Firewatch Review

In Firewatch you play as Henry, who has recently taken a new job opening as a fire lookout in Shoshone National Forest in Wyoming. Henry’s wife suffers from an early onset of dementia so for Henry the job serves as an escape for his brutal home-life, and a way to try to forget about the traumas related to her illness. With him on his walkie-talkie is Delilah, another lookout working in another watchtower. Delilah asks Henry to investigate a case of illegal shooting of fireworks within the park to which he discovers two teenage girls who accuses him of being a peeping Tom.

On the way back Henry finds a locked cave where a dark figure watches him before dissapearing. When he returns to his watchtower it has been ransacked. The following day, on a mission to figure out why a communication line is down, he finds the line snipped. Thinking it is the teenage girls again Henry goes to investigate their camp, finding it ransacked just like his watchtower was. Henry learns about the former fire lookout in his position, Ned – an alcoholic, who had his son with him to work. The both left abruptly and never went back.

Henry later discovers a radio and a clipboard when he is out fishing. On the clipboard are transcripts of his conversations with Delilah. Henry is then knocked out cold by someone and wakes up with the clipboard and radio nowhere to be found. On the clipboard was mentioned a meadow nearby which Henry finds. It is a closed area used by the government for research purposes. Henry breaks in and discovers loads of survelliance equipment and reports on the personal conversations between Henry and Delilah – some of them in regards to his wife.

Henry and Delilah debated destroying the research camp, but chose not to. When hiking home, the camp is somehow sat on fire anyways. The following day Delilah calls Henry whilst he is out and about that there is another person in his tower. Upon returning Henry finds a walkman with a tape playing the incriminating conversation with Delilah about destroying the camp. Henry ends up finding the key to the locked cave and is locked inside it by a shadowy figure. Inside the cave Henry discovers the body of Brian, Ned’s son, who had fallen to his death. Henry escapes the cave, and the following day is forced to evacuate as a forest fire is spreading rapidly.

Before leaving Henry finds a tape from Ned where he claims that Brian’s deaht was an accident, and that he died due to not have much climbing experience. This caused Ned to not want to return to civil society, and is thus living in the wilderness. Henry delves into the forest, against Delilahs wish, to search for Ned and ends up finding his bunker with loads of stolen stuff inside from the watchtower and the teenage girls. Henry learns that the government research camp was there purely for studying the wildlife, and that Ned has used the radio equipment to make sure nobody found him. We then see Henry being rescued by helicopter where he and Delilah say their final goodbyes before they are fully evacuated.

There is a lot of good things about Firewatch. The most well-deserved praise is indeed deserved to it’s graphics and art style. The game looks absolutely stunning. Nature is created beautifully, and hiking through it is a real joy. It is easy to see that a lot of details were put in to the production. And not just in the game, but if you visit the website of the game you are treated to a beautifully made parallax effect. The yellowy-orange color scheme is an ongoing theme, it’s the colour of the sunset, it is the colour of a forest fire. Whenever you are travelling through the forests within Firewatch you really do feel like a hiker wandering through a National Park.

Another great plus for the game is the story. It sets up a great mystery where you truly gets the feeling that something is amiss. You conspire together with Henry and Delilah, trying to figure out what in the world is going on. The creepy mystery continues until the very end of the game where you find resolution, and learn what has really been going on. The ending has been much debated, some people love it, others hate it. It is a very open ending, and whilst the game has been setting up a romantic relation between the pair nothing comes of it.

Lastly the music and the ambience sounds of the game are absolutely great. When music does play it is really fitting, usually done by acoustic guitar. The ambience is that of nature, which is always welcome and nice to hear. The game is also fully voiced over with lots of dialouge between Henry and Delilah to move the story forwards, and it is excellent voice work!

Firewatch is not a fast-paced game, it is after all a walking simulator. But it is one of the greatest of it’s genre. The nature you wander around looks impeccable, the story is good and the soundtrack and ambient sounds are spot on. The narration and storytelling is nice and the mystery is intriguing. A well-deserving game worth your time – especially if you are a fan of hiking, or nature in general!