Firewatch is a game made by new studio, Campo Santo. It's about a man wanting to distance himself from his life, taking a job as a forest lookout in the deep forests of Wyoming. It takes place in 1989, one year after the great fire disaster of yellowstone park. As this man, you live in the isolated wilderness, and try to find peace.
Your only human contact throughout the game is your immediate supervisor, Delilah. You are in constant communication with her over your two-way radio. You're only introduction and interaction with her is talking. She'll ask questions about your life. You'll answer. You'll make jokes. Or you'll avoid answers.
It's like laying in bed late at night, talking with someone on the phone. Your conversation is so close, and so personal. But you're separated by a vast distance. Because of this, Firewatch is probably the most human game I've ever played.
The only image you have of her, is her own lookout tower on the horizon, in the distance.
This is the game, or the experience, that Firewatch tells. Depending on how you open up to Delilah, or keep bottled up, determines the tone of the conversation through the game. In the wilderness, the story of your character is told through self-reflection and analysis with your conversations of your only other human contact.
The visuals of the game convey this beautiful sense of freedom and liberty. The music sets an atmosphere of tranquility and peace. All of the main character's problems are back in the busy life of society. All that responsibility can stay there, away from him.
On the surface, I think the game speaks to all of our back-seated desires to simply give up all of our responsibilities, and be free.
Underneath the surface, the game begins to peel away those layers of freedom by praying on your idea of safety. Early on, you run into another person stalking around at night. In the second act of the game, you begin finding barriers and items in the woods that shouldn't be there.
For me, my sense of paranoia began to build. Can I really trust Delilah? Is she telling me the truth? Is she really there? Is this all some social experiment to test me? What can I believe?
This is where the actual story of the game begins to pick up from where the atmosphere and characters established in Act 1 had left off.
There are moments later on in the game that felt SO TENSE, but in reality there was nothing to fear at all. It was like being afraid of your own shadow, or walking through your house in the dead of night. There's nothing there. You're alone.
I love this game a lot. The art, the visuals, the music, the voice acting, the story, the dialogue, and the setting all work together to create a unique and memorable experience.
I played through on the PS4, and recorded my playthroughs. Check those out here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJi_rJy6L2QJ3f6lC1IfX2x6sFlRoStoP