E3: Firewatch Shown at Sony Press Conference

Sony continues to demonstrate its support for indie games by showing a new trailer from developer Campo Santo’s Firewatch. With an overwhelming flood of games with huge set pieces, violent deaths and world ending cataclysms, Firewatch takes it slow in this charming new indie title.

If you are not familiar with Firewatch it is a first person exploration game (FPX) which allows the player to explore the environment of a national park. The game follows the protagonist as he prevents fires and deals with