Firewatch
‘Games as experiences’ is a relatively new concept to me. A few years ago we had Thirty Flights of Loving, which I absolutely adored for it’s quirky methods of telling a story. Then there were other titles like Journey, which expanded the idea of an experience without a completely linear story. These are great titles, great games, and great stories that could never really be told in any medium other than video games. I think the closest comparison this game could have is Gone Home.
Firewatch is a game co-developed by Campo Santo & Panic. I knew this game was going to be interesting because, like many other gaming enthusiasts out there, I listen to the Idle Thumbs podcast, which regularly features two of the Camp Santo team (Jake Rodkin & Chris Remo). The other reason this is immediately unique is that Panic, as a development studio, is known for building apps for iOS. Not games.
This game features a protagonist who, for some reasons I won’t go into to avoid spoilers, becomes a fire watch officer in a national park.
Henry, the protagonist, effectively lives in a tower in the park with a great view of the surrounding area. Almost all communication in the title is done through a walkie-talkie to Henry’s supervisor, Delilah. In fact, her first question to you on your first day as a fire watchman is “what’s wrong with you?” And that sets the tone for the game.
There are lots of dialogue choices as you chat to Delilah, which is what you’ll mainly do. Some of those choices have an impact on the game. But don’t mistake this for a decision tree akin to something produced by Quantic Dream.
The passage of time in this game is measured in days, which are introduced in harsh, quick cut title screens. It starts slow. Day 1, day 2, but then goes faster; day 4, day 7, until you end up a few months into the job. And various actions happen within the job.
Again, I won’t spoil the actual story. But the basics are that you very rarely carry anything other than some rope (to repel up and down steep shale slides) and your walkie-talkie. And most of what you do is done while communicating to Dililah. There are supply boxes around the map which often contain useful things inside, but more often feature books, pinecones and toilet paper.
There are some funny quirks in here, just like Thirty Flights of Loving. Like the supply boxes all having a password. The password is 1–2–3–4. Every time.
Speaking of the map; it’s big. At the start of the game it’s intimidating. Really intimidating. Because there’s no GPS-style map to get around. You orienteer with a compass & a paper map. But as you play through a few times the map becomes less intimidating and actually quite small. But that’s as much down to the missions you need to complete being in close proximity to each other than the map actually being small.
It feels natural. You plod around the game like a moderately fit middle aged man. You’re not Nathan Drake here.
The story is interesting. It’s very adult in nature. By that I don’t mean there’s lots of sex, drugs and cursing. I mean that the theme of the story, and the issues Henry deals with throughout this game are very adult. Kids could probably watch you play it, but they won’t get it.
As the game goes on, there’s a relatively predictable tension that builds between Henry & Delilah. And there are outside characters of less importance to the main protagonists that cause this tension (again, adult themes here). The game is happy to let you go along with this tension, before it screws with it by introducing a new plot driver or twist to change the dynamic a bit. Which is not unique to games, but not something you come across that often. It has a really unique creative license in this regard because it’s not Halo. It gets to treat you, the player, as an adult. In fact, the plot is driven so heavily by heavy plot lines that it’s probably more comparable to a book than another video game.
It’s a short game, though. According to Steam I played it for 3 hours to complete it in total. Although there are some choices to be made, there’s very little additional content here (but it’s hardly a full price game). And for those 3 hours, I was thoroughly enthralled in a way I haven’t been in a while. In fact, in my second load up to play I didn’t realise what I was meant to do so ended up exploring for 20 minutes. My guess is experienced players will blitz this as the puzzles are relatively simple. Less experienced game players will probably take 4 hours to get through this. And this is one of those games you can easily encourage non-gamers to play.
In short, Firewatch is a plot-driven game with lots of interesting dialogue. It deals with some heavy issues in a lush, beautifully realised world. This is an awesome experience. But it’s just that & nothing more. Do not expect a long shelf life for this one. But do expect a significant experience in that short period of time.
Firewatch is out now on PC, Mac, Linux & PS4.
