Simple concept spawns real-world woodsy story

By Troy Daughtery

Firewatch is a perfect example of a simple concept elevated by masterful execution.
Firewatch is a first-person adventure video game, developed by Campo Santo studio.
This is also the first game that has been developed through this studio.
It takes place in the aftermath of the Yellowstone fires of 1998.

It is the story of Henry, a man who takes up a job as a fire lookout after his wife is diagnosed with advanced early-onset Alzheimer’s.
It follows Henry throughout his summer as he works in the woods in Wyoming to ensure nothing bad happens to the forested area.
Throughout the game, Delilah, his supervisor, contacts Henry over walkie-talkie and tells him of any potential problems that may be happening and then sends him to fix whatever the problem is at the time.
Usually, Henry completes the task and then the story skips ahead in time to a point where there is another problem.
The basic concept is that the player does this over and over again until the end of the summer.
A simple concept, but it is handled incredibly well.
The two main characters, Henry and Delilah, feel incredibly realistic, almost like someone you’d know in real life.
It helps that the voice acting in this game is much better than in most. You can tell that the actors got into their characters and weren’t just reading words off of a piece of paper. The script also helps a lot, and was extremely well-written.
Henry and Delilah are in a constant banter with one another and both characters have a tendency to be very sarcastic which usually makes their talks utterly hilarious.
However, despite this humor, both of these characters can also be very serious and touching.
A large portion of the heart of this story is sad and the characters make you feel the pain that they have.
The humor in the game works well because it covers some of the sadness, but it also connects you to the characters more which makes you feel even worse when the sad moments in the game do come to light.
To say much more about the game could spoil the plot, but if you’re looking for a good story and great characters then this is the game to play.

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