Critical Play of Firewatch
Firewatch:
Developer: Campo Santo
Platforms: Xbox, Playstation, Nintendo Switch, PC
After my failed attempt and excuse to leave the house to go to GameStop to buy Firewatch, I was told that there is no hard copy of this game. Maybe I should have looked into this beforehand. Anyways, I went back home to download Firewatch to my Nintendo Switch. This is not my first time playing a walking simulator, so I had some expectations coming into this critical play. In this critical play, I will discuss how walking tells the story.
How Walking Tells the Story
The game starts off with a story where I was given a bunch of choices to make about a person that ends up being my wife. This story not only sets the scene for the rest of the game and ultimately explains why I are the character I am but also makes me emotionally attached to the character. Some of these decisions are difficult ones while some are not so difficult. Either way, the decisions I made make early in the game affected how I perceived the rest of the game. As I was walking around and completing task, I couldn’t forget that I took this job to get away from my wife who cannot remember me and from my friends who judge me for putting my wife into a care home. My choices do not let me forget the story as to why I am a firewatcher.
Once taking the job, I was immediately placed into a watch tower and given this radio. On the other side of this radio is a person who seems to give me task I need to complete. When this person talks to me, I am able to respond in multiple ways. I can be nice, smart, mean, or however the choices allow me to be. In any scenario, there are enough choices that I can answer the questions as if I would in real life. I am able to match my own personality with my character’s personality. This personality matching makes me feel like I am really this character and the story that I create is my story.
On the other hand, being able to freely answer questions allows me to be whatever kind of character I want. My personality is ultimately going to impact how the story unfolds. For instance, if I give rude responses, I can expect rude responses back and can expect the relationship with that person to be different than if I were nice to them. My personality and the differences in relationships with people sets me up to have different stories. As a result, I have some control over the game’s story.
Firewatch has many more ways in which walking tells the story, but I do not have enough time to go over all of them. From my short time playing the game, I noticed that this game reinforces the back story, gives ownership of the story, and provides me control over the story. Overall, I really enjoyed playing Firewatch and will continue playing the game in the coming weeks.
