Firewatch is a game from the key developers behind Walking Dead: Season 1, pioneering the modern rebirth of the adventure genre, and WD:S1 is #2 on my list of all-time favorite games! So of course I was eager to see what they would offer up next.įirewatch has similarities to other games that are explicitly striving to push games as an artistic medium, but I think Firewatch had some key flaws in it's execution despite being a great game in other ways.
This didn't leave me feeling some sense of loss, or make me grateful just for what little time Hank and Delilah did spend together, it made me feel like I wasted time. Life may not be satisfying, but good fiction is. I guess in short, I have great respect for Firewatch for keeping the stakes so low for a videogame, it's just a shame they couldn't end it in a satisfactory way.
It raised the stakes, made every clue that much more important. Where most love stories try to use dangerous situations to force people to fall in love, Firewatch felt like people were falling in love despite the danger. Seeing Delilah open up to someone who at one point I thought may have been a murderer brought tons of tension, and then when that tension is released the fear and anxiety of being stalked replaced it. The creepiness was a great counter to the blooming romance, a blend of sweet and bitter. Romance often comes across forced in fiction, and I felt like that wasn't a problem in Firewatch because I was actively pursuing the relationship, I was nurturing it, and I was choosing to leave my past behind. I felt like the choices played out pretty well, making their relationship feel more like my conscious decision. I'd have Hank say something and then Delilah would go radio silent because she was upset, or embarassed. I wasn't expecting more out of choices, everything felt pretty important. It's such a shame that this game's ending was such a flop, it had A+ written all over it, but you gotta stick the landing and this one just let itself fall facedown on the mat. When Chekhov's Gun fired the rounds were blanks. I felt like there was no dramatic payoff to anything set up. And I was completely hooked, on the edge of my seat with this game. Consider it self-care and give it as soon as possible, you won’t regret it.įirewatch Available now on Xbox Game Pass and for sale on PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and PC.I loved how the introduction had you flavor your character and his relationship, it gave me great context for what would come later. It has a lovely aesthetic, great music, some of the best performance in a video game or anywhere else, and about six hours of normal playtime. Firewatch With all your heart and soul, it’s a gentle touch, not a slap in the face. It’s a game about what you do when you have to get used to a new version of yourself when circumstances beyond your control force you to identify you don’t want and don’t expect.Īnd if that sounds burdensome or boring, rest assured it’s not. It was an absolute achievement in a year for indies ( Stardew Valley, In, Oxenfree to name a few) but Campo Santa has put his name on the map with a beautiful journey into the heart of what makes us tick. Firewatch surprised a lot of people when it was released in 2016.
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