By Mario Orozco
To escape from the stress of reality, you take a job as a fire lookout in the Wyoming wilderness. This week’s edition of Mar’s Gaming Garage will focus on Firewatch, an indie game recommended to me by a psychology major. Firewatch had its share of ups and downs throughout my play through.
One of the strongest moments was the opening scene of the game. It started with a devastating dialogue sequence that showed key moments in the main character Henry’s relationship with his wife Julia, and the effect her deteriorating mental health had on them both. This introduction got me hooked immediately and it felt reminiscent of the intro to the movie Up.
Firewatch also presents fantastic voice acting performances. In the game, you are completely isolated with the only real interaction being walkie-talkie communications with your boss, Delilah. The chemistry between Henry and Delilah felt so genuine and natural, as if their voice actors had known each other forever. Their performances carried the majority of this game and were my favorite part of the entire experience.
The art style of Firewatch is another exemplary aspect of this game. It was filled with stunning visuals. Everything looked amazing, from the trees in the forest to the random items in your office. It looked like a 2-D style of shading in a 3-D world. The artwork was done flawlessly and the game obviously took inspiration from the style of art used in national park posters.
The genre of Firewatch felt like it jumped around a lot throughout the game. It started off feeling like a drama game, transitioned into adventure and then finally became a mystery/thriller, while still keeping some really tragic drama aspects to it. I personally loved this transition; the isolated environment of this game lends really well to a thriller experience and it makes you feel like something — or someone — can jump out at you at any moment.
There are a few negatives that I don’t particularly like about this game. The first is how the game sort of ends very abruptly, without a real payoff to the story that you just spent hours investing in. It didn’t tie uppay off the story between Henry and Julia or the story between Henry and Delilah, which takes the game down a few notches.
Firewatch also loses some more points through the amount of backtracking you have to do. It’s pretty easy to get lost in the game and have to backtrack through the same areas multiple times, which can be frustrating. The game does provide a map and a compass to help out, but the map is annoying to use and I had to constantly stop to make sure I was going the right way.
Overall, Firewatch was a fun experience with an interesting story. It took me a total of 4 hours and 12 minutes to complete. While I enjoyed a lot of different aspects of this game, the ending took the wind out of my sails and took the game down substantially. I give Firewatch a 3.2 out of 5. If you own an Xbox Game Pass and can get this game for free, then I would definitely recommend it to you. If not, then you would probably be better off just watching a playthrough on YouTube.
If you have any games you would like me to review, you can email marsgaminggarage@gmail.com.
Mario Orozco is a writer and assistant social media editor for The Lumberjack. He transferred to Cal Poly Humboldt in 2022 and his favorite game of all time is The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.