“Oh no.” The game immediately feels like it’s setting you up for something, especially once you hear your supervisor’s cheery and very female voice across the radio on your first morning. She’s still your living wife, but sometimes - more and more - it feels like she’s dead to you. You’ve left a wife you love, who sometimes doesn’t even remember you, who’s forgotten the dog she used to adore when you tell her of its passing.
But where Up sets its main character up for a journey to let go of his past and move on, Henry’s story is not so straightforward. Short and sweet, it builds a believable and beautiful relationship between the characters and then tears it down only moments later. In explaining Firewatch to other people, I’ve often likened its opening sequence to the infamous one from Up.
Warning, this story contains spoilers for the ending of Firewatch.
All because, when it came down to it, their choices didn’t matter. Steam reviews chronicle players building up endless expectations for a certain ending, and then being hopelessly disappointed. Viewing only a small sample of the Steam reviews for February’s breakout indie game Firewatch seem to turn up the same theme again and again - love turns to apathy turns to hate in the closing half hour of the game.
