Firewatch: A Great Experience
While the world is going through all kinds of train wreck I needed a solitary escapist experience where I can get completely lost in without any interruption from the outside world. And an indie game from so-called ‘walking simulators’ gave me exactly that. With a gripping story, stunning art direction, very convincing script and an astonishing voice acting Firewatch easily became one of the best experiences I’ve had in a long time. So, I wanted to go to talk about and give a brief about this amazing journey. Because maybe it’s the exact thing to take a break from whatever you’re doing right now.
The game starts with a prologue where you find some prequel story of Henry, the character you play as. In the prologue, we see that Henry's wife Julia has Alzheimer at a surprisingly early age. It is this state of stress in his personal life that prompts Henry to take a job he saw in an ad as a Firewatch. It is in these final moments of the flashback that you are introduced to the Wyoming Wilderness, some of its scenery, and the first glimpses of the artistic nature of the game. This is when the powerful ambience of Firewatch takes hold. I immediately fell in love with the stunning art style paired with the chilled soundtrack. The game duration spans the entire summer with each day here treated as a different chapter of the game. And playing out in different hours in day and night allows the fictional depiction of the Wyoming forest to take bold orange, yellowish and bluish hue to the atmosphere. And the map design is quite well sorted. After I while of playing the game I could locate myself in the map without the navigator assist. Although I kind of started to get lost by the end as several new paths unlock. But Henry's compass makes it much tolerable. Only the strange lack of wildlife was the only thing that put me off from imagining the map as a real place.
What brings life to the story is the main two leads of the game. With a world-class script and acted to perfection voice, the acting makes the game so much more convincing. The rookie fire watch lookout Henry is given a playful vulnerability. And Henry's boss and primary point of human contact for the entire summer is Delilah. These two leads and an amazing script make the experience as good as it sounds. Henry is who you play as. With a downcast past, he’s here to move on from the paranoia of his wife. Taking the job of a fire watch lookout is how he envisioned moving on. As for Delilah, her emotional barrier is thick. Being very charismatic she often doges many questions tossed at her. Despite using humour as a shield there are many occasional cracks in her personality is given to us without being too overdramatic. Delilah has something to say about almost everything. Whether you need advice on a given situation or just want to report about the progressing or just simple things you see around. And her replies are so engaging that you’ll feel eager to call on almost every little thing. Yes, the writing here is that good. Right from the get-go these characters and interactions feel very real despite the fact that they are only communication via a two-way radio. Their conversations are quite adult-like. Sometimes they reply with anger, sometimes they just laugh it off or sometimes serious and sorrowful.
The gameplay actually has quite a lot to do, unlike most walking simulators. A substantial amount of the woods can be explored with supply cases and unique sights. And you can even find a hidden turtle that you can adopt. I kind of talked about the navigation earlier so we can skip on that. One of the main reason I wanted to play the game in the first place was the breathtaking visuals. I recently started learning digital arts and just couldn’t resist using screenshots from this game as a reference. After looking up the beautiful landscapes I really wanted to walk in these paths my self.
The main fireworks of Firewatch start with two teenagers crashing in the forest. Henry is sent to stop these two from setting off fireworks in the forest before they start a forest fire. But after a while, Henry gets creeped out as he finds a clipboard with Henry and Delilah’s conversation written on it. Furthermore, a police report about two missing teenagers prompts up which just might have been the kids who were crashing in the forest. By this point, the mysterious figure who was eavesdropping on your conversation had enough clips to film you for the case. I started the game thinking it’s just going to be a fun walk in the woods. But it kept taking bold turns.
I don’t want to give any spoilers but the ending was more or less anti-climactic. No, the teens didn’t get kidnapped, you weren’t being tasted, the government wasn’t involved, Delilah wasn’t messing with you nor aliens were tripping with you, nor you were left behind the forest. It was all just a misunderstanding. It was just a misguided crazy man trying to scare Henry and Delilah away from his trail. As these revelations were had and various fires that have cropped up over the summer merged together, the only thing left to do was to get the fire under control and evacuate the Firewatch workers. While getting to the helipad which is next to Delilah’s tower, Delilah already leaves. Fortunately, we are allowed to contact her one last time on the radio. Now is the time to see what we can take away from the game. Firewatch is about a very human story. Henry came here with past trauma and was trying to solve the problem. In my playthrough I wanted Henry to move on. So I asked Delilah to come to Boulder with me. Because Julia was a lost cause and she isn’t going to get better. But Delilah turns you down and tells you to visit Julia first and figure things out. Well none of them was wrong and both were thinking about what’s best for Henry. What did Henry learn over the course of Firewatch? In the beginning, Henry was afraid of leaving Julia behind and move on, because after all, Julia is still alive. There lies his biggest paranoia because it feels unethical. But in the end, he learns that he isn’t wrong for leaving Julia to her parents. Henry is in his 30s and has a lot left to live and can’t just hold back because of a diseased cause. He doesn’t need to feel bad for moving on, he just needs to keep moving forward. Henry finally overcomes the paranoia. He can never forget what happened to Julia but learns to forgive himself. And This forest was just a place where time didn’t pass where Henry could wait for this revelation to come. And now the wait is over, he could live his life once again.
Firewatch more or less felt like reading a good book. And after finishing the game for the first time, I didn’t feel any urge to play other games or watch any shows immediately. You just feel that kind of emptiness inside when you finish reading a good book. Of course, the take away of the story wasn’t something big. Nor it was the best game or best story I’ve seen in games. But what I can tell you is that it was a great experience and a great escape from all the bs around the world.
[all the images and screenshots used are taken from the ‘Firewatch’ game]
