Name of game, creator, platform
For this week’s critical play, I chose to play Firewatch by Campo Santo on the Nintendo Switch.
Target Audience
I would say the game is intended for mature audiences. The beginning of the game touches on some pretty mature topics relating to grief and alcoholism. However, the only mature topics for the rest (the main) part of the game are some implied nudity and vulgar language. The game also received a PEGI rating of 16 meaning the game is rated for ages 16 and up.
Analysis
Firewatch is a first-person, embedded narrative game that follows a man named Henry as he works at a fire watch outpost station in Wyoming. Each day, new events occur that prompt the user to explore the map and uncover more about the mysterious events in the game. Since the game is a walking sim, the walking mechanic is the primary tool that the user utilizes to discover the world around them. The game utilizes this mechanic to develop interaction loops and arcs throughout the story. For example, on the first day, Henry is trying to figure out who is lighting fireworks in the forest. He must find a rope to grapple down a cliffside to reach the hooligans lighting fireworks. From then on, the player no longer views cliffs as a barrier, rather, they view it as a possible path as long as they have a rope.
Later in the game, Henry discovers a backpack with rope and states that he will have enough rope to use on every cliff. Now, the player’s ways to traverse the forest have matured, completing the interaction loop. The rope is one of many items that are learned in interaction loops in Firewatch as a result of the walking mechanic. The game also creates arcs through the walking mechanic. As the player walks around, they learn more about the mysteries in the world around them through notes and other remnants in the forest. The walking drives this story development, and at the end of the game, the player learns that the person causing the mysterious events was a past fire lookout devastated by the death of his son. Without the walking mechanic, the player would not be able to tie the locations and artifacts together to solve the mystery arcs given by the embedded narrative.
