Firewatch

Released on December 17, 2018, by Campo Santo and Panic, and developed by the former, Firewatch sends players to the remote Shoshone National Forest...to watch for fires.

It never fails. Any time I am complaining about whatever my current professional situation is, someone will ask, "Well, if you could be doing anything else right now, what would it be?"
"I'd be a forest ranger, in the middle of nowhere."
"You'd go crazy."

No, YOU'LL shoot YOUR eye out!

As introverted as I am, and as much as I enjoy getting away from absolutely everything, after a couple of weeks of being completely alone, I do inevitably go crazy. Unfortunately, there is self-shot video evidence of this that is indisputable.
Thankfully, much like how Konami has allowed me to live out the fantasy of storming a medieval castle to decapitate vampires, and Nintendo to roam across a vast wilderness to dungeon dive and duel against the ultimate evil, Campo Santo has allowed me to live out the fantasy of working in a remote forest, far removed from the rest of humanity, in Firewatch.

Those games let you swordfight, but this game lets you...walk.

Firewatch puts the player behind the eyes of Henry, as the creeping on 40 protagonist flees from some disappointing turns in his personal life to a job as a fire lookout on a tower in Shoshone National Forest. The game has been lumped into the much derided "walking simulator" genre, a category of games that generally asks little more of the player than to walk around from point A to B, with minimal interaction with the environment. Preferring my games to, you know, generally follow the strict definition of the word "game," I've avoided this genre like the plague. However, Firewatch's subject matter, along with the fact that it's won numerous awards...and was on sale on the Nintendo eShop, made it an irresistible purchase.

Nature's calling. 

Several things become immediately apparent in the first minutes of Firewatch: the narrative is more important than the gameplay, Firewatch looks beautiful when the player isn't moving, and Firewatch doesn't perform too well on the Nintendo Switch when the player does...which doesn't feel like the Switch's fault. Elaboration on this colonfest:
1. Firewatch isn't quite a "walking simulator," but it's pretty close. As Henry, the player responds to radio calls from Henry's only human connection, a lookout named Delilah stationed at a tower several miles away. He also investigates forest goings on. These goings on can range from investigating rising smoke from unauthorized fires to checking on faulty communication wires. Henry has a map and a compass to navigate the vast forest, easily accessed and utilized by the player with the touch of a button. Firewatch shares elements of a point-and-click adventure game by requiring the player to find things and...click on them, but departing from the other major landmark of that genre, there is little in the way of puzzle-solving in Firewatch. You just use the map and compass to find whatever it is you are looking for, find it, and then press whatever button the game tells you to to interact with it.

That previous sentence also describes my sex life.

Throughout, Delilah speaks to you through the hand radio, and the game offers choices of replies. This adds an element of...I dunno, communication simulator to the walking simulator elements to diversify the gameplay. It also highlights one of the game's best assets: the voice acting of Rich Sommer as Henry, and Cissy Jones as Delilah. Sommer played the unassuming family man, Harry Crane, on AMC's Mad Men. Mad Men's writers increasingly had Sommer play against type, as Crane became more and more lascivious with each passing season. Here as Henry, he's allowed to be warm and likable, even as Henry's clearly running away from some major issues in his life. Sommer and Jones have excellent chemistry together, which is great considering their conversations are at the heart of the game.

These replies are all in answer to the question, "What if this canyon was filled with baked beans?"

The way the game's narrative unfolds through Henry and Delilah's interactions, as well as through Henry's interaction with the environment, is Firewatch's core strength. Indeed, as gameplay can feel on rails, Firewatch would not be engaging without it. For instance, one day in the game may simply involve Henry walking to find the source of some smoke, then putting out an ill-advised campfire. As far as action, the player just walks toward the smoke, finds the fire, taps "A" to stomp it out, the day ends, and the next one starts with Henry back in the lookout tower. That's dangerously close to simply passively watching something happen. However, the interactions with Delilah, where the player has a choice of responses, and even the choice to ignore her, lends far more of a feeling of agency, gives a sense of history to the forest, and pushes along the game's deeper story. There are also some very light (very, very light) Metroidvania elements, where Henry can find items like an axe, which allow him to clear some shortcuts between his regularly traveled paths. So in the end, though you're simply living out a preordained amount of days (essentially the chapters the game is broken into) and their preordained events, the narrative is sharp enough, and the gameplay full of just enough little touches, including easily missed Easter eggs hidden in several of the days, that the experience still feels unique to the player.

Just like your lives, sheeple! Wake up!

2. Said Easter eggs are found in little nooks and crannies of the forest, and have no bearing on completing the game. Clearly, the forest is its own character in Firewatch. While the graphics are not insanely detailed, there are plenty of stunning vistas, and beautiful moments, the wind blowing through the treetops, scattering dancing bits of sunlight. Rivers trickle through canyons. Smoke and embers drift through the air. Then you start moving through it...and the performance issues begin.

That previous sentence also describes my sex life.

3. In modern gaming, I don't think I've ever seen a game's framerate struggle like Firewatch's. I lost count of the times the screen just all out froze for a moment while I was walking through Firewatch's landscape. One time the game just straight up died and I had to reboot, losing all my progress for that day. After running through Hyrule's boundless hills and blasting through hell's grisliest depths with no hiccups in a couple of other well-known Switch games, there is no excuse for the low-detail forests of Firewatch to completely crash my Switch. I can get used to dealing with the bad framerate pulling me out of the moment...but not a complete game crash. That is absolutely inexcusable. It only happened once, but once is enough.

That previous sentence also describes my sex life.

Sometimes barely there gameplay and a framerate that stutters so badly, the game freezes. A good, well-told story, with great voice actors, pretty (when still) vistas, and a subtle but effective folky soundtrack I am only mentioning now. In the end, the good outweighs the bad. I did get the "alone in the woods" feeling I wanted, along with the actual human communication element I don't want to admit my introvert self would actually need. Firewatch is definitely worth playing. But considering the cons I've mentioned, as well as the fact that you can beat it in the time it takes to drive from Baton Rouge to Houston, get Firewatch when it is on sale.

SCORE: 7.5/10