Firewatch game based off of which forest full#
The colorful palette of these games is an act of defiance against the miserable sea of greys and browns - the busted-up cars used for cover and the concrete buildings full of enemies - that had come to define gaming through the Call of Duty titles and its action shooter brothers. Here are a few common defining characteristics: minimal gameplay beyond walking and interacting with objects a soundtrack consisting of soft piano or acoustic guitar music god rays colorful environments and breathtaking landscapes audio log style voiceovers and, above all, an 'issue' - cancer, suicide, addiction, child abuse, sexuality, or even early-onset dementia - something to let the player know that they're playing an important game as opposed to something frivolous or gratuitous.
That's not to say that AAA action games aren't emotional or compelling - many a gamer has shed tears over the death of Aerith in Final Fantasy VII or Dom's wife Maria in Gears of War 2 - but over the past few years the 'games with feelings' niche has developed into its own highly specific subgenre - the gaming equivalent of Oscar bait. Delilah alternates between asking probing questions about Henry's life and flirting shamelessly, and the two trade jokes and banter in a fierce attempt to win the player's affection before the game's four-hour campaign is over.Īlong the way, it quickly becomes clear that Firewatch belongs to a growing genre of video games that are attempting to meet the challenge of creating emotional gameplay. The real "emotional lifeline" (Campo Santo's words) in the game is Delilah, Henry's boss, who communicates with him exclusively by walkie-talkie as he roams the forest, stomping out campfires and confiscating fireworks. To Firewatch's credit, Julia isn't the only woman in Henry's life. Ironically, the Companion Cube is actually a more compelling companion than many of the characters that have ended up becoming part of Dead Wife Mountain. The trope is so well-established that puzzle platformer Portal actually parodied it way back in 2007 - presenting the player with a "Weighted Companion Cube" (literally just a cube with some hearts on it), telling them to carry the Companion Cube through a single puzzle room, and then forcing the player to "euthanize" the Companion Cube in an incinerator at the end of the level. Basically, if a game starts with the protagonist having a cute or romantic moment with his love interest, it's a pretty safe bet that the love interest will be in a coffin (or the plot equivalent of a coffin) before the tutorial is over. But as demand for higher quality video game narratives has grown, the industry has been rising up on wobbly, coltish legs to try and meet the challenge.įirewatch initially elects one of the cheapest and most common tactics for creating character impetus: give the protagonist a wife or girlfriend (it's almost always a wife or girlfriend - husbands and boyfriends are the extremely rare exception to the rule), spend the minimum amount of time possible establishing a relationship, and then kill/maim/kidnap the wife or girlfriend. After all, it's not as though this task is a prerequisite of the format Tetris didn't require the player to really care about the wellbeing of the L-block, and when Mario falls down a pit in Super Mario World the player's anguish is directed at the fact that they have to start the level all over again, not at poor Mario's demise (no offense, Mario).
Sure enough, in no time at all Julia gets struck down with early onset dementia and, depending on the player's choice, either gets shipped off to her family in Australia or shipped off to a care home.Īs a relatively young medium, video games are still trying to get to grips with the science of eliciting emotion from the player - at least, an emotion that isn't aggression or excitement or some combination of the two.
Firewatch game based off of which forest series#
Over the next ten minutes or so, the text prologue hurries through Julia and Henry's relationship with a series of touching anecdotes (they decide to get a rescue dog from the pound, they talk about having children etc.) until it's glaringly obvious that the whole exercise is leading up to Julia dying or having something equally horrible happen to her.
Fortunately she is charmed by this, and soon she and Henry are dating. The player is told the story of how they meet Julia, and embarrass themselves in front of her by being drunk. Julia is the future wife of the game's protagonist, Henry. Firewatch, the new mystery exploration game from Campo Santo, opens with a text prologue in which the player is introduced to Julia.