Post
A summer spent alone in the Wyoming wilderness, talking to a voice on a radio, running from your own life.
Firewatch by Campo Santo casts you as Henry, a middle-aged man who takes a fire lookout job in the Shoshone National Forest to escape his crumbling life. Your only human contact is Delilah, your supervisor on the other end of a handheld radio. The game is essentially walking through beautiful forests while having increasingly personal conversations with someone you have never met. A mystery develops involving missing hikers and possible surveillance, but the real story is about Henry and Delilah's relationship and the things people run away from. Olly Moss's art direction created one of the most visually striking environments in gaming.
Example
The dialogue choice where Delilah asks Henry about his wife, and every response option feels inadequate because the game has made you feel the weight of a situation with no good answers. The writing makes a radio conversation more intimate than most face-to-face interactions in gaming.
Why it matters
Firewatch proved that a game about two people talking on a radio could be riveting. It elevated the 'walking simulator' genre with genuine emotional depth and showed that adult stories about adult problems have a massive audience in gaming.
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