Henry’s sadsack dryness – by turns curt, dopey and earnest – isn’t just endearing, it’s endearingly realistic.
#Firewatch release time full
Henry and Delilah’s exchanges are full of the familiar tug and tarry of people getting to know each other, of playing and of flirting, and of reaching out to feel less alone. The writing is not just believable, it is likeable and funny. Which is to say that we care, and that Henry feels like us. Meanwhile, the park itself envelopes him physically, this stocky, everyday nobody tumbling through the oblivious vastness of this wild place.Īnd it works. With his life paused and broken, his increasing dependence on Delilah begins to feel like an emotional precipice, the skewed power dynamic and his fragility a tinderbox mix. Everything that happens to Henry in the park is designed to highlight his vulnerabilities. The journey, though, is more important than the destination. This mystery motivates all of Henry’s tasks and movements: he’ll talk to Delilah, she’ll send him somewhere, he’ll explore the park, complications typically ensue. The other thing that happens is that Henry and Delilah become entangled in a slowly unfolding mystery, which grows from a simple infraction of park rules – kids letting off fireworks – to a paranoid, all-consuming plot. She works in a distant cabin on one of those tantalising far-off peaks, a warm voice floating into Henry’s ear through his lookout walkie-talkie, an absence in the physical space around him underlining his solitude.įirewatch’s visual grasp of the American outdoors is defined by the bright, airbrushed work of British artist Olly Moss. And what happens, really, is two things: he meets – or rather doesn’t meet – Delilah, a perky, forthright and funny lookout supervisor who is both exactly what Henry needs to trigger his emotional recuperation, and also his boss. It’s a world that delivers both variety – of colour, landscape, time of day – and sophistication within a dense, well-plotted space, its modest map efficiently filled with items, pathways and objectives.įirewatch is about what happens to Henry in the park, after the emotional foundation laid by the prologue. The park is an open world, with tantalising views of distant peaks and valleys stretching much further than the game’s explorable area. Made by a new studio of about a dozen people, Firewatch is stylised and almost cartoonish, its visual grasp of the American outdoors defined by the bright, airbrushed work of British artist Olly Moss. Henry decides to escape, to a job as a fire lookout at Shoshone National Forest.įirewatch is a relatively small game that projects itself big. There are moments of extraordinary joy, giving way to an overall theme of devastation. * Secrets and discoveries to be made over every hill.This is how it all starts, in the second person like a choose your own adventure book, although the opening prologue is more like a multiple choice quiz sketching the history of Henry’s heartbreaking early adulthood. * A tailor-made story: the choices you make shape the narrative and build relationships.
Includes * A stunningly beautiful wilderness environment that expands as you explore. If you plan on playing with a younger gamer, that might be good to know going in.
A Note: Firewatch is a video game about adults having adult conversations about adult things. But when something strange draws you out of your lookout tower and into the forest, youll explore a wild and unknown environment, facing questions and making choices that can build or destroy the only meaningful relationship you have. Your supervisor Delilah is available to you at all times over a small, handheld radioyour only contact with the world you've left behind. An especially hot, dry summer has everyone on edge. Perched high atop a mountain, its your job to look for smoke and keep the wilderness safe. You are a man named Henry who has retreated from his messy life to work as a fire lookout in the Wyoming wilderness.
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