Firewatch Review - Alone in the Mountains

Firewatch is a small but fantastic game, developed by Campo Santo.
It was released for PC and Playstation 4 in February 2016 and later also for Xbox One in September 2016.

It's a first-person walking simulator that mainly focuses on exploring the mountains and the well structured storyline. Even though there isn't any conventional action in the game, it never gets boring due to the breathtaking landscape and the interesting conversations your protagonist Henry has with his supervisor Delilah over a walkie-talkie.

Story

It's 1989, one year after the Yellowstone fires. A middle aged man named Henry takes on a new job as a Shoshone National Forest fire lookout, after his wife Julia develops early-onset dementia.

His job is to stay on his watchtower and hike through the area daily to make sure everything is alright, while his only contact is his supervisor Delilah via walkie-talkie.

After a couple of days strange things start to happen and Henry and Delilah both get entangled in some kind of mystery, that only they can figure out, all by themselves.

Gameplay

You mainly have to hike through the mountains and perform tasks, that Delilah gives you via walkie-talkie. Most of the time it is pretty simple, like walking from A to B and then back to A, or going from A to B to pick up some tool and then use it at point C. But even though it never gets boring because the landscape is just so beautiful and interesting to look at.

There is also a lot of variety and you can even take pictures of your favorite spots, which is a pretty cool function. Maneuvering your way through the mountains is also really easy and fun. At first it can be a bit difficult to find the right way and you have to use an analog map in combination with a compass, which is quiet different from your usual digital map, but once you get used to it, it makes the hiking aspect of the game even better and also more realistic.

I think my favorite part of the game were the characters and their interesting conversations. Henry and Delilah both have very distinctive personalities and it is easy to get emotionally invested in their relationship. This is especially the case, since you can always choose one among 3-4 answers while holding the walkie-talkie, which makes it very easy to step inside Henry's shoes.
But to really bring these characters to life, you need the right voice actors and luckily both of them (Rich Sommer and Cissy Jones) do a fantastic job in their respective roles.

Graphic

As I mentioned above, the landscape of the game is really beautiful and there are several breathtaking moments, where you just want to take a picture, frame it and hang it on your wall. It's easy to see how much work went into all of the different environments and there are plenty of details in Henry's watchtower too. The lighting is also really pretty. There aren't really any people you can see, but I think that only enhances the lonely atmosphere of the game.

Critique

There isn't much that I didn't like about the game, but I think it would have been nice if it was a little longer and if there was a wider variety of missions.
Also it would have been cool, if you could do more inside of the watchtower and actually be able to use some of the stuff there.

At first I was a bit disappointed with the ending, but now I think it actually leaves a bigger impression that way, so I actually really like it now.
Still, I feel like some of the story points just ended abruptly without a proper conclusion.
Also, since everything is quiet simple, it doesn't have such a high replay value, once you know everything, I think.

Conclusion

All in all I think Firewatch is a great game with a really good atmosphere, investing characters and a beautiful environment. If you like quiet games with a focus on story and characters and are generally interested in mysteries, I would really recommend this game.