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It is worth noting that while the game's story is fantastic, actual gameplay is quite minimal here. Granted, you will also be doing your fair share of climbing and rappelling from large rocks, but that is usually all done with the click of a single key. As the player, you will be spending a lot of time walking and/or running to and from new and old places alike. Are We There Yet?Ī majority of the game consists of Henry taking long treks to respond to various incidents that occur in the forest. Henry's handy map and compass ensures you are never lost while exploring Ol' Shoshone. Equipped with only his trusty walkie-talkie, Henry's only source of contact throughout the game is an otherwise complete stranger with a past as mysterious as the forest the two are expected to watch over. There, he has his first conversation with Delilah, his supervisor at the neighboring watchtower Thorofare Lookout. It is revealed that after Henry agrees to let Julia's parents take her back home to Melbourne, Australia to get her the support she needs, he takes the summer job as a fire watch at Two Forks Lookout to get away from the guilt he feels for failing to take care of his wife.įollowing Henry's two-day hike to his new position as the fire watch, he finally arrives at his new home base at Two Forks Lookout. I had been so used to playing similar titles that usually throw you, the player, headlong into the world within the first 5 minutes, that I had entirely forgot what it had been like to play a game that didn't supplement its backstory with some sort of high-budget cut scene or wall of text.įirewatch had done a lot to surprise me from the very beginning, and I was thoroughly excited to not only play more, but to learn more. Others may have more personal weight, and allow you to dictate if you, for example, send Julia to a home to be treated for her sudden early onset dementia or take care of her yourself.Īll this seamless exposition is coupled with bits and pieces of you playing as Henry in the first-person, taking your first of many hikes in the Shoshone National Forest, Wyoming where you will work as a fire lookout for the summer. In this section, you are also able to make small choices that determine, say, whether or not you two owned a Beagle or a German Shepard. She's your future partner, and this is the game's way of giving you the chance to live through that journey as if you were truly there yourself, wherein you learn more about her, yourself, and what your relationship with Julia is like as the years go by. A hazy, colorful background indicates the location and year you are currently in - Boulder, Colorado, 1975 - and a swift click to the next screen tells you, in such sweet, plain words, "You see Julia." In the spirit of the unexpected, I thought it'd be appropriate to share my thoughts on the game's opening section, which was told almost entirely through text-based interactions.Īs a fan of first-person adventure titles, it was an immediate surprise for me to be presented with, well, anything that wasn't already set in the first-person perspective! Instead, in the game's first few moments, Firewatch presents the player with the opportunity to imagine the recollected history of its playable character, Henry. That we, as people, are not perfect, and not everything is as it seems.Ĭampo Santo's Firewatch does all these things and more as it gives you a front-row seat to a Colorado man's summer filled to the brim with visual awe, beckoning mystery and the woefully unexpected.įirewatch's opening text-based section. Most importantly, they show us that we're not alone in our failings and misfortunes. They're real (and no, not always in the "realistic" sense) they tend to supply the audience with uncomfortable truths and remind us that our lives do not always go according to plan, no matter how hard we push for the most desired outcome. Anyone who knows me knows that I love a good slice-of-life story.