In our lives, we all run away from things, relationships, commitments, giant flesh-eating crabs. To run away from a situation is one of the most natural things. On an instinctive level, we know when it’s best to stand our ground and when it’s prudent to run and Firewatch is a game all about that instinct. At times funny, heart wrenching and thoughtful, Firewatch understands human nature in a way so few games ever try and for that it’s one of the finest experiences I’ve ever had while holding a controller.
You’re Henry. A man running away from something, fleeing his home, his loved ones and finding himself in the middle of a national park in Wyoming at the beginning of summer dry season, where forest fires are commonplace and ruinous to the local habitat. Henry’s job is to watch for fires, not to fight them but to sit, wait and report on them and let others handle the heroics. It’s the perfect job for those adept at running away. From his tower at Two Forks, Henry can survey for miles around and in the distance can even spot the home of Delilah.
Delilah, a lone voice in the wilderness for you to converse with over your handheld radio. She too is running from something in her past and over time you’ll come to depend on her voice to comfort, to guide and console you as events in the park take turns for the unexpected and mysterious. The core relationship between Henry and Delilah is what powers Firewatch, from helping Henry overcome first day nerves (and naked teens) to having these two lookouts come to rely on each other for emotional support and the trying events over the next few weeks.
These events and a mystery that begins to percolate the area surrounding Two Forks is what drives the majority of gameplay. Drunk teens setting off fireworks at the lake need to be dealt with (in the Ranger Smith manner, not the Jason Vorhees one). Power cables are shawn, Henry’s shelter is vandalized, a mystery develops over the course of weeks and pushes both Henry and Delilah to their limits as they try to investigate what’s going on.
Navigating the many forest trails is a joy in this incredibly beautiful wilderness, with the sun always hanging low enough to provide the type of light that photographers call “The Magic Hour” where soft reddish hues linger in the air, allowing you to take some truly breathtaking screenshots. The world’s design isn’t looking to be photorealistic in any way, instead, it’s the world where you are walking through an artist’s sketchbook of their idealised vistas. Broad, breathtaking scenery masking a lack of tiny details that a photo would have. In a world perpetually bathing in magical light, you’re never looking at your feet for high-resolution dirt, but to the skies and the mountains in the distance.
As you orienteer your way through the environment you’ll be keeping in near-constant contact with Delilah, providing her with a running commentary of whatever you find, while she gives you her opinions and further directions to your next objective. The level of discourse you maintain with Delilah is up to you of course, with you being able to choose what to tell her and what you withhold. Like we’ve come to be told from Telltale games, sometimes silence is the best option. It was rare for me to ever hold back on what I told her but the times I did felt important like I was lying to someone I cared for.
It’s this emotional bond I developed with the voice of Delilah that makes Firewatch such a feat of game design. With almost peerless writing and staggeringly beautiful art design, it’s hard to understate just how hard I fell for this game and its charms. What Luddites would call a “Walking Simulator” I see an experience that captures what games can do and what I hope they will continue to do in the future. So just play the flipping game would you.
