Firewatch Reviews
Check out Firewatch Review Scores from trusted Critics below. With 22 reviews on CriticDB, Firewatch has a score of:
We all need to escape our problems at time, get away from the world and ultimately be free to live with our own thoughts in isolation. Most of us have contemplated just getting up, packing a bag and venturing somewhere that we can be alone without any concerns, obligations, or worries, to be free and escape, and that is what Firewatch is mostly about.
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The forest is strong with this one. Apart from minor framerate hiccups and average battery life, Firewatch is a fantastic fit for the Steam Deck.
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It really doesn’t matter that Firewatch came out over two and a half years ago, because it’s just as engrossing and enchanting as it was the first time around. From the warm glow of its forests in the morning summer light to the subtle tension of exploring a rocky gorge in the isolating silence of night, Shoshone National Forest is a character in its own right. With a story that’s both funny and heartbreaking – and enhanced by some brilliant performances by its two central actors – this is an essential purchase, irrespective of whether you're playing it for the...
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Even better than presenting its dangers, Firewatch presents the threat of danger. This is no feel-good summer beach read; this is a brutally beautiful and fragile story of people running from their problems—and problems running away from any tidy conclusions. This is the video game equivalent of a page turner, and adventure games have rarely been in finer form.
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Firewatch is narrative-driven adventure game dealing with adult issues in ways unlike any other game out there, and is one of the best looking games so far this year.
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Firewatch prides itself as a game with a unique setting and story. It follows the life of a lookout in a dry forest landscape that is perpetually at the risk of wildfires, but does it do enough with this premise to make it a worthwhile experience?
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I’ve tried to stay fairly vague with this review because, like a movie, watching the tale unfold and feeling the emotions in the moment is half of the fun. The other half will be talking with your friends about those moments and your choices, like that one part where I stole a girl’s radio and hiked all the way back to the post with it while Delilah made fun of the music that was playing. If “walking simulators” aren’t your thing, this may not be a fit for you. I wasn’t a fan of the genre before playing Firewatch, so...
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The most bizarre narrative bait and switch in video game history, as a tense, emotional thriller sticks the worst landing since Eddie The Eagle.
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Firewatch kept me engaged from beginning to end. The dialogue and the voice acting were believable and relatable, and I felt like the choices I made were ones I might make in real life. I wish Campo Santo added greater ramifications to some choices but it didn’t diminish the emotional effect they had on me. The ending will be a point of contention for some, but it all comes down to a perspective and regardless of that, you should play this game.
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The first thing you should know about Firewatch is that it’s every bit as beautiful as you imagined. First-time developer Campo Santo has spent two years teasing us with screenshots of a lustrous, tangerine-soaked wilderness to explore, and it’s certainly come good on this promise.
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Firewatch is a beautiful story of escapism and loss, set against the beautiful Wyoming wilderness. The physicality of your interactions, the excellent radio conversations, and poignant writing and imagery are hindered only by slight issues in presentation and technical hitching. It’s grounded, human, and one that you’ll be eager to talk about for days after the credits roll.
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An above average narrative, excellent dialogue, and wonderful pacing should make Firewatch enjoyable to any adventure fan.
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When Henry gets into his truck and heads from Colorado to Wyoming, he’s looking to escape a marriage that’s essentially just a wedding band worn out of habit. Opportunity comes in the form of a seasonal position as a firewatcher – sitting in a tower during the dry months and making sure that the state park doesn’t turn into kindling. Over the course of a few months, he (and the player) forms an intimate bond with his supervisor, a woman named Delilah whom Henry only interacts with via walkie-talkie. That relationship is forged and tested over several eerie events, though...
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Firewatch is amazing for many reasons, but above all because it’s an adult game that deals with serious issues, with realistic adult dialogue to match. And it deals with those issues just like actual adults would: sometimes with humor, sometimes with anger, and sometimes with sadness. It is among the very best of the first-person narrative genre, and it reminds us what video game storytelling is capable of in the right hands. It’s a game I can see coming back to every year or two just to revisit its beautiful sights and memorable characters – just like a good book.
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Firewatch may not be a game for everyone. If you’re a gamer who like nothing other than super-active games like Battlefront and Grand Theft Auto and… well… anything action oriented, this may not appeal to your personal tastes. Firewatch is something unique. It’s beautiful, engaging, and a little bit heart-wrenching at times. Ultimately, it gives us a wonderful experience that makes us want to climb through the screen, lie down in the grass and feel the serenity of that Wyoming wilderness, if only to escape life’s harsh realities for five hours.
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Firewatch seemed to be a unique game since it was first announced, and we wanted to take a look whether the game is anything more than just a "walking simulator" The result? It definitely is.
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The analog inputs (pulling up the walkie-talkie or map, spinning the same “1234” tumblers to unlock every single park lock box with Henry’s paws) combined with unique animation and believable voice work help ground Firewatch, which manages both restraint and maturity in its story without ever going full mumblecore “walking simulator.” The warmth of the budding relationship between two voices with natural chemistry is undercut by harsher realities and the drawn out segments of feeling stalked and vulnerable are legitimately stressful. The result is a tight, taut human tale well worth the trek.
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It doesn't take much more than six hours to work through the game's tight narrative and some players could probably do it much quicker than that if they don't take the time to soak in the sights and sounds of nature along the way. Due to the fact that there are no puzzles or platforming challenges, Firewatch probably won't have a lot of replayability for most players. Once the game's mystery is solved, the only real motivation to return to the forest is to try another playthrough with a different attitude. Starting the game over and playing Henry with a...
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Even if the abrupt, unfulfilling ending doesn’t completely tie the experience together, I’ll still remember plenty of the funny and heart wrenching moments between Henry and Delilah that I had the pleasure of eavesdropping on. The game’s world, and its brilliantly crafted ensemble of characters is more than enough to leave me with a warm feeling deep in my heart, even if it isn’t a fully-developed flame, for Firewatch.
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You already know if you are going to be buying Firewatch, and if you loved Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture or Life Is Strange then this is the game for you. It’s small, short and almost perfectly formed, it’s just the shame the game broke so many times when I was playing it. I’m hoping these problems can be found and fixed very quickly after launch and I would suggest holding off buying the game until a patch has been released, but until then we don’t have much of a choice but to mark an otherwise lovely game down due...
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