Firewatch has been
igniting its fair share of conversation among players and game
critics alike. I've seen people discuss the “emotional impact”
this game has had on them. Combined with how closely guarded the
developers at Campo Santo were about its story and themes prior to
release, I was intrigued. Now that I've finished my playthrough, I
honestly can't say that I completely agree with my peers who have
nothing but adoration for it. While I did enjoy my time with the
game, I have a big problem with it. This leaves me with a level of
unease that has little to do with Firewatch itself and more the
reception of games like it.
When people talk
about these kinds of story-driven games, I rarely hear any form of
praise besides something along the lines of “It made me feel”, “I
was moved”, or something else that suggests that it invoked sadness
or melancholy on the part of the individual. Rarely are any other
forms of praise given on top of that. I fear that this suggests that
when we see “walking simulators” (for lack of a better term),
that we, as their audience, have this as our default reaction. I say
this not to disparage the genre, but rather to show that perhaps we
ought to expect more from them. They can be more than just a genre of
games where players wander around an environment and get told a
story. To do this, I'd like to compare Firewatch with a game, in the
same genre, that more strongly leveraged the power of the medium to
tell it's tale: Gone Home.
