I've returned to Firewatch for the first time after it's initial release many years ago. I replayed it myself and have also been consuming boatloads of videos on YouTube of people playing it for the first time.

I figured I'd share some thoughts that have been rattling around.

When it first released, as soon as I beat it I was a bit disappointed by the ending, but after a day or so of reflection it clicked and it became one of my favorite games. I recognized in myself the tendency to want to escape, especially into video games, and how often my problems were still right there in front of me.

Now that I know how the story goes I am able to focus on the things that aren't as center stage as the mystery. I enjoy hearing the dialogue options I didn't pick during mundane conversations. I can take in the little details I never noticed inside Henry's lookout or inside the trail caches. I can stand around take in the scenery and imagine the world beyond the borders of where the game's code says it ends.

All of this has made me yearn for more of those grounded parts of the game. I would love to continue wandering the Shoshone doing menial tasks, all while Delilah and I quip back and forth. I want to get drunk and talk on the radio while watching the fires burn through the night. I want to enjoy the stillness knowing there is nothing to do tomorrow except more of the same. I want to make my tower look as cool as Delilah's.

As I am in a difficult part of my life right now, I don't think it's a coincidence that my mind has been pulled back toward Firewatch. This has created an almost infinite feedback loop of meta-narrative for me. Ignoring the lesson the game is trying to impart while getting lost in faux relationship in a digital forest. My problems will still be there waiting for me whenever the next playthrough I watch ends.

EDIT:
I suppose it'd also be remiss to not acknowledge the similarity to returning to the community spaces for this game almost 9 years later. Much like piecing together the stories of people you've never met through notes and pictures along the trails, coming to this place which sees maybe 2-3 posts a week at maximum to see people passing a few thoughts back and forth, like our "close friends" Ron and Dave, feels liminal and nostalgic.

This subreddit has become a cache upon the internet and I guess I just wanted to leave my note for whoever mans the tower next.

I have a lot of thoughts for such a short game! Some of my questions might not have answers but I'll ask them just in case there's anything in-game that I missed. I'm gonna dot point them:

• So the teenage girls were a total red herring, right? Sorry girls, I didn't actually mean to chuck your stereo in the lake, I just hadn't quite figured out the controls yet. But also you're annoying little dipshits with no respect for fire safety, so I also sort of don't regret it. #SorryNotSorry
• The guy with the torch on the first night was Ned, right?
• If Ned's been living in this area for years, and assuming someone else has been the watcher in my tower in previous seasons, how come I'm the first person that he's bothered to mess with? I don't really understand this timeline, or why he thought any of his actions were necessary. I mean, sure, PTSD loner obviously not quite right in the head, but I literally only discovered his secret because of the goose chase that he led me on in the first place. If he didn't want anyone to find out, how come he didn't just leave me alone to chill in my tower?
• So Ned obviously tore up the teen girls' campsite and stole their underwear (to leave a message framing them near the cut wires), as well as their sleeping bag and magazines (which you find in his bunker near the end). But the torn up clothes? Was he trying to make it look like a bear got to their stuff?
• The mid-to-late portion of this game - from finding the clipboard with our conversations to breaking into Wapiti Station to entering the cave - was extremely stressful. I reaaaaallly don't cope well with suspense or horror games and this sent my blood pressure through the roof, lol.
• Where did that research site actually come from? How come Delilah didn't know about it? What were they researching and where did they go leaving all their stuff behind (before Ned came along to use it)?
• As soon as I looked over the edge near the top of the cave and spotted that single red kid's shoe, I had a sinking feeling that I knew what was going on, and I was right. Finding Brian's body was really freaking sad.
• The last portion of the game, making your way to the northern tower to evacuate, was also very stressful. I'm an Australian so bushfires (wildfires) are something I take pretty seriously and the Parks service DEFINITELY should have evacuated the lookouts earlier. Tsk tsk.
• My Henry liked Delilah a lot but was never romantically interested in her. Am I alone in that approach? I just don't think that he'd be interested in something like that, after everything he went through with Julia. He'd still be raw. When I saw that his wedding ring was on his table one morning, I picked it up and put it back on. I guess I tend to RP in games pretty much like myself and I'm not big on rebound relationships.
• There are 3 photos on Brian's camera when we find his backpack and I thought they would be the key to some mystery if we had them developed. Like, 'photos taken moments before disaster' style. I guess not. I don't fully understand the point of the camera, since the game never shows the part where we have to talk to the authorities about what's happened. And there was me carefully keeping evidence...
• What happens to Ned in the end? He goes off into the wilderness but that whole area is a firestorm in process and flames can move fast. Do we assume he survives?
• The longer I think about this the longer this post gets so I will leave it there!

