FIREWATCH PLOT SERIES
FIREWATCH PLOT TV

ItвЂ™s one of the most delightful, sincere, believable relationships between two people IвЂ™ve encountered in a game. His relationship with Delilah was much more interesting to me. It seemed like there was no real, meaty connecting tissue between what happened in the forest, what brought him there, and the story's conclusion. Maybe I just didnвЂ™t pick up on it, but I was left with a feeling that there was more left to explore. The events that happened in the Shoshone didnвЂ™t seem to have much relevance to him personally, or even on a thematic level. A compelling setup gave way to a fairly rushed, unsatisfying conclusion, and I didnвЂ™t feel like Henry had gone on any meaningful journey as a character. The resolution to this mystery just didnвЂ™t work for me. IвЂ™m being spectacularly vague here, but the game is so heavy on story that any more details would damage your experience.Д«ut here lies my biggest issue with Firewatch. SheвЂ™s a reassuring voice in the darkness, but the game cleverly uses this against you too. It plays brilliantly to these feelings of loneliness, and Delilah becomes an emotional lifeline: for Henry and you.

The mystery (thatвЂ™s as specific as I can get) is intriguing, and you become aware of how isolated Henry is, miles from any city, alone except for a voice on a walkie-talkie. I might have been imagining it, but from this point on, as I walked through the trees, I was sure I could hear the crunch of twigs behind me. The mood of the forest changes too, from a safe, solitary place to somewhere where you feel like youвЂ™re being watched.

FIREWATCH PLOT SERIES

Just as youвЂ™ve settled into the easy rhythm of HenryвЂ™s new life, youвЂ™re faced with a series of unnerving experiences, and the change is quite jarring. What begins as a gentle David Attenborough documentary suddenly turns into an episode of Lost, and the pace gets more fraught as a result. A series of strange events, including a brief glimpse of a shadowy figure in the woods, sets a mystery in motion that shifts the tone of the game dramatically. A joke is always waiting if things get too saccharine.Д«ut this calm canвЂ™t last forever, and itвЂ™s not long before your daily routine is interrupted. And the dialogue is touching, but never feels cloying or forced. The way their relationship grows, and how they comfort each other at low points, is wonderfully written, even though they communicate entirely by walkie-talkie. Cissy Jones, who plays Delilah, is great too, and the chemistry between the two characters is one of the highlights of the game. He has a wry, self-effacing sense of humour, and I enjoyed spending time with him.

FIREWATCH PLOT TV

Henry is played by Rich Sommer-Mad Men's Harry Crane, TV fans-and his performance is superbly understated and naturalistic. You never see his face, but his limbs alone have more personality than some entire characters in other games. Everything happens in the first-person, and I love the chunky, expressive animations of HenryвЂ™s arms and stubby, hairy legs as he scrambles up rocky cliffs, picks things up and examines them, and reclines at his desk. ItвЂ™s more about story, ambience, and exploration than any kind of challenge. There are some problems to overcome in the wilds, like abseiling down shale slides with climbing ropes, locating supply caches, and finding ways around impassable areas, but itвЂ™s not a taxing game at all. And although youвЂ™re almost always in conversation with Delilah, there are some sections of quiet where you can enjoy the gameвЂ™s excellent environmental audio design. This limited use of scoring makes the times when the music does come in more special, because you know its arrival heralds something emotional, dramatic, or revelatory. A stylish, minimal soundtrack by Gone Home composer Chris Remo uses sparse layers of electric guitar and bass to give weight to important moments, but most of the time all you can hear is the sound of nature around you: trickling streams, rustling leaves, the quiet howl of the wind, squawking birds.

Firewatch plot