Late to the party: Firewatch as a first walking simulator (Many spoilers)

I've had my eye on Firewatch for awhile, mostly because of how often it came up on the Bombcast prior to release (What is Firewatch? It's a walking/conversation simulator. Not a ton of mystery to it.) but also because of its striking art style. When it finally released a couple months ago I bought it right away, but I didn't play it because I was so busy and stressed at the time I knew I couldn't give it its due. I wanted to get lost in it and finish it in a day, not plow through it during my very little free time over the course of a couple weekends while thinking about work or other things, so I waited until I could actually carve out time to focus on the game and the game alone, (successfully) avoiding numerous podcasts and other gaming media where things might be spoiled for me.

This morning I finally had some stress free time so I decided to play through the game and...I really liked it. I'm glad I treated it the way I did because for me the fun of the game was getting lost in the virtual world and giving over 100% of my attention. It would not have been a good game to play with a bunch of stressful interruptions.

A lot of the reaction to Firewatch seems focused around its ending. For me the ending was...fine. I didn't love it or hate it. It was completely unrealistic* but it's a video game so I can forgive it for...being a video game.

The other thing that seems to have stuck with people is the relationship between Henry and Delilah. I found it engaging enough but I didn't really...care...about the characters. He's kind of selfish, naive and overly obedient,. She's an alcoholic, with all that entails. Neither responded realistically to the situation. I enjoyed their interplay but I wasn't exactly...'shipping...them so to speak. I also felt like it was kind of a dick move for her to take the first helicopter out and leave him, but it was also the rational responsible thing to do. It's not like she could have helped him in that situation (as opposed to investigating the camp or the cave, where she could and SHOULD have come over and physically assisted him instead of just telling him to go, at night, to a facility they thought a conspiracy was operating out of AFTER he had been viciously assaulted.)

What I enjoyed about the game was not its story but its sense of place. Even though it ran like junk on the PS4 the wilderness was beautiful, the music was very nice, and while there weren't a ton of objects to interact with those that were there were cool and really gave the area a sense of place. People exchanging books through the drop offs, the various distinct areas, getting used to the layout of the trails. It was a walking simulator for a really nice 4 hour walk. Yeah there are lots of obviously re-used assets and yes there is jank, but it gives an immersive sense of place and for a game that lasted only a few hours that was enough for me (along with the entertaining dialog, of which there was actually a sufficient amount, unlike certain other games that rely on dialog.)

After the hype/minor controversy has died down Firewatch is a fun little game. Not essential or groundbreaking, not transformative, but...pleasant, tense at times (the music leaving the camp got to me) and engaging. It's absolutely worth playing through at least once, and I could imagine revisiting a couple years down the road. Was it worth the $20? Hard to say. $5 an hour is a lot for something that's not at all replayable, but at least I actually enjoyed my time with it (unlike some $60 games.)

As for the walking simulator genre in general...I'm not sure how much is lost for me from removing puzzles from adventure games. I liked the traversal (though there's no challenge to it, except for finding the correct path) and being able to focus on the characters, story, and environment was nice. On the other hand...I definitely noticed that there wasn't any real gameplay. Firewatch is more...interactive fiction than a game. It's like a novel or a movie or a radio play in terms of its impact. There's definite benefits to the interactive nature (immersion) but it's not 'gamey' like the other game I've been playing today (Bit.trip Runner.)

I'm looking forward to the next game from this studio. Might wait until a sale to pick it up (depending on reviews) but I'll definitely play through it.

*A guy and his kid just vanish and nobody does anything? They have neighbors, a life. Delilah makes clear that the forest service tracks who is in the area, even if the guy wanted to quit early he presumably would have to contact someone who would halt his paycheck and do whatever had to be done administratively, the kid probably had a mother, even if not there were clearly neighbors and other people who cared about him. Given that the government knew where the dad was it would not have been that hard for the cops to figure out and come searching, and the body would have been easy to find. Hell what about his vehicle? Delilah mentions that your truck is in a lot reserved for firewatchers and has a racoon living in it. You'd think someone would notice if one of the firewatchers never came back to reclaim his car!