What Firewatch doesn’t have: side quests, multiple endings, crafting, puzzles, resource management, combat. What Firewatch does have: a rich, absolutely gorgeous open world; a myriad of red herrings to keep the player on their toes; mutually exclusive dialogue options to enhance replayability; two thoroughly developed and deeply human characters (Henry and Delilah); a sobering, down-to-earth ending that was as controversial as it was heartbreaking. Firewatch gives freedom to the player to explore at their own pace, allowing them to stroll through Shoshone National Forest at their leisure. As the player stumbles around taking in the stunning scenery, they uncover a suite of “clues” that gesture broadly towards a grand, overarching mystery that keeps the player paranoid, and allows their expectations to be entirely subverted by the game’s actual ending – one that touches on notions of escapism in the face of life’s daunting challenges. In short, walking tells the story in Firewatch by providing a means for Henry to make chance run-ins with intriguing scenes and clues.
Firewatch presents the player with some interesting tidbits: a shadowy figure stalks Henry briefly, leaving him paranoid. Henry also uncovers a seemingly abandoned campsite belonging to two “missing” girls, the whereabouts of whom are unknown to Henry and Delilah alike. This makes Henry paranoid, which is reinforced to an even greater degree when Henry finds himself being stalked by a shadow-like entity soon after. Henry begins to suspect foul play in the disappearance of the girls, and his paranoia understandably grows after being knocked unconscious from behind… Further, Henry discovers a research site with (fake) notes that lead him to believe that an experiment is silently being conducted on both himself and Delilah without their knowledge, shooting his paranoia through the roof. For the sake of brevity, we’ll jump to Henry discovering Brian Goodwin’s body while walking through a cave – something which his father, Ned Goodwin, has been trying to covertly prevent for the duration of the game. The day after discovering Brian, Henry finds a cassette tape recorded by Ned while trying to evacuate from Shoshone National Forest in the midst of a devastating wildfire, which explains a great deal about Ned’s motives and the fate of his son. More walking towards the rendezvous site ensures, which provides a chance encounter with Ned’s makeshift underground campsite and the opportunity to explore, uncovering more facets of Ned & Brian’s relationship as well as what Ned got up to in the years since Brian’s death. Ned’s campsite is where Henry finds a typewriter with draft documents and a map for use in breaking into Wapiti (which you can see by looking at the featured image for this post), leading him to finally understand that Ned was the author of the “research” uncovered in Wapiti station; Henry further uncovers that this fake research was created with the intention of scaring Henry & Delilah as a means of preventing them from finding Brian’s body. Thus one can see that exploration is the key component in unraveling the narrative of Firewatch, and of course, that exploration is facilitated solely by walking. There are no cars, there is no fast travel, there are no cutscenes. Firewatch tells its story at the pace of a brisk walk through the Wyoming countryside, taking the largely derogatory term of “walking simulator” and embracing it wholeheartedly and in a narratively compelling manner.
