FIREWATCH: ATMOSPHERIC INDIE GAME FOR SUMMER EVENINGS – COZY AND TOUCHING

May 31, 2021

If many moviegoers have a tradition every summer to revise all parts of “Harry Potter” or let it be “Society of Dead Poets”, then gamers are also accustomed to celebrating evenings with no less atmospheric games. Some of them prefer to play live dealer casino Canada games, some of them prefer indie games. One of such atmospheric games we want to introduce you to!

Henry’s wife was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. When the disease progresses, the girl is taken into custody by her parents (they seem to dislike her daughter’s husband). Left all alone, Henry takes a job as a firefighter in the Shoshone National Forest – not so much to occupy his thoughts as to escape from problems and spend several months in solitude with nature. And also with Delilah – the caretaker of another tower and the only person with whom Henry, at least remotely, by radio, can maintain contact, being a hundred miles from civilization and his sick wife.

Firewatch is set in 1989, a year after one of the largest wildfires in Yellowstone Park history. Inside Henry’s observation tower are scattered books in bright covers, crosswords, a typewriter, and thermoses of coffee. Outside, there are solid trees and annoying squirrels. Firewatch is a classic “walking simulator” in which there is little to do but a lot of things going on. While doing household chores (fixing the transmission line, driving the teenagers out of the park), we periodically get in touch with Delilah: we discuss what we have seen, share personal stories and joke a little. In general, all we do is wander and chat – a kind of psychotherapy session in the most depressive stage of Henry’s life.

Firewatch also has a kind of meditative effect on players. The whole game is based on intimate, almost therapeutic conversations that help to understand what Henry is doing. True, the idyll does not last long, and over time, strange things begin to happen in the peaceful forest: either on a night walk, someone shines a flashlight in Henry’s face and runs away, or someone throws a stone into the window of the observation tower. Teenagers again? Or maybe someone else lives in the park besides Henry?

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