Someone suggested Firewatch to me as a game I might enjoy and after reading a number of comments here on this sub, decided too give it a try.

Unfortunately, the game will not start for me. I get to the "select a save slot" screen and nothing ever comes up. I deleted the game and re-downloaded it but still had the same problem. I contacted Xbox support and they were no help. Has anyone else encountered this and how can it be fixed?

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide. I am so excited about playing this game it makes me fidget in my chair.

Im almost at a loss of words for how much i loved and attached myself to the story as short as it is. Ive put this game off for a long time because of too many story games not getting my attention but this one stuck with me. Finished it an hour ago and i very much need similar experiences from other games. I enjoyed the fact that it wasnt some weird creature feature game in the woods and it was grounded. 10/10

seriously the worst fucking game, and the only people ive seen give good reviews? Men

Anyone else notice a lot of things that Delilah mentioned throughout the story in her lookout?

One example would be the Pig Pond sign that she said "people" kept stealing, later refering to it as a badass name.

I was doing a crossword and this clue came up lmao

the noclip mod doesnt seem to be working anymore? it keeps crashing my game anyone knows a fix?

https://github.com/abarichello/Firewatch-noclip/tree/master

After finding the supplies from Brian's hideout, it gave me the prompt to 'explore deeper in the cave' So I did, but I still have the prompt to do so whenever I open my map. Am I missing something ?

So I don't remember exactly what day this is on, but there is a point in the game where Henry is cleverly informed by Delilah to hike to CottonWood Creek where there's a cache box with a new "untapped" radio in so they can talk without being listened into.

The problem is the location of CottonWood Creek and how seemingly confusing and unrealistic it is for Delilah to place a new walkie talkie in a cache back.

Now first we gotta tackle the question, what method did Delilah use to get that walkie talkie in the cache box? Well we can scrap the idea of her arranging another Ranger to do it, cause its stated early on that the closest Ranger is 2 days away, said by Delilah herself. So it can't have been another Ranger.

The only other way Delilah could have arranged that walkie talkie to be in that cache box, is if she hiked from her lookout tower to CottonWood Creek herself and placed it there.

Now CottonWood Creek is at the very bottom of the area near Ruby River, the distance that Delilah would have had to make from her tower to CottonWood Creek and back is immensely far.

It's not exactly clear if Delilah would physically be able to do such a long hike. On one hand, she's a 40 year old woman whos kinda portrayed as alittle lazy, often staying in her tower and doing crossword puzzles. On the other hand, she's a very experienced lady with 13 years of work in the service doing this job. So maybe, despite her age and seemingly preference to staying in her lookout tower, we can give her the benefit of the doubt and say she could indeed make such a hike.

This is where we run into the biggest confusion regarding all this, which is that Delilah would have had to literally pass right by Henry's tower to get to CottonWood Creek. The only path to Ruby River and to CottonWood Creek is right next and past off Henry's lookout tower.

So why, since we gotta recognise the fact that Delilah and Henry are both freaking out thinking their being spied on through the Walkie Talkies, did she not just go up to Henry's tower and give him the new radio herself? It would have been way more productive, faster and overall safer.

Especially since Delilah clearly at that point still would have wanted to meet Henry, I mean this is all before her finding out about Brian's death, she still likely was in the mindset of wanting to meet him.

