This is an old bit of game design doing something new: it’s building character, adding color commentary, and pushing the story forward all at once. Looking at any interactable object or an interesting location prompts Henry with the option to pull out the walkie talkie and talk to Delilah, with multiple dialogue choices that reflect how you want to play the character. Imagine the bits of commentary you got in classic point-and-click adventure games from looking at every object in the environment-protagonists like Monkey Island’s Guybrush Threepwood would talk to themselves, or you, the player-but turn that commentary into a conversation. I did brush up against the edges of this little chunk of the game world, thick patches of trees and brush that blocked off my exploration, but these blockades still felt, more or less, like natural parts of the forest.įirewatch further spills out of its container when you start talking to Delilah. It’s the kind of thing you may not even notice because it feels natural, but that’s the trick, isn’t it? In the area I played, Firewatch’s designers managed to balance the openness of a natural environment with the necessity of pushing you towards important places. Gullies and canyons that funnel you to and from more open areas, chunky rock outcroppings that are identifiably climbable while still looking natural, paths that diverge and reconnect to give you multiple ways to move from one story point to another. So, back to that unusual shape: part of it comes from the subtly of Firewatch’s level design.
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