History VideoGame / Firewatch

* ArtisticLicenseEconomics: The US Forestry Service **does** have standards when it comes to who it hires, which includes some amount of college education. You certainly won't get accepted in just by answering a flier with "willingness to endure long periods of solitude" as your general qualifications.

* EvidenceHunt: At first, the game presents you with a lot of notes and posters you can pick up and keep, making them seem to be relevant later on. [[spoiler:Henry uses them to create a StringTheory wall, but it turns out to be irrelevant and everything is burned in the Thorofare fire.]]

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:No matter what you do, Ned gets away and the Thorofare Fire is set to burn a swathe of destruction across untold acres of the Shoshone. Anything you leave in Two Forks Lookout will be lost to the flame -- including your books, your pet turtle, your picture of Julia, and possibly your ''wedding ring'' if you forget them. You can't save the lookout, the boombox, Forrest Byrnes, your pine cone collection, or any physical evidence from Ned's bunker, and there's nothing you can do to stop the oncoming firestorm. All you can do is flee to Thorofare lookout, meet the evac chopper, and wish there was something you could say to make Delilah stay long enough to meet you.]]

* TheReveal: [[spoiler:Brian Goodman never went home like Delilah thought. He died years ago in the Shoshone forest because of his dad's recklessness and he covered it up.

* YourCheatingHeart: It's possible for Henry to develop a relationship with Delilah in the game. However, Henry can choose to remain faithful to Julia even in her current condition.

'''Delilah:''' It's'' outside. ''The whole thing. And people come and go as they please. It's... it's madness!

Henry is a middle-aged man, happily married to his wife, Julia. Ever since he learned that she was suffering from early onset dementia, he has been struggling with how to care for her, if he even should. One day, he finds an ad for a [[TitleDrop firewatch]] position in Shoshone National Forest, and takes it to get away and maybe contemplate. Arriving at the tower that is to be his home for the summer, his only regular human contact is the radio voice of the senior watcher in the next tower over.

* AbilityRequiredToProceed: There are some obstructions that Henry cannot pass without the right equipment. For example, ropes to climb down steep scree, or a pulaski to clear overgrown trails.

** For some reason, Delilah calls Henry "Hank". She claims that she chose it because it rhymes with "thanks".
** Henry's nickname for Julia is "Jules" and "D" for Delilah.
* TheAlcoholic: Henry tends to drink a bit. Delilah as well. In fact, most of the rangers up in Shoshone drink quite a lot. It most likely has to do with being completely isolated in the middle of nowhere for an extremely long period of time. Also, the [[spoiler: two teens encountered at the beginning of the game manage to consume a truly epic amount of beer between them, going through several cases and leaving trails of discarded cans wherever they have been.]]
* TheAllegedBoss: Delilah, who spends most of her time bantering with Henry instead of giving him instructions. {{Justified}} in that the job itself wouldn't normally be very labor intensive.
* {{Anticlimax}}: Played deliberately. [[spoiler: The major drama the entire plot seems to be building up towards ultimately turns out to be nothing more than a Red Herring, seemingly making a point about how bored and lonely people turn mundane events into giant conspiracy theories. Henry never even confronts the actual culprit, who [[VillainExitStageLeft exits stage left]] after leaving a tape recording giving a half-hearted apology to him. The final days also involve what has to be the most relaxed forest fire in video game history (although this is because the fire isn't close enough to be an immediate threat, and all the characters know that they'll be long gone by the time it arrives.)]]

* {{Irony}}: A big deal is made out of Wapiti Station being a "secret base" that "isn't supposed to be there", and is so secret that not even veteran lookout Delilah knows about it. Anyone who's actually been to Shoshone National Forest (or at least looked it up on TheOtherWiki) knows that [[spoiler: it's actually the park's ''central station'' and is usually the first stop visitors go to. In fact, it's the oldest station in the park and is even a ''National Historical Landmark'. It makes absolutely no sense why neither Henry nor Delilah know about its existence and induces a rather large plothole.]]

* {{Irony}}: A big deal is made out of Wapiti Station being a "secret base" that "isn't supposed to be there", and is so secret that not even veteran lookout Delilah knows about it. Anyone who's actually been to Shoshone National Forest (or at least looked it up on TheOtherWiki) knows that [[spoiler: it's actually the park's ''central station'' and is usually the first stop visitors go to. Given that the station was already there for at least ten years when the game takes place, it induces a rather large plothole as to why neither Henry nor Delilah know about its existence.]]

* CriticalResearchFailure: In-universe. [[spoiler:Delilah seems to think that simply switching walkie-talkies will somehow keep her completely unscrambled radio conversations with Henry secret. Ned's tape strongly implies that's not the case.]]

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:No matter what you do, Ned gets away and the Thorofare Fire is set to burn a swathe of destruction across untold acres of the Shoshone. Anything you leave in Two Forks Lookout will be lost to the flame -- including your books, your pet turtle, your picture of Julia, and possibly your ''[[WhatTheHellPlayer wedding ring]]'' if you forget them. You can't save the lookout, the boombox, Forrest Byrnes, your pine cone collection, or any physical evidence from Ned's bunker, and there's nothing you can do to stop the oncoming firestorm. All you can do is flee to Thorofare lookout, meet the evac chopper, and wish there was something you could say to make Delilah stay long enough to meet you.]]

* GovernmentConspiracy: Henry finds a rather creepy government research camp seemingly dedicated to collecting invasive data about him and Delilah. [[spoiler:And subverted - it turns out to be an ''actual'' research camp committed to studying the local flora and fauna, but was infiltrated by Ned and planted with false evidence of a conspiracy purely to freak out Henry enough that he'd stay in his fire tower and not look for him.]]

* RealityEnsues: [[spoiler:Inside Ned's hideout, you manage to find his previous attempts at trying to forge the supposed government obsevation sheets on Henry and Delilah. Given that he tried to imitate a telex print using only his typewriter, it took him ''many'' attempts to do so without typos, crooked spacing or the odd FreudianSlip]].

* TheVillainKnowsWhereYouLive: Whoever you piss off, whoever you encounter, they all know you live at the Two Forks watch tower.

* YourCheatingHeart: It's possible for Henry to develop a relationship with Delilah in the game. However, Henry can choose to remain faithful to Julia even in her current condition.

'''Delilah:''' It's'' [[DeadpanSnarker outside]]. ''The whole thing. And people come and go as they please. It's... it's madness!

** In one possible outcome, when Henry discovers [[spoiler: Ned's hideout, he'll find logs of all the conversations between him and Delilah that Ned recorded. The log for June 31st, the night of the fire, has "GET A ROOM!!!" written on it, which pretty much confirms [[YourCheatingHeart the two had sex on the phone.]]]]

** In one possible outcome, when Henry discovers [[spoiler: Ned's hideout, he'll find logs of all the conversations between him and Delilah that Ned recorded. The log for June 3rd, the night of the fire, has "GET A ROOM!!!" written on it, which pretty much confirms [[YourCheatingHeart the two had sex on the phone.]]]]

** Another possibility as for why Henry took the ring off could be [[spoiler: because he's having an affair with Delilah. Note that the wedding ring can only be found removed and on Henry's desk after the events of the night of large fire (June 3rd), where one of the dialogue options heavily implies the two engaging in sex over the radio.]]

* FollowTheLeader: The game is pretty open with having been heavily influenced by ''VideoGame/GoneHome'' with regards to the gameplay and even certain basic structures of the plot and how it progresses. The game even includes a few Shout Outs to ''Gone Home'', including a book that was an item in ''Gone Home'' also being an item in ''Firewatch''.

* UnsolvedMystery: [[spoiler: We never ''do'' find out if Brian's death was accidental or not.]]

** Another possibility as for why Henry took the ring off could be because [[spoiler: because he's having an affair with Delilah. Note that the wedding ring can only be found removed and on Henry's desk after the events of the night of large fire (June 3rd).]]

* WeddingRingRemoval: At some point, Henry takes off his wedding ring. He may have done this to make sure he doesn't lose the ring somewhere in the forest.

* XMeetsY: At its core, ''Firewatch'' is essentially the exploratory experience of ''VideoGame/GoneHome'' combined with the dialogue[=/=]consequences system of Telltale Games (the core dev team are former Telltale Games employees).

* ShipTease: Some may happen between Henry and Delilah, despite the fact that they never properly meet. [[spoiler: When the huge forest fire first appears, a tipsy Delilah might mention that she wishes Henry could be with her. If Henry returns the affection, she'll say that they could do things together, but the chapter ends before the two of them get into specifics.]]

* DidNotDoTheResearch: In-universe. [[spoiler:Delilah seems to think that simply switching walkie-talkies will somehow keep her completely unscrambled radio conversations with Henry secret. Ned's tape strongly implies that's not the case.]]

* CrosswordPuzzle: What Delilah does in her spare time. Henry can even find crossword puzzle books in her tower.

** The [[AirportNovel Richard Sturgeon thriller novels]] seem to be heavily inspired by the works of Creator/TomClancy.

* ShownTheirWork: Delilah mentions a budget increase the Forest Service got the previous year after a fire was allowed to burn raged out of control. This actually happened, exactly when she said it did (1988).

* ShoutOut: One cache contains a hoodie from [[VideoGame/TheLastOfUs University of Eastern Colorado]], including its iconic mouflon mascot.

* RealityEnsues: [[spoiler:Inside Ned's hideout, you manage to find his previous attempts at trying to forge the supposed government obsevation sheets on Henry and Delilah. Given that he tried to imitate a telex print using only his typewriter, it took him ''many'' attempts to do so without typos, crooked spacing or the odd FreudianSlips]].