Firewatch: Why it’s Worth Playing

This past Tuesday, Firewatch was released for PC and PS4. A first-person adventure game developed by Campo Santo, Firewatch relies on its lush scenery and beautiful vistas to keep the player distracted for hours. You play as a fire lookout named Henry, tasked with finding out what is causing some weird occurrences in the area. Your only other companion is a girl by the name of Delilah. She and Henry communicate via walkie-talkie.

The opening sequences are click-and-choose moments that will set up the story of the game. Depending on what you choose, your story will set you down a certain path, and there are a few different ways it can end — so choose wisely.

Just walking around the Wyoming woods from the viewpoint of Henry is reason enough to give the game a try. A beautiful mix of orange and yellow give sunsets a really gorgeous glow and the trees are eloquent in their own right. Everywhere you look, there is a beautiful landscape that can easily cause a players mind to drift. Your character mostly just talks to Delilah and roams the area, so the gameplay may not pull in a ton of gamers. But it still stands up as a very good story driven game.

Usually games that rely on beautiful landscapes don’t have much substance, but that is where Firewatch proves different from those types of games. When playing the first time through, you will find yourself wanting to know more about what is going on. You want to know more about Delilah. You want to know if you can build a relationship with her and whether or not there is something fishy going on. You want to know every little detail about the story. Firewatch succeeds in creating a mystery that gamers will want to solve.

Now, with all of that good stuff said, I am not saying you MUST play Firewatch.

It is a beautiful game, but it does have its shortcomings. The story, for one, is extremely short. While the price of $20 for the game is reasonable, I am sure there will still be a group of gamers ready to complain. Also, there were points where it generally felt like a chore to go from one part of the map to the other. I may be nitpicking, but this is what I found wrong with the game.

My final verdict is that this game is worth your time. The story is engaging, and you generally care about what happens. You want to know what the ending is and you want to answer the questions the game asks.