4/3/2023 0 Comments Firewatch lets play![]() ![]() Within that grey area anything can be real, which also means anything can be a deception. The familiar becomes unknown as you find yourself surrounded by terrible possibilities, all equally plausible. ![]() The first person narrator is alone and unreliable, his circumstances are intangible, and you are given multiple reasons to doubt even the existence of the trees around you. The entire game builds to a climactic point of existential doubt in which a fully immersed player becomes incapable of determining anything about the game’s reality. The only real monster in Firewatch is your imagination.įear of the unknown is the greatest horror, and in Firewatch, the unknown takes a special, all encompassing form. It allows the player to soak in all sorts of bone chilling, potentially supernatural possibilities before exposing them to a single harsh reality. Firewatch uses a well worn story mechanic wielded by genre masters like Poe and Lovecraft, gradually working on the player’s mind like a narrative mental thumbscrew. The Wyoming forest that serves as the game’s setting is definitely what drew me in, but the mystery at its core kept me glued to the controller (I played on the PS4) as if I were in an interactive horror novel. These were the images that best represented my attempt at a career in fire safety.įirewatch’s aesthetic beauty is overshadowed by its palpable sense of mounting terror and that’s why the experience is so effective. Instead, I had pictures of a wrecked campsite, evidence that I was being actively stalked and harassed, and even a child’s corpse. While I’d had opportunities to snap shots of numerous breathtaking sunsets and a little turtle I named Shelley Duvall, nothing in the camera roll focused on the good. Beside the scrolling names of the video game geniuses at Campo Santo-the ones responsible for Firewatch-were the photos from the disposable camera I’d been using to document my adventure. When the credits rolled after my virtual summer job as a fire lookout in Shoshone National Forest, I realized how horrific the whole thing actually was. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |