User Review : Firewatch

A Great Debut For Campo Santo

2016 so far has been one of the best years in gaming all thanks to the Independent Developers Community, and one of its best offering is definitely Firewatch. Firewatch is a beautiful game that takes place in the wilderness of Wyoming State in 1989. It a fictional story takes place in the summer after the fires of Yellowstone that occurred in 1988 which is a real incident. The Yellowstone’s fires together formed the biggest wildfire in history. It’s an interesting read that you should definitely look into it. Anyways, we are here to talk about the beauty that is Firewatch. Its great game with a few flaws in the game that keep it from being an absolute masterpiece. A Reminder: This is not a game for everyone, it’s obvious when you are playing this game that you will feel its targeting Mature audience.

Story:

The is a story driven game that explore the relationship between two human beings. And it was one hell of a ride! The writing in this game is phenomenal. The game starts out by simply introducing you to a text-based choices that affects certain small elements in the game . In the first ten minutes, the game packs all kinds of emotions that many films and shows fail to do in hours of their run time. Those ten minutes tells us the reason why the protagonist Henry went and became a Fire Ranger in Wyoming Woods to spend his entire summer there.

That is where the game truly begins. You walk into your lookout tower and pick the radio to be greeted by Henry’s boss, Delilah. The moment you pick up that radio, you feel like two real people are talking to each other. Delilah’s introduces herself and then she suddenly asks Henry ‘So, what’s wrong with you?’ with Henry’s answering ‘Excuse Me?’ and then they talk for a bit and Henry goes to say ‘ What’s wrong with you?’ The dialogue progressed naturally and it never felt forced and huge credit to the way the Voice Actors delivers those lines, their acting was top notch. The game’s multiple-choice dialogue options makes you decide how you want to respond to Delilah, you can be a real jerk or a nice person or you can ignore her completely except in a few scripted moments.

The script is smart, humorous, witty and feels real. I found the dialogue and the delivery from the Voice Actors very satisfying across the whole game. The conversations will make you feel many kinds of emotions, sad, happy and genuinely scared at times. As you progress through the game, you see how Henry’s and Delilah’s relationship evolves from strangers that just spoke to people you would swear they have been friends for years. The banter between Delilah and Henry is beautiful and there was never a dull moment in it. Each time I find something in the wilderness, I felt like I wanted to tell Delilah about it. And the game gives you that option almost every time which was amazing even if the subject I wanted to talk about was very stupid. There was a part where Henry gets stung by a bee, and I couldn’t wait to tell Delilah and the game grants me that option. Yes, it adds nothing to the game but those little details that makes the game feel real.

That is what I wished the game would continue the plot until the end. Just two people getting to know each other and talking about the bad things that happened in their life and many times the little things that we see in the game. But unfortunately certain events happen in the game makes it from a normal game about the interactions between two human beings to a game where things get a bit unrealistic or supernatural. The game kept building up a weird mystery element and the reveal was extremely disappointing that made me wish this game was just about Henry and Delilah and there was no bigger plot to keep the story going. It just felt weird, Campo Santo tried to make a heavily grounded to reality game. Especially in the first half of it, but the second half felt so unrealistic to what they have been building. Either they did that intentionally and the real conclusion to the ending is yet to be discovered or that is how they planned the game from the beginning which would be pretty disappointing . And honestly, it will make you ask yourself ‘What was the point of the game? Is this really it? I feel like I am missing something here. ‘ You will have mixed feeling about it and the abrupt ending won’t sit well with everyone. I think while it fits the tone of the first half of the game very well where everything was as realistic as it get but doesn’t fit the second half at all.

But in the end the realistic banter between Henry and Delilah was amazing till the end and its worth getting the game just for that. Of course you have the option to ignore Delilah completely and not respond to her when she speaks with you but I don’t recommend this option at all because that is where the good stuff is at.

Graphics:

The visuals in this game are beautiful.It has a gorgeous Cel-Shaded and Cartoonish style of graphics, like The Legend Of Zelda: The Wind Waker and its absolutely marvelous. The environment is stunning. The Landscape is brimming with detail. The trees, the lush forests, the lakes, the fires, the mountains, the clouds, the sun just looks hauntingly beautiful.Its definitely one of the best looking games this generation. The atmosphere is so incredible in the game. The view in this game is dazzling, I am glad they put a Camera in the game.

Sound:

This is what I call perfection. The sound design is superb. I felt like I was in a real forest, the sound of the birds chirping in the distance, or the ducks quacking when I was near the lake in the game, I was like ‘Holy Moly that sounded so damn real’. Or the beautiful sound of the waterfall drizzling on the rocks .And when the thunders clapped in the game, I thought that was happening outside my house. Having a great Headphones also helps set the mood and the heighten the immersion. And what makes the sound even more perfect is the Voice Actors.

Henry is voiced by Rich Sommer and Delilah is voiced by Cissy Jones and MY GOD do they make this game amazing. The way they deliver each line is perfect. You can feel the emotions in their voices when they talk. The tone they deliver when they are sad or angry or curious and even when they are drunk are all very realistic. I cannot praise those two enough. They truly what made this game special. And they show you how amazing and very important Voice Actors are in games and especially in the story driven games.

The soundtrack is very beautiful too. The game is composed by the amazing composer Chris Remo, who has also did the score for Gone Home & Thirty Flights of Loving. He did a brilliant job here. The music was very fitting to the beautiful atmosphere of the game.

Gameplay:

It’s a walking simulator so there is nothing much you can do in the game. You can interact with things in your watch tower like a book or a Photo, opening and closing the lights/Doors repeatedly (I love to do that). There isn’t many interactive items either. Like I said, the meat of this game was the story and the banter between Delilah and Henry. As I said above, you get to choose how you respond to Delilah. Also you get to explore the forest, and do what Delilah’s ask you to do. Even if the forest looks big at first, it’s not. The game might feel big but it’s actually very small and so linear, Delilah tells you what do to and where to go and you do it and most of the time there are only two paths you can take to get to your destination and those paths are very linear. There are no side quests or anything of the sort. There are Eight things you can do in the game…

1-You can Walk and Run
2-You can jump over rocks/obstacle and climb mountains
3-You can descend the mountains by using a rope
4-Take a photo of your surroundings using the Camera
5-You can Chop trees /bushes using an axe or what the Wildland Fire Fighters call Pulaski
6-Look at your map and compass
7-You can Zoom in on things
8-You can pick up items, inspect them, items like notes are kept in your pack bag and most other items you just look at them and then throw them away

Those are the gameplay mechanics in the game if you want to call them that. But you get to hear Henry/Delilah chat endlessly about everything Henry sees in the wilderness which is pretty cool. One thing I wish was in the game was more wild animals. All I saw in the game was one Racoon sitting on a tree stump, one very hidden duck in the lake, one cute tortoise on a rock (You can adopt him and name him Turt Reynolds!) and one Deer at the beginning of the game and a few birds flying here and there. How awesome would it have been if we could see a Wild Bear? There is a part where you enter a cave, how cool would it have been if there was a bat swarm in there? And the only two insects I could spot was a lonely butterfly and Stingy Bee. That was one of my gripes in the game. There are very few wild life in here and mostly one of every animal and insect except for the birds.

Also another issue I had with the game was the choices I made when I was talking to Delilah. None of those choices mattered because you will end up with the same conclusion and the same ending. That really disappointed me. The choices impacts so little in the game and it should not have been like this. I expected more from it.

Length:

I finished it in one sitting and it took me only 3 hours and 38 minutes . It’s a very short game. Even if you are playing around exploring every nook and cranny, it won’t take you more than five hours. But it was a damn sweet 3 hours. There is hardly any reason to come back to it once you solve the mystery element and see the ending because no matter what you do, you will get the same conclusion unless you want to hear the different remarks Delilah makes when you choose different dialogues. The replay value is almost non existent and $20 can be a bit too much for a 3 hours game to some people.

(Fun Fact:It took me longer to figure out what to write in the review that it took me to finish the game XD )

Conclusion:

All I can simply say is that I came for the story and stayed for the great banter between Delilah and Henry. There is a quote that perfectly sums up this game and the quote is.. “It’s not about the destination. It’s about the journey to get there.”

Who Can I Recommend this game To? (A slight spoilers)

I said above that this game was intended for Mature audience and the reason I said it is because the main theme of the game is about coping with losing a loved one. Those are the group of people who will be affected the most by this game. The game teaches us one thing “You will lose someone you can’t live without, and your heart will be badly broken, and the bad news is that you never completely get over the loss of your beloved. But this is also the good news. They live forever in your broken heart that doesn’t seal back up. And you come through. It’s like having a broken leg that never heals perfectly—that still hurts when the weather gets cold, but you learn to dance with the limp.”

End Of Spoilers…

Hopefully you enjoyed the review. Sound off in the comments and tell me did you play the game? If you did, what did you think about it?

Thanks!