Background
At first glance, Campo Santo’s Firewatch seems like a fun bright little game in which you play as Henry who takes a job as a fire watch ranger at Yellowstone National Park in the summer of 1988. However, throughout the first few minutes of gameplay, it becomes very clear that this game is operating on so many levels. Relationships, character, nature, mystery, suspense, immersion and music help to provide not only a truly meaningful experience but on that will stay with the player long after the credits have rolled. Firewatch features an enthralling story with branching dialogue that is defined by your relationship with your fellow fire watch ranger Delilah. Be who you want to be and watch a very real relationship be born and mature right in front of your eyes.
Story
The story of the summer of 1988! The game kicks of with a series of statements and questions helping to frame the backstory of your character Henry and his wife Julia. You are punched with emotion right off the bat before you even see a glimpse of nature or Henry himself. The prologue does not leave one wanting, as you are forced to make decisions both fun and difficult. You watch as the relationship with his wife matures and then slowly falls into a painful recession. Henry then takes up a job as a fire watch ranger in order to run from the problems that have popped up in his life.
You are introduced to your boss Delilah who contacts you through your walkie-talkie and you begin your long summer of work. Along the way you are doing your job, answering some calls about issues with potential dangers. The game is told by days which are sort of like chapters, with the whole game spanning a summer. While working to prevent forest fires, you are told of past events that have occurred in the woods and that people have gone missing and there are many unsolved mysteries out there. I believe this game will have a lot of the joy sucked from it if spoiled so I’ll leave you with that as a short spoiler-free synopsis. Through the game you can see how things develop, and how you are thrown into the middle of something incredibly new to both the player and Henry and one that puts him in a strange place, and you can choose to have him react however you see fit. The closure for the story is extremely satisfying and leaves you with the your own thoughts to ponder.
Music
Firewatch features an original score composed by Campo Santo employee Chris Remo, and it is fantastic. At no point in the story did I find myself wondering why the music didn’t fit the situation. Every mood was accompanied by a perfect pairing of suspenseful and intense beats when the need arose. Yet in the quiet moments, when Henry would find himself just hanging out eating a sandwich at the edge of a cliff and looking at the sunset, the scene is accompanied by a somber and peaceful, yet reflective piece that leaves one thinking about where they have been and where they’re going. I also was very impressed with how the music would cue up at exactly the moment I would discover something, shocking you both visually and audibly. The soundtrack of a game is just as important as anything else and in this respect, Firewatch delivers spectacularly.
Dialogue & Voice Acting
Wow. The performances given in this game by Rich Sommer (Henry) and Cissy Jones (Delilah) deserve a spotlight. I want to draw attention to not only the awesome performances in terms of line delivery and emotion, but sheer realism that is found in their conversations to each other. When you first meet Delilah she is very open with certain aspects of her life. She later tells you that she wasn’t exactly in her right mind when telling you those things. She’s actually kind of closed off and while she wants to talk about you and understand you more, she is rather hesitant to talk about herself. As you progress you slowly start to peel back the layers and see the person hiding behind the walkie-talkie and while you don’t see her, you form your own vision of her in your mind. During this process you also see those same thick layers peel back off of Henry as well, and it just works as a perfect representation of meeting someone new, and not being completely sure how you feel about them. The emotional moments are truly emotional and the awkward moments just leave you saying to yourself “why did I say that.” These decisions and conversations feel like your own and nothing is better than that.
Verdict: 10/10
Firewatch is an enigmatic firestorm of emotion and purpose. I genuinely consider it an honor to play and write on this game. I have had few other more meaningful and real moments while immersed in a game than I had with Firewatch. The scenery, the art style, the dialogue, and the narrative all culminate together in what I believe may be one of the best indie games of the year, if not one of the best of all this year. It is so rare to find characters so real and so relatable then Delilah and Henry. The voice acting is absolutely stellar and provides a gateway to genuine care for the characters. The story is filled with suspense and intrigue and you uncover a very unnerving mystery of just what is going on up in the wilds of Yellowstone National Park. This game plays itself out like nothing short of a fantastic book, where you are in the role of a character, but it feels like it’s you. The soundtrack of this game, composed by Chris Remo, deliver the final piece of this enigmatic and enthralling narrative, as you feel every moment of tense emotion with the sounds and swells of the music fitting every moment like a glove. This is a game that any fan of gaming needs to experience and I would highly recommend you keep your eyes on developer Campo Santo; I would like to hope they continue to deliver such great substance with their future games.
