you’re walking, you take all of this in, visually and aurally, since there’s no other mechanics to do. It’s a wonderful experience, since you don’t have to worry about a health bar or a hunger meter and you just walk and experience. You can focus on picking up the bits of the narrative embedded in the world as the plot gives you gentle hints of where to go for the main narrative while still giving you the freedom to walk elsewhere and experience the space they’ve built.