A journey through the mystery of an excellent script and well-written characters: Firewatch
I've been jumping from indie to indie for a while now looking for all kinds of offers that lead me to productions like Firewatch, small games that take advantage of their limitations to offer a completely new, personal and introspective experience where the forest so imposing from the first minute is the scenario we need to give us a personal journey and reflect through various experiences that happen to us in the forest, we start writing a novel while taking a job in a guard post with the initial objective of warning about possible fires that seem to be common in the forest, as this is only an initial goal for us to embark on a journey through the subconscious and our character: Henry, who has come to this job looking for some personal peace and time to write a novel, the job at first seems boring but is that Firewatch is focused on another type of drama, the human or the one that is achieved between what we discover about the past of the protagonist and about our boss who turns out to be an excellent guide for each of the concepts that are touched in the plot.
Firewatch is written in a very particular way, we are alone in the middle of the forest in daily guard sessions where not much happens but we always have the voice of our boss Delilah that helps a lot with their conversations to go giving a background to why we are where we are and our motivation to be there, this and a very detailed and well written script is enough to give us a story that has no waste, with only a radio and a Walkie-tokie characters are developed more than with long scenes, and is that in much of the story we keep in conversation with Delilah only by radio while we embark on small open worlds where we have to meet some basic objectives as a guardian of the forest, although I must say that this section of the game often seems an excuse to keep us hooked to a brilliant script that explodes by being unconventional and dynamic as we move forward.
Do not expect great game mechanics in Firewatch, in each new level as I said we are put in a kind of open world with a compass, a map and a walkie-tolkie, essential elements of an explorer in a game where it concentrates all its mechanics in being a walking simulator with small tasks that are interspersed in each of the missions we have, There are several sections where exploration is present as well as occasions where we can do other types of activities such as climbing or using tools, but in general the gameplay mechanics of the title are based on accompanying the plot and its mystery, that does not mean that it is a journey that does not deserve our attention.
The design of this game is groundbreaking, I think what I like most about the game is simply to stay in the tower and watch the horizon because the graphics and designs in Firewatch are of the highest level combining nature and its different perspectives with a treaty of light that surrounds each scene and makes it iconic, from sunrises to when we are walking at night in the moonlight, it is simply the section that highlights the game especially if we have the chance to play it at its highest performance, the aura of mystery that has each scene makes the designs stand out even more and have us always immersed in the game.
Despite being a game where there are only two characters around a mystery in the forest there is a lot of tension and not just because of what happens on the screen, the conversations have that touch of sarcasm and double entendre in which always one of the two characters try to get ahead of the other while sharing snippets of their stories until we can have a clearer perspective of their intentions, both Delilah and Henry are characters that have much development through their conversations and that opens a little more the mystery of what happens in Firewatch, the human drama is present from the moment we grab the radio and is always a constant if we add the plot of the forest, the past of our protagonists and the daily occurrences that happen in the forest, Firewatch is a fairly short and contained title so it is one of those experiences that I would recommend for those who are starting to get into this whole world of indies, an introspective adventure into the minds of two characters and a mystery of mystery in between.