So why didn't she, when she easily could have?

Then again, theres alot of unanswered questions in this game. Maybe I'm overthinking it, but it's still something that's confusing and at the very least strange.

I've had it on my wishlist and have literally been checking back to see if it's on sale for, like, SEVEN MONTHS now, and not once has it been on sale. To add insult to injury, I've seen it go dirt cheap on Steam multiple times before.

I'm not saying the full $20 price isn't still a good deal, since I really like this game and love replaying it, but there are an assload of other games on my wishlist that I also wait to get whenever they're on sale, so I don't wanna feel scammed on a single one

https://preview.redd.it/phsep1rcu52e1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=a2460235230fcd5dd43d842d8a5dc63b9d37b531

Drawn on a 10cm x 10cm canvas using acrylic paint... I kinda ruined the top right side of the logo🫠 should've used a stensil... Hope it's welcome here.

i thought the game was really good up until the ending. there was so much suspense and the ending was kind of a let down for me. delilah was so suspicious (in my opinion) during the entire game. every time henry discovered something weird, i always felt like delilah had something to do with it/was trying to set henry up. also, the way she sounded on the radio when she told henry to go to cottonwood creek was so creepy. it felt like such a trap. i later realized why she did that, but i was still so suspicious the entire time i walked to the creek.

i expected more from the ending tbh. the only times i had an “oh my god” moment were when henry found the clipboard of their conversations by the river, henry getting knocked out by the river, henry finding the notes on him and delilah’s whole personal life in wapiti, and finding brian goodwin in the cave. overall, the game was really fun, the ending was just a let down. i at least expected to meet delilah

also, even at the very end when henry finds out delilah left him, i still felt like she was trying to set him up. when henry was in her tower talking to her through the headset, you can hear vague sirens. idk why but i felt like delilah sent cops to get henry to save herself, cause she sent the false police report and told henry to burn wapiti down (with a fire starting soon after). i know it was only ned listening to them, but who knows what he did with that info

anyway great game and i def would play it again. just expected more to the ending

I play this game on the PS5 and whenever I save and log off and try to load back on, it just says stuck on the loading screen forever not loading.

I have to keep deleting the game and reinstalling it to play it, only for it to keep happening over and over.

Im getting really tired of all this, I dont understand why the saves keep getting corrupted.

Does anyone know why this is happening and what I can do to fix it?

Wanting to get a painting done

I know this question has already been answered on this sub but one of the things that i loved about firewatch were the constant conversations with another person. i loved how their relationship was building and the constant interaction. are there games that have exactly this? constantly interacting or talking to persons?

even from the start when there was nothing wrong or suspicious i just had a bad feeling about her. it kinda feels like she’s gaslighting Henry the whole time and hiding stuff while manipulating him (though taking in the paranoia the game builds this could just be that). Plus, that moment when she’s talking with someone about him not knowing something then brushing it off cements it - definitely after a few plays i can see this being about the accident. and cherry on top is her not waiting for Henry. i know there was a fire but she knew the chopper was coming and would be on the same one as Henry. Just never trusted her

It won't let me get into the cable car after I've radioed Delilah (she didn't answer)

I made a live action Firewatch fancast and I'm afraid of sharing it

https://preview.redd.it/zujllf8sf91e1.png?width=975&format=png&auto=webp&s=b44b3271dc5f2cfb3edee0c95da4c2ed52384140

its an image.. of an image so it's a little bit low quality but still stunning

Hello everyone, I just wanted to say that I am so glad that the Firewatch community is still active. As everyone in this subreddit, I love this game, I consider it a masterpiece for what it is. It's a gem. Keep posting, guys!

https://preview.redd.it/81sujnq02p0e1.png?width=2558&format=png&auto=webp&s=72904abb50be4e2a34d76e7b8edf69518f76843d

So im on day 77 and im suppose to go further but theres this, if i go further il fall down. I tried restarting day, closing oppening game etc but its always there. Is there a fix for this?

Title

I am playing on Xbox Series X