Firewatch: Bridging the Virtual and Real Worlds

To an extent – that is, not in any tangible way – I think of video game locations as places I’ve actually visited. Just think of how you know every nook and cranny of your favorite multiplayer map, or recall your favorite narrative moment the same way you might recall a favorite memory.

Firewatch blurs that line between virtual and real experiences by making its gameplay rely on a few activities many of us are accustomed to doing in real life: hiking on trails, studying maps, taking photos. By doing these things in the game, the surroundings become familiar, comforting. The game is like real life and becomes an almost-real place as a result.

The bridge between virtual and real worlds is further reinforced by the option to have your in-game pictures sent to you, as if the disposable camera you found in the game was in fact real and the film could actually be developed. We know rationally that’s not true, but it makes the experience more poignant and memorable.

Even the protagonist, Henry, seems to confuse his own experiences with fantasy as the narrative unfolds. Ultimately he must acknowledge that his tenure as a fire watcher was a diversion from his actual life, just as our playing the game is a diversion from ours. And by the end of the game, we learn of another character who also left their life behind to live in the forest. Their refusal to return to the world in which they belonged results in a very different end than Henry’s.

Firewatch is a beautiful and interesting short narrative experience that’s really a commentary on how easy it is for our experience of reality to become thin.