Firewatch, is it any good?

Firewatch is is an interesting game, the narrative begins quite engaging, and the struggles of Henry the protagonist feel very real. Whilst I found the game a tad narrative-heavy at first (I prefer narrative being combined with significant interaction) it does set the scene quite well. The game offered about 4 and a half hours of gameplay before completion. I didn’t rush, nor did I explore every tiny detail so that’s probably a fairly middle of the road expectation.

The game often rewards exploration with tidbits of story and sometimes the odd amusing insult or anecdote. Much of the game’s story is told by the other main character Delilah who is effectively your boss and stationed at another lookout tower. This is done over the radio with you regularly checking in which makes for an interesting dynamic as you form a bond with a character you’ve never seen. How that relationship develops is influenced by your choices throughout the game. Sometimes taking or leaving an item, responding to her in a particular way, or not responding at all, may influence how she responds down the line.

There are a few mysteries which pop up throughout the game and whilst many of them are answered some of them have rather underwhelming outcomes. Neds and Brian’s story arc was thankfully fleshed out quite well (although I’m still not 100% convinced as to if some of the explanations given are indeed the truth). I found Delilah and Henry’s stories ended a little too abruptly. A little choice as to what Henry decides to do afterwards would have been nice as his ending felt very much on rails and whilst the secondary ending is interesting nothing is spelled out for the player it would be easy to mistake the second ending for a bug if not for a detail in the ending credits.

The ending honestly felt a bit like the helicopter at the end… quite rushed (see the picture below). There is a nice odd detail that you can explore but frankly, it left me wanting for more and a little disappointed.

The game plays very well on quite modest hardware, my secondary PC – an i7 4770 with a GTX 1060 and 16GB of RAM played it quite happily on the high preset at 1080p.

The game is worth playing, and certainly will make you think, however, don’t expect too much of the ending. The fun is in the exploration and uncovering the mysteries. So to answer the question, yes it’s good but a touch short and it’ll probably leave you wanting for more.