Overview
Firewatch is a fairly short, story-driven adventure game by Campo Santo.
Playing as Henry, you head to Shoshone National Forest in Wyoming, having taken a summer job as a lookout. Your job is to spot fires and report them, but of course, you wind up doing more, thanks to your ever present companion Delilah, your boss. As soon as you begin your day, you’re tasked with finding people setting off some fireworks, and after that, your journey begins.
Let’s get it out of the way: Firewatch is short. If you take your time, explore the wilderness, talk to Delilah about pretty much anything, you’ll finish the game between five and six hours. If you rush to the conclusion, and only talk about what’s necessary to advance the story, you could probably do it in a couple hours. While the game is short, it is priced accordingly. If this were a $60 game, you’d have every right to be mad. But as it’s under $20, and with Firewatch being known to be short, you’ve no reason to argue about value for money, or being misinformed.
Throughout the game, you’ll explore various locations. The wilderness is “open”, but it’s also restricted. You’re blocked in by rocks, outcroppings, thick brush. Some of these will open later when you come across certain items, but not all of them. And don’t let the map size fool you. When you’re viewing your paper map, the wilderness may look big, but hiking from the north end to the south doesn’t take much time at all.
The story starts off really well. It maintains its intrigue throughout most of the game, but starts to falter at the end, and winds up not being as good as you had hoped. The story is pretty decent, and I did not expect it to end the way it did, but the ending seemed like a bit of a copout, unfortunately, and did not have the oomph I was expecting.
That said, the dialogue between Henry and Delilah is astounding. It’s very smooth and flows naturally, thanks to excellent voice acting by both people, as well as a very well written script. While the main story doesn’t change much throughout the game, the little touches are what make it fun. Naming the first hill you come across is reflected on your map, and slightly changes the dialogue. Telling Delilah how you look determines something you see near the end of the game. Even the introductory sequence with how you met and lived with Julia changes dialogue options later on in the game.
The game looks beautiful. The sun shines and reflects off of the environment, the environment is a joy to explore, there are nice details everywhere. Henry looks a bit odd when you see his hands, they look oddly sized, but the rest of the game is astounding. Campo Santo has crafted a fantastic version of Shoshone National Forest.
When it comes to sound, the game is great as well. You can hear rustling in the bushes, water rushing, leaves underfoot crunching, and various environmental sounds. Music is very limited, but works well in what it does. It cuts in at story moments, crecendos when it needs to, and works well within the story of the game. As mentioned earlier, it really is the dialogue between Henry and Delilah that is the selling point of Firewatch.
Unfortunately, Firewatch does not have much replayability once complete. It’s definitely worth a second playthrough to hear the alternate dialogue, but aside from that, nothing else changes. Since it’s short, a second playthrough will take you half the time. Maybe instead of having the beagle, you’ll have bought the other dog with Julia, Mayhem, and you’ll talk about him at a later point.
Pros
- Excellent graphics
- Immersive dialogue made possible with fantastic acting and a great script
- Excellent use of sound and music
- Great story for most of it
- Disposable camera photos can be developed and mailed to you in real life
Cons
- Fairly shot, easily finished in single sitting
- Not much replayability
- Disappointing ending
Summary
Firewatch is an enjoyable experience for its six hours of game (or less, if you rush). With fantastic acting and a good script, the conversations are what you’ll be here for, with the actual story taking a backseat. Do yourself a favor, and do not rush through the game. Explore. Find the little items and report them to Delilah to hear what she has to say.
And something that’s exclusive to the PC version, having your photos developed, is interesting. It’s definitely a novelty service, and doesn’t really add much to the game. When you do find the camera, you’ll notice it’s already been used. When you receive your developed photos, perhaps they’ll explain a bit more of the backstory. I purchased my photos just before writing this review, so I’m interested to see what will arrive in two to four weeks.
(This review was first written for the Steam store page for Firewatch)