The player is always in a disturbed state, and so in that regard, the game succeeds.įirewatch takes us to a time and a place in which people expected that they might be left alone. Firewatch does this too, embedding its riddles within dialogue and environment. Their ordinariness is what makes them so appealing.Īll good mystery novels play tricks on their readers, offering up red herrings and plot feints. Their self-doubts and flaws are carved into the script and into the optional responses. Neither of them is idealized, not even for a second.
These two characters are written with a conviction and authenticity rarely seen in video games.
Their relationship has form and shape, though it shimmers and shifts as the story progresses. But she is also is the central storyteller, revealing secrets about herself while teasing depth and contrast out of Henry's character.ĭelilah and Henry represent an emerging trend in games, of paired characters who are individually and collectively simpatico but who struggle with their own anxieties and with one another's perceived shortcomings. She is, of course, a device to give quests and to make sure the player is paying attention to important narrative events. From the start, she seems likable, but not entirely trustworthy. She has moments when she shows a need for companionship, and others when she is wary and aloof. Sometimes she is self-centered, but she can present as caring. She's smart and conscientious, but she makes mistakes. Firewatch is a subtle story told with economy and verve.ĭelilah is the central enigma. These mini-choices demonstrate a sense of humor, while creating empathy. But Firewatch requests that you choose a pet and name it, or that you pick from optional ways to interact with Henry's unwell wife during the early backstory. Many games ask that you personalize by choosing a hair color or shoe size. Firewatch mostly succeeds in convincing the player that they are one and the same.Ĭleverly, developer Campo Santo makes sure the player is heavily invested in Henry's character and personality right from the start of the game, demanding a few personal choices on his behalf that transform him from ordinary everyman into someone special. Game designers have spent years trying to splice together the starkly different materials of player agency and authorial story. Its cascading quests are obviously designed to open up the map and unlock new gadgets, but there is usually a sense that they are intimately entwined with the unfolding drama. On the whole, Firewatch's missions serve the story, not the other way around. It's possible that Henry is being set up for committing a serious crime. He and Delilah come to believe they are being monitored. In the course of these quests, Henry finds himself encountering unwelcome conflicts that propel the tasks beyond mere fetch chores into the realm of engrossing missions. Mostly, he reports what he finds back to Delilah, via more complex dialogue trees. On those very rare occasions when he encounters other people, he follows limited dialogue options. She sends him out to investigate a column of smoke, or some kids letting off fireworks. Via a walkie-talkie, he communicates with his supervisor Delilah, who literally oversees him from her distant mountaintop destination.Īs Henry, the player's job is to follow Delilah's instructions. It's the story of Henry, who takes a job on a forest watch station in the late 1980s. Set in the rugged outdoors of Wyoming, Firewatch is a game of exploration, both in the physical sense and intellectual sense.