With how hot it’s getting in the heart of the South this summer I figured what better way to escape hell on earth than to play as a fire lookout in the heat of 1989 Wyoming in the runaway success, Firewatch. To make a long story short I mostly appreciated my time with the game, but let's start from the beginning. Firewatch is an indie game that lives and dies by the success of two things. One, its ability to rope you into the story and care for the characters and their troubles. And two, in making a believable, interesting world that you can get lost in as opposed to getting lost in. Let's start with and see how the game holds up to the first metric.

The intro with its solemn piano riff was wholly nice. Who knew words on a blank screen could pull your heart-strings. Luckily or unluckily, it’s the game’s most effective use of minimal storytelling. To expound on the story, the underlying conflict of the game is that you play as Henry, a man struggling with his wife’s early onset dementia. To get a brief escape from the depression and anxiety of slowly losing the love of your life, you take a summer job as a fire lookout, where you meet Delilah. During the summer you get closer to her, bordering on flirtatious friendliness. It’s not just a dating sim though, you also have discontent campers and mysteries afoot as you try to maintain peace in your small chunk of the Shoshone National Forest. It’s very wistful in its narrative endeavors. It becomes clear that this summer fling, both with Delilah and the forest, cannot last.

It’s tragic how this small respite can make you long for something you shouldn’t and could never have. The extended two character conversation between yourself and Delilah is very sweet, indicative of how swept up we can get when alone and starving for companionship. I’m a sucker for character studies and limited narratives, but I won’t say Firewatch is without its issues in this department. For one, some of the chemistry felt a bit off at points. I’m not sure if it was Henry or Delilah, or maybe a bit of both. Delilah was very much a flirty jokester while even with the dialogue options they give you Henry is a bit dull for my liking. It didn’t ruin the story, just felt like a different characterization choice could have sold their connection better. I’m also not the biggest fan of how the story veers off into fantasy land.

I get that being isolated can make you more paranoid, but the government conspiracy felt like a bit much. If the whole game had kept the tone of the first third I would have been happier for it. I think I get where they were going with it though. It’s meant to show how your mind longs for adventure and intrigue when sometimes the real world is bleak and unforgiving. Henry wanted an escape and in the end, both with the departure of Delilah and from the forest, you get a solemn splash of water in the face when you find out there is no grand conspiracy. Only preventable, meaningless tragedy. It’s sobering, and potent, but the fake out leading up to it could have been discarded or altered to be less grand to begin with. It’s slightly unbelievable they would both jump to such dramatic conclusions based on so little. Mystery is appreciated, it’s only that grand thriller is a little ambitious for being the first game from Campo Santo, and for the themes of the game. Conversely, I quite liked the ending. It’s not happy, but it is optimistic. It felt real, and I savored it for what it was, in all its dissatisfying payoff. All in all I’d give the story/characters a solid B+.

Now let’s talk about the gameplay. It’s a totally open square of land where your main source of movement besides WASD is climbable walls and rope rappel points. Later you get an ax to use sparingly to cut down trees and make walkways. Since that only comes up twice though it’s not very relevant. To maintain some semblance of direction you’re given a map and compass. Basically at any point during the game you can go any place on your map that’s not blocked off by a gate. The cutesy cartoon nature park helped keep me distracted from the limited traversal methods, but I thanked my lucky stars when a day would end without having me have to hike back to my tower. When you’re just focused on completing your tasks the game does just fine, but I was hard pressed to explore much further beyond that. We’re in the great wilderness! A knapsack full of tools and trinkets is practically begging to exist in a game like this.

I’m not sure why they have a long drawn out animation for stepping off a one-foot tall ledge. Some more resources dedicated elsewhere would have paid off in spades. One item you are given that I like is a disposable camera with limited pictures. Which makes a nice callback during the credits where you’re shown all the pictures you’ve taken over the course of the game. It’s entirely optional to use as I understand it, but the illusion of importance is still welcome. Anyway I’m being more irritable than I actually feel about the gameplay and movement. It wasn’t bad, just more bare than I was hoping. Taking that into consideration I’d give the overall gameplay a firm B- score.

This is all to say that when it comes to whether or not Firewatch accomplishes its goals, it does so with asterisks. It’s not the flawless quirky indie title that all other games should take a page out of, but it gets enough right to warrant its popularity. Don’t take my word for it though, go try it yourself when it goes on sale again. I would only implore you to remember its humble roots when it comes to forming realistic expectations. It’s a personal narrative first and foremost, and a decent one at that.