Among indie games, Firewatch is widely viewed as a gem for many players. Critics and gamers have stated that the story is amazing. That the world of Firewatch is breathtaking, beautiful, and immersive. Well, I think I played the wrong game because after finishing it, Firewatch in my personal opinion, was none of these things.

It starts off like a “you-the-reader fan-fic” with you picking the opening to Henry’s story, and the choices barely do anything expect change some of the dialogue, but does nothing to actually change anything significant in the game’s narrative or ending. In fact, the only “changes” your choices make are small dialogue choices you make as Henry when talking to Delilah, and I do mean small. Their interactions are practically the same regardless, and the game steers the narrative into having a specific relationship between Henry and Delilah anyways, so there really isn’t an illusion of choice to marginally entertain. There is only ever one ending as well, regardless of your choices, and I really didn’t care for the ending at all. So that leaves you with absolutely no re-play value. And even then, “play” would be a strong term for what you do here.

The game does have mystery that kept me invested till the end, and Firewatch did a really good job of building the tension. Sadly, the revelation behind the mystery it isn’t mind blowing or exciting. It’s one the dullest mysteries I’ve ever experienced. It’s like expecting an explosion, but getting a wet fart instead. The whole experience collapsed upon itself. I was unsatisfied with the mystery, and I didn’t buy into Henry and Delilah’s relationship, so the game had nothing to offer. Frankly, even if I did buy into Henry and Delilah, the ending is so unsatisfying for them it would have pissed me off more.

I’m not going to write to deeply about the gameplay mechanics of Firewatch because it’s like every other walking simulator ever made. If you played one, you’ve played Firewatch. Walk to spot, push interact button, and listen to dialogue. Granted the game gives Henry items like climbing gear and an ax, but it feels it’s more to trick the player into thinking it’s more of game than it really is, as these don’t have any interesting mechanics or gameplay elements.


Overall:

With all the praise this game has gotten, I went in thinking that this game would have been a masterpiece of story telling, but the truth is it’s no where as amazing as people claim. The story builds up it’s climax yet the resolution is nothing but a letdown and feels utterly disappointing. It’s thematic storytelling is as basic as a simple logline: “Running away from your problems doesn’t solve them, you need to confront them”. It’s no more in-depth than that and had nothing interesting to say. Much like the Last of Us 2, I really have to wonder what kind of stories other gamers have experienced to think so highly of such substandard writing. Having a theme and saying it over and over again doesn’t make for good writing.

Pros:
+good voice acting
+easy 100% achievement list or platinum

Cons:

-boring gameplay
-choices change very little in the game
-mystery has a disappointing conclusion
-unsatisfying ending

I remember being utterly captivated by the introductory sequence of this game. Despite being told in a rather simple visual novel format, it had me squarely in the palm of its hand. And then the game shifted to a walking simulator, and it all started to go downhill. Any intrigue and drama is found in the relationship with the MC and his estranged wife. Nothing else is particularly interesting, least of all the tedious wandering around. The least shocking thing about Firewatch is that it does not stick the landing.

The story of Firewatch is odd. I'm still not quite sure what to make of it, but my gut feeling is that it suffers from trying to be two things, or trying to frame itself as one thing when really it's another. Of course I don't know what the developers were thinking when they made it, but I get the feeling they wanted to tell an entirely mundane and realistic story, but were afraid (perhaps rightfully so) that it would sound boring as hell to a large swath of the "gamer" demographic, so they spiced it up a bit. And, you know, hey. Not a bad idea from the point of view of trying to make a buck, and games ain't cheap. But I'm not sure it pays off artistically. Firewatch is basically the story of a lonely sad dude trying to escape his problems in the woods—and imo that's all it needed to be, gamers get rekt. But because the creators lacked confidence in that story, or felt it was insufficiently grabby, or whatever, Firewatch ends up being something weirder than that, and not in a super good way, I fear—but, you know what, at the end of the day, tree prety

Sabe, Eu também fujo.
Eu fujo dos meus problemas o tempo todo e em grande parte, uso a desculpa que estou "tomando um tempo para decidir/me motivar", isso raramente funciona.
E é engraçado como os próprios jogos são uma dessas porta para fugir... minha surpresa em jogar um jogo com esse tema.
Firewatch é um walking sim em mundo aberto(livre-se de seu estigma) com ênfase na relação de personagem entre Henry (que não é você apesar de ser protagonista) e Delilah (a chefe do Henry).
Em busca de fugir dos Problemas, Henry assume um trabalho longe de tudo, eu entendo ele.
Não demora muito para temas como responsabilidade, culpa e até perseguição entrarem em vigor aqui.
E apesar de eu ser vulnerável a todos esses tema, não consegui me conectar como gostaria.
Eu fico triste em pensar que posso esquecer esse jogo.
Foi uma recomendação excelente e uma experiência que valeu muito a pena.
Infelizmente, saio com um gosto levemente ruim, mas beeeeeeeem levemente por conta do final.
Apesar do jogo construir uma narrativa excelente, a entrega fica a desejar com resoluções de conflitos sem muito impacto ou sabor, como se de repente o jogo decidisse terminar.
Sem uma resolução impactante, a mudança de decisão do protagonista parece acontecer porque precisa acontecer, apesar de nossas escolhas de diálogo.
Uma pena, mas um jogo muito interessante.

Before delivering on any of its digital impressionist vistas, Firewatch throws us into a black screen where we get to choose how we fail our loved one. We can only fail them, however hard we try, and that is our introduction to the game. It's a brief section, but it sets player expectations for narrative decision making in Firewatch, and demonstrates how even the smallest piece of player agency can make for something emotively charged when done well. As with Telltale's The Walking Dead it's not about mechanical branches, but about the player participating in the drama, providing the human angle to the game's events. As blockbuster games become more elaborate with the way they deal with cause and effect, indie games isolate moments of reflection, forcing the player to consider their own values as they work through what's happening on screen. Kentucky Route Zero does this with free association such that the player begins unconsciously drawing out their own fears and anxieties, but in Firewatch we simply participate in constructing Henry's bullshit. He's doing the wrong thing, reasonably or unreasonably, and when called out he's unlikely to tell the truth, because he himself has lost his mooring. Whatever we say is the right thing, because anything we could say would be wrong.

Firewatch has received widespread praise for its visual style, and for good reason. Where similarly expressive works such as Inside and Shelter are so commanding in their style that the player can only act in accordance with their logic, Firewatch holds back for an openness that makes it feel conventionally navigable. Its colour palettes draw on the jarring experiments of Proteus but its forms and textures are staunchly mimetic, and its pastel finish draws it back into stylisation compared to contemporary The Witness. This last point is critical, as the diffused colours and light effects make the game feel like an echo; like it's happening in past tense. Whatever narrative reason frames the game, there is a wistful quality to Firewatch that brings with it a knowing melancholy that this is all a fabricated memory. Even when outside influences threaten this rose-tinted utopia, when the developers employ cinematic ellipsis to have the world of Firewatch step down in favour of character-centric drama, the player feels it calling back through time. The parallel here to Henry is obvious, as he clearly needs to get back to the responsibilities of his life outside of Firewatch, but as the mysteries of the game grow more pronounced and even dictate our engagement in the dream-environment, the player's affective link to it is broken in favour of someone else's enacted drama. Prince Avalanche, another work in the wake of the Yellowstone fires of 1988, better handled this temporal unease, allowing the viewer to wander around Alvin and Lance's narrative instead of being chained to it. The story in Firewatch is good in the sense that it's well paced and often frightening, but a stronger work would have been made if it had been pushed into the background, allowing us to become one with the environment, and with loss itself.

There is the sense that Campo Santo are well aware of this, and opt for a balance between the much derided 'walking simulator' and a more obvious narrative compulsion to satisfy all potential parties. Rather than feeling lost, we come to watch someone else being lost, and the most compelling embodiment of isolation (the environment) becomes the stage for dialogue-driven storytelling about precisely this. I'd opt for an inverse balance of narratological and ludic components (in order to enhance the emotional significance of both), but can't begrudge how well the developer goes in the opposite direction. The dialogue is perfect, the performances uniformly tender when tender counts and guarded when it doesn't, the map circular enough for linear storytelling. The story is a con, the conclusion invariably a betrayal, but where the game's scripted 'moments' and role-plays subside are the small instances of individual panic and satisfaction that the player takes with them into the day, the week, the month. I can't wait to see what Campo Santo will do without feeling the need to compromise.