A decent film - but a poor game
Firewatch would be a decent film or novel. But it’s a pretty poor game. [If you have played the game already, please read this review to the end. It would be easy to jump to conclusions if you had only read halfway...]
Viewed purely as a narrative playing out in glorious 3D, Firewatch does well. It has a gripping story, exceptional writing and acting, and a beautifully realised setting that contributes well to the overall work. The music also fills its role well, in many cases by its absence, helping create a sense of loneliness. In these regards, Firewatch attains the high standard we should be coming to expect from interactive fiction.
But what about that word – interactive? Where is the interaction in Firewatch? In short, there is none. At least, there is no interaction which is endogenously significant, that is, which impacts on the system.
Interactivity in Firewatch means walking to and from places, pressing space to get over obstacles, and looking at things while pressing left shift to talk to your boss, Deborah, on your walkie-talkie. The choices you make are, without exception, false, since they have no impact on the system. If they have any impact at all, it is restricted to the most superficial of the superficial, like choosing between three names for your dog. There aren’t even choices that impact the progression of the narrative.
Indeed, it would be impossible to create a choice that did impact the system. This may sound strange, and this is because Firewatch is, by design, very much strange. There is no goal in Firewatch. You simply press buttons until you get to the credits. While this might at first appear sensible for a narrative-driven work, what it delivers is a purposeless, unfocused system. Combine that with the interaction that has no endogenous impact, and the system is a bit like a version of Minecraft where you are told where to place the blocks.
Now, players of Firewatch will probably be very confused at this point. “What are you on about? I loved the game! It didn’t feel purposeless or anything!” They are right. I also enjoyed Firewatch. But what I enjoyed was the fiction. Firewatch did not justify its medium. It could have portrayed its narrative, for example, through the medium of film, where the story wouldn’t have this perpetual distraction of having to click things and press buttons in order to get the story to progress.
So, in conclusion, I won’t say, “don’t buy Firewatch”. If you’ve got 2 or 3 hours spare, it’ll probably be worth your time. I’ll simply say, “don’t buy Firewatch looking for a game”.
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