Imagine being lonely. Not 'no dates for a year' kind of lonely. No, we're talking no physical human contact for days on end, with only a voice on the phone for company. Then, things start to get tense. Trust erodes. What would that do you? Firewatch aims to find out.
The indie game is coming next year from Campo Santo, a dev studio made up of people who worked on The Walking Dead, Mark of the Ninja, BioShock 2 and Gone Home. Players will be controlling Henry, a man who goes on a stint as a volunteer firewatch lookout in 1989 Wyoming after he makes a bunch of not-so-smart life choices. The only person he regularly talks to is Delilah, another lookout who works with him to help spot and end the incidents that can spark epically disastrous forest fires.
I saw a quick demo of the game's first ten minutes at PAX Prime last week and from what I've seen, Firewatch is at its core a game about how two people talk to each other. The chunk of Firewatch that I saw had Henry getting used to his surroundings in the watchtower while Delilah ribbed him. Their joking around was interrupted by a sudden blast of fireworks over the horizon. Lighting rockets in a national park is a big no-no and Delilah urged Henry to go investigate where and by whom the fireworks were being set off.
Reveal Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXxIn759i0A
Interview with Campo Santo including play footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysURxb7YMUw