Firewatch: The Wrong Medium for This Story — Game Review
Do narratives belong in video games? The answer may be different depending on who you ask (yes/no/who cares?), but my answer is yes, there’s no reason narratives shouldn’t belong in video games. As an avid proclaimer that video games constitute as art, and since art can tell stories, why not write narratives for video games?
But do most narrative-dominant games integrate their stories into the “video game aspect” well? It’s also a subjective question, but my answer is a resounding no.
Among the rise of indie game development within the past decade or two, there seems to be a correlating rise in heavily narrative-based video games, and that component tends to neglect the “video game aspect” I just mentioned (i.e. Gone Home, which I reviewed). If it wasn’t obvious where this review was headed, Firewatch was exactly that: neat story, but barely an actual video game, and my every issue with Firewatch essentially boils down to a lack of balance between those two facets.
[Spoilers ahead.]
Firewatch opens with a crosscutting sequence between a text-based, character-building moral dilemma and brief intercuts of someone in a first-person view navigating a hiking trail. The person in both cases is the same: the protagonist, Henry. In the intro, Henry’s wife develops early-onset dementia, so he takes a job as a fire lookout in a Wyoming forest to escape from his burdens. Once Henry reaches the lookout tower, his main source of contact via walkie-talkie is Delilah, another — albeit experienced — fire lookout. The two form a bond with the player capable of choosing Henry’s dialogue options.
Henry and Delilah learn about each other during periods where Henry travels to and from the lookout tower. The narrative generates genuine tension just from two people conversing on walkie-talkies. Much like a film, television show, or novel, there are ominous events that occur throughout the game that raise suspicion and subsequently maintain tension, most notably when Henry returns to find his lookout tower ransacked on the first night, or when Henry discovers a fenced off area in the forest that warns trespassers, only to find an abandoned campsite with high-tech government equipment, notebooks containing facts about Henry and Delilah’s lives, and transcripts of their conversations. Spooky stuff.
Which pains me to say the artistic medium Firewatch is told in feels wrong for this story. There’s hardly any urgent indication that this story must be told via video game, save that the painterly art style is irresistible. Because what does Firewatch accomplish in gameplay, as a video game? My honest-to-God answer would have to be nothing.
Countless creative avenues exist for the direction of a video game, but nothing is less exciting than replicating the mundane habits of the real world. Your job in Firewatch as a fire lookout is to be a fire lookout, and hardly anything more. The closest Firewatch comes to embodying an inherit genre or concept is that of open-world exploration. But, besides some cute Easter Eggs (that have no bearing on the gameplay whatsoever), there’s nothing to explore, except the areas of the map itself. The map of the forest is relatively small, which isn’t a problem on its own, but they are already predestined for “discovery,” anyway, because…narrative. There are caches in each area you can search for, but again, their contents have no significant bearing on the gameplay.
Firewatch also lacks adversity. It lacks stakes. Navigating the trails is just a matter of pushing buttons at the required time. Choosing a different path will lead to the same destination. Choosing a different dialogue option reaps the same narrative beat no matter which one you choose. The choices made are reflective of the player, but limited in their trajectory. The player hardly matters because the narrative is more important, whether it was intended or not.
My final critique — and probably my most heretic one, is that the story isn’t even that earth-shattering, contrary to what most Firewatch fans proclaim as the best aspect. The aforementioned sequences that generate and sustain tension? Great. The climax? The red herrings (when we’re supposed to suspect Delilah of concealing secrets)? The dialogue? Maybe even the characters? Not so much. I, at least, admire the bold ending (also contrary to what many fans think), which refuses to reveal what Delilah looks like or what her plans are because it really wouldn’t matter. As an avid cinephile, I like endings without closure, endings that leave your imagination to interpret beyond the film, which Firewatch does.
In fact, one of the most interesting would-be parts of the story goes completely ignored — the part where Henry and Delilah are watching a forest fire from their respective towers at night, and Delilah flirts with Henry after having some drinks. In my playthrough, I went with the dialogue options that essentially brushed off her comments. Little did I know it practically leads nowhere, anyway.
With all that said, while Firewatch is an artistic beauty, and short enough to complete within a few hours, it simply doesn’t contain enough interesting ideas to warrant replay ability, let alone enjoyably play in the first place. Its beloved narrative deserves to be told in a different storytelling medium (which may happen). You’ll probably like Firewatch more than I, which most have, but if you’re someone who looks for solid gameplay, this is not the game to play.
5/10
