Firewatch

[Chase]

Oh hey - a new game that doesn't have a thread for itself here yet?

Well don't mind if I do.

Campo Santo's first game released is sometimes adequately called a "walking sim" through some of the most detail oriented wilderness ever to be depicted in a video game. The setting? The Shoshone mountain range in Wyoming during the summer of 1989. The characters? As delightful a possibility given the setting, the roster is significantly sparse, providing you with a feeling of being alone - even though you aren't.

You play as Henry, a middle-aged man that escapes a complicated situation regarding his spouse in Colorado for a job as a National Forest Service "Fire-watch" lookout. In order to do so, you begin the game with a pre-cursory narrative setting "text-adventure" that provides Henry an engaging story that makes it feel both partly of you the player and yet partly unique to himself. During the pro-logue your protagonist leaves the collegiate city life of Boulder and embarks on a 14 hour-trek from the place he parks his pickup to his new home - the Two Forks Lookout Tower - found in a national park in Wyoming.

In a normal summer - Henry would be hired to sit on his butt and "watch" for "fires". The only thing that makes this job difficult for a guy like me would probably be lack of internet.

This isn't a normal summer however.

The game offers a gripping narrative brought to the fore by your supervisor, Delilah, who is residing in the nearest lookout tower to yours. You only converse with her through a walkie-talkie, leaving you at the mercy of the wilderness on your own. The world is open enough to admire the vast Shoshone mountain range as well as encourage exploration (if you're one of those that likes easter eggs and autonomous game-play such as myself) but linear enough to provide narrative seekers and those who don't like getting "lost" a clear path from objective to objective.

The story goes from sad as you learn of Henry's struggles to affable as he settles in to the job and cozy's up (or vehemently keeps at arm's length) to Delilah, to thrilling as the feeling of "being watched" settles in on both characters.

The game then becomes a mystery solver that encourages exploration and following Delilah's orders in order to get down to the bottom of the unnerving feeling that is finding yourself alone without actually being alone at all.

What's out in the wilderness? Better steel yourself for a lonely but exhilarating trial in finding out.

Why one should play 'Firewatch':

• vast, beautiful environment
• gripping narrative
• player-driven dialogue and free-roaming exploration opportunities

and, in typical fashion, I'll answer the question by giving you a question.

Have you ever wanted to go camping, without the hassle of going camping? 'Firewatch' provides that very feeling in almost all of it's gameplay. It's focused on climbing rocks, rappelling down shale-slides, exploring canyons and caverns, and hiking (a healthy amount of hiking.)

The game is story-driven and the game-play burden is light. There's enough extras, dialogue options, and even facets of Henry's background out there for replay-value (and you WILL miss several things on your first run!) to encourage more than the five hours it would take to complete the game from start to finish.

If it's available on Steam, get it. It's a game you can play on PC -and- the PS4.

[Caz]

This game was really, really great. The narrative had me pulled in from the get-go. What seems like such a... dull concept, turns out to be something really quite clever. Certainly one of the best walking simulators around.

I had only one gripe with the game, although I would consider it to be a spoiler.

The ending was rather anticlimactic, leaving much to be desired. Although much is left to interpretation, it didn't offer the revelation that it was building up throughout the game.

Edited April 29, 2016 by Caz

[Chase]

Did you know

There's Two terrible endings?

The first one is obviously getting into the helicopter and that being it, and the second one is triggered by NOT getting into the helicopter after talking to Delilah from her tower, and it's just as...."just there" as the first. It implies that either Henry burns to death or makes like Ned Goodwin and becomes a hermit.

Anyway, the game sort of connects to me in a personal way.

My whole work history is founded on the industries surrounding "recreation". I've worked for Christian summer camps, and I've come full circle to working for the local government in providing outdoor entertainment to those I could loosely call "clients". The word "camp" is ingrained into my very being - despite actually being out-of-shape and more acclimated to a shut-in, homey environment. In a way, despite holding a high respect and gratitude for things like the internet, electricity, cell phones, metropolitan ways of life, the news at my fingertips, and comfy places to sit.

There's an outdoorsman somewhere in me. I do see the outside as an escape. My love for games often reflects this as the open-world titles of the Legend of Zelda series along with Role-Playing games made the most impact on my life. I know I'm really sucked into the first-person when I imagine my daily life is a video game and that I'm the protagonist.

Even away from the summer camps and workplaces one of my hobbies is exploring. I turn on the first-person "hud" of life - things like hunger and need to use the restroom that you find in 'the Sims' franchise - how much money I have - even a box in the corner with my to-do list.

And 'Firewatch' does an amazing job of bringing flashbacks to that kind of living that is so innate to me without a game prompting it. Heck, even Henry looks a lot like I might in twenty years. While his story and mine are much different, the character wasn't too demanding to conform too, while also having his own unique rules. His clumsiness, his aggressive attitude (both in choice and without your prompting), and his ability to play both the "good guy" and the "partner-in-crime" effortlessly mirror how I view myself sometimes.

Thematically, it's as much about paranoia and loneliness - general issues for lots of people - but one that for me, who has lots of experiences similar to those in the game under his belt - really strikes a chord. This game almost was like a love letter to me - and Campo Santo deserves kudos for evoking such appreciation for not only simulating things I do often - but making that simulation worthwhile, and equally enjoyable.

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

Okay spoilering this whole thing don't read if you've not played.

I personally love the ending, because it's a perfect ending to the whole game and it ties well to it's themes and what it means to convey. It is the harsh reality that two people basically running away from their problems have to face. The thing this game does is really show what Isolation and loneliness can do to people, how the world and reality can just run away from you.

The whole plot that starts to come together only gets torn away and changed into something much more mundane. In some ways a lot of people say that Ned's actions don't make sense. I personally don't agree. In his own way I think he wanted someone to know what happened to his son his guilt over it being an accident or him killing Brian being irrelevant. ((I personally don't think he did just due to the photos you see at the end, the ones that remain on the camera from before when Henry gets it.))

Really we don't get a lot of answers, things are left unsure. But... isn't that the point? Isn't that why Henry was out there in the first place? I know his literal reason from being there, but in concept he was running away from the unknowns in life, the questions. We don't really get to know everything a lot of the time. His time away from the real world life, is a crazy adventure, it's strange and new. This can be seen in a lot of how it works, a lot of what transpires. We see him really grow attached to another person that is running away from something themselves and he runs into another person also running from something. Everyone in this game, every major characters we see on screen ((well not literally.)) is running from something. They are trying to escape life or something they regret.

I think my favourite line really in the game is when Delilah says "Meeting people out here is the fun part". Because... my lord this game goes out of it's way to prove that wrong lol. It really tonally sets the mood imo, what the themes are. Personally... I'm just a person who respects the ending. Because in the end life is all about uncertainty. We never know what the hell is going to happen. So much of the game you spend time not knwoing what is real and what isn't, what to believe... hell, you never even see Delilah lol. She doesn't really become real until you finally see the interior of her tower imo, ((the Pork Pond sign, her drawing of Henry.... etc...)) For all we knew before then it could've jsut been a voice in Henry's head ((the scene where he talks to Julia, his wife... makes this more certian to me what they were trying to do and really make the player doubt how much was even reality.))

I dunno, to me The endings wasn't anything crazy. But, that's why I like it. It's personally what I think is the best ending. Because it's the most accurate to what life is...

Maybe I'm just strange for thinking this but... kinda how I feel about it.

It's a beautiful game, that's all I'll say. I seriously recommend playing it. It's the only game in it's style and presentation I've ever actually enjoyed, it's rather compelling. It's jsut so... Human. It just so genuine, so heartfelt. It's an experience I feel better for having been a part of.

[Chase]

That's a pretty good interpretation there, Huk.

Personally, I like how Delilah has every reason to make you doubt reality -before- finding the clipboard at Jonesy Lake. Despite knowing you have a wife and that she's in horrible shape - she makes advances on you anyway because "what the hell, we're in Wyoming in the middle of nowhere, who's gonna find out." and because the game does a very good job of fleshing out Henry's narrative - you don't act so quick to jump on the offer. It generally comes to you. "I have a wife. I shouldn't do this. This is wrong." The game also doesn't force Henry to conform to proper denial either - if you be shippin' Henry and Delilah, go ahead and play along. Hooray, actual choice.

Then, she genuinely lies to you, making your ONLY contact with another person unreliable - which goes even farther in to making some players feel alone. If you feel alone, 'Firewatch' is doing something right.

- and then her flaws ultimately do cause Henry to doubt nearly everything when the plot ratchets up. It's almost as if the characters in the story mirror Henry's crumbling security, which builds tension even more. Delilah seems like a very nice person, but there's something off about her - and it is incredibly fantastic.

[Felicity]

Note: If you think back on what she says and does throughout the story and what is revealed of her past, Delilah is actually a manipulative, alcoholic asshole. She doesn't seem that way though because of the funny banter.

Whilst I can acknowledge what the ending could have been trying to convey a la Huk's interpretation, It still felt lacking in the execution. Like how I can appreciate the complexity and mechanical beauty behind biology, chemistry or physics but I'm still bored witless if I have to read it out of damn textbook. The game is so good at building on the audiences expectations and tensions but then just lets it go, utterly blue-balling someone like me who enjoys a little bit of flair in an ending.

[Aero]

Played this months ago. Game was great but the ending felt rushed/anti-climatic. The "secret ending" leaves far too much to the imagination (perhaps on purpose). But the plot was pretty damn interesting and the voice acting was absolutely top notch. Reminded me of SOMA, sort of psychological horror-but-not-horror.

[Despair Syndrome]

The problem with the ending is probably not with the ending itself, but with the hype and tension built up from the start.

The greater the expectation, the greater the disappointment if our expectations are not met.

That said, I was preeetty disappointed with how it ended, but after reading Hukkie's interpretation, I guess it isn't that bad tbh.