Reviewed: Firewatch

As I mentioned in my favorite things post, the Nintendo Switch is one of those favorite things. One of the games I’ve enjoyed a lot is Firewatch

• Game: Firewatch
• Publisher: Campo Santo
• Platform: Nintendo Switch (also available on Windows, OS X, Linux, Playstation 4, and XBox One)
• Genre: Adventure

Firewatch is a first-person adventure game, in which you play Henry, who has got a summer job as a fire lookout in the Shoshone national forest in 1989. The game starts by giving you his background and what led him to take the job, before you park the car and start walking to the lookout tower. With the tower as your base, you walk around the area surrounding the tower, looking into smoke and the like.

The game is well written, and the animation feels slightly cartoon-y. This story-driven game lets you decide on what to explore when, but there’s no getting around the fact that this is a game that has a story to tell, and it will tell you that story unless you decide not to play it.

I really enjoyed the game. It follows to main plot threads, the first being that of Henry and his supervisor Delilah – I don’t want to spoil the other one. At times funny, at times serious, and at times a little scary (in the thriller sense, not the horror movie sense), this is one adventure that I can absolutely recommend to anyone who want a strong story and don’t mind strapping on to a railroad.

TL;DR: Firewatch is an excellent casual adventure game with a strong story. While it might not be for everyone, I absolutely loved it, and can definitely see myself returning to it in a year or three. 8/10.