Firewatch – The Beginning

This game caught my attention from its very first sentence. The imperative tone that it used to guide a player was interesting enough for me to decide that this game would be worth my time. Having various options of dialogue created an illusion of choice that kept the introduction interactive instead of being a plain, boring narrative.
The cute story with a bitter end opened was revealed in front of my eyes and helped me understand the main character, Henry. Soon enough I realized that he is the one from who’s perspective I will be progressing through the game. It was a nice change from Dear Esther and Gone Home since I got to know the background story before I began the game. This made me feel more connected to Henry and I actually started caring about his well-being as the game began. What also caught my attention was the style in which the game is presented. While Henry’s story is something that could easily happen in real life, the world around him is shown to be very cartoon-like. The colorful surroundings and cartoon like appearance of the main character (I could only see his hands, but still) made it hard for me to take the game seriously at first. However there were some aspects that made this game way more realistic than Dear Esther or Gone Home combined, one of them navigating yourself through the forest. I never realized that it would be so difficult to find my way around with a campus and a poorly drawn map.