“The year is 1989. You are a man named Henry who has retreated from your messy life to work as a fire lookout in the Wyoming wilderness. Perched atop a mountain, it’s your job to find smoke and keep the wilderness safe. An especially hot, dry summer has everyone on edge. Your supervisor, a woman named Delilah, is available to you at all times over a small, handheld radio—and is your only contact with the world you’ve left behind. But when something strange draws you out of your lookout tower and into the world below, you’ll explore a wild and unknown environment, facing questions and making interpersonal choices that can build or destroy the only meaningful relationship you have.”
I really enjoyed playing Firewatch, I played this exploration/mystery video game in bursts of an hour at a time over a few weeks. Without giving away any spoilers its about a fella, who takes on a job as a fire warden in a national park in the U.S Why is he there? What happens there? Who’s leaving odd things around the park for him to find?
This is a first person aspect game, with really stunning graphics for gamers that love a bit of a mystery and an interactive storyline, you get to choose Henry’s responses and his attitude to his communication with Delilah, another fire warden. As the main character Henry, you are given instructions to follow to complete tasks. It helps if you know how to read an old fashioned map with a compass. The map does have a sort of Google map style add on..(you can see where you are on the map, which is very very helpful). Some reviewers have complained about the amount of walking in the game, but I personally love games where you get to explore and walk in real time to experience different scenery and landscape, that meanders from dense forest, to caves, canyons and lakes.
For Parents:
This game is definitely for older teens, and adults. Whilst there’s is only a small amount of violence, there is quite a bit of swearing/Cursing with the F word etc…so you have to be happy with that. It’s not very scary, but more thrilling in some parts.
I found it a wonderfully immersive game, with a great sense of humour, and an intriguing story line. Nice characterisation, and voice acting. If you like puzzle mystery games with an interesting narrative and exploration this might be a great game to share with your older teens. Take turns in operating the character and working out how to get from one side of the national park to the other, clicking on objects that reveal more about the characters as you go.
Highly Recommended.
Available from Steam for PC and also on Playstation.
See Firewatch Trailer below.
