Posted on: September 12, 2017

JohnJackJackJohn

Games: 19 Reviews: 1

Really well made

It's not the happiest game ever, but this game is really well made and I enjoyed it. Voice acting and art style are very well done. Map navigation is a bit tricky at first but you get used to it pretty fast. Definetly worth $10, probably worth the full $20.

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Posted on: December 4, 2016

fade0ff

Verified owner

Games: 1224 Reviews: 83

Enjoyable and beautiful but a bit short

I didn't quite know what to expect from this and must admit that I was drawn to it mainly by its nice graphics. To my surprise it wasn't just an artsy shell and actually quite polished for an Independent game. The graphics are stylized but still beautiful due to very good color design and lighting. Also the voice acting of Henry and Delilah is done well and the witty dialogs made me smile more than once. Actually the bond of friendship that evolves between Henry and Delilah during the game is one of the things that makes this game fun to play. But let's start with the basics: Firewatch is a game which is mainly based on exploration of the area around your lookout tower. There no real riddles to solve and it's always clear where you need to go and where you are. You need to pick up a few objects and do a few things to proceed but the main progress is somewhat automatic. Like when you decide to go back to the tower or tell Delilah (your boss) that you are ready to proceed. You can essentially walk around the whole area all the time, it's just that some locations aren't reachable until the story progresses far enough (like you get a key or an axe or the firefighters cleared a path). Firewatch is an Open World game in the sense that the whole world including caves, cabins and lookout towers is one big "level" without any transitions. Still this world is not very large and you can only jump and climb where the game allows you to. There is no time pressure, there are no enemies, you can't die. You don't need to take notes or look around for hidden objects. The few humans you encounter are only silhouettes and there are just two (visible) animal you stumble over. Anyway, it's fun to explore the world, there are a lot of small things to discover albeit most of them are not really relevant for the story. Which in the end is not very mystical but very grounded. So, yes it's quite short and there's not a lot of a typical gaming content in it, but I still enjoyed it a lot.

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Posted on: January 2, 2017

Shantih1

Verified owner

Games: Reviews: 17

Beautiful interactive fiction

Firewatch fits into a genre which some call a walking sim but which I prefer to think of as interactive fiction; it shares more with a good novel or binge watching a great TV show then it does a traditional game. In the case of Firewatch, the story is one which contrasts the idea of escape versus escapism. Are you as the main character running away from your problems, moving on from them or taking a break? Interactive fiction succeeds best when the visuals, sound design and interface are focused on emphasizing the core themes of the story. Firewatch is a great example of this: the setting of a US national park has been designed to not be photo-realistic, but to be a sculpted, beautiful location with a wall implemented day / night cycle where you could easily spend your time wandering off the beaten track and taking photos of sunrises and sunsets rather than engaging with the story at hand. The main game mechanic of a relationship between two characters through radios is a clever way of bringing human interactivity into the story without losing its sense of isolation. Ultimately, there does have to be incident to propel the narrative and its here where Firewatch stumbles. Like Gone Home before it, Firewatch relies on utilizing tropes to create a certain mood. And this is where the disappointment in interactive fiction can sometimes set in: tropes are more of a tease than a promise. I feel that Firewatch's tropes could have been better chosen; a paranoid thriller makes sense but only on a smaller, more human level. Firewatch chooses to play with the idea of an overarching Government conspiracy complete with Alien-style tracking device and it suffers while that thread is played out. But the core story works beautifully and so Firewatch succeeds. More then that, it succeeds in living out the promise of interactive fiction and embodying its theme of escape vs. escapism. I spent hours letting the story idle, just wandering the trails at sunset with my in-game camera.

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Posted on: October 5, 2018

alforno13

Games: Reviews: 3

Boring and cringey

I'm just one person, so take with a grain of salt. This game's dialog is extremely cringey and seems to be appealing to losers that can't land a decent man or woman. This terrible dialog combined with boring gameplay makes for a really bad game.

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Posted on: October 4, 2019

facundocampos

Verified owner

Games: 27 Reviews: 2

Brilliant Game and Extremely Divisive

Firewatch is a birlliant game for a very specific audience. At it's core, the game is about relationships under extreme stress and how people react. If you've ever had a loved one that has suffered from an illness, run away from your problems, or have been misunderstood, this game will hit particularily hard. It's important to note that the game is written like a hard-boiled story like "No Country for Old Men" in which things happen like they do in real life and it doesn't guarantee ANYTHING. It knows what you're expecting and it DOESN'T give it to you. Want to feel good about yourself? Tough, this isn't the game for that. Want everything to have a grand payoff? Super tough, cause this definitely isn't the game for that.

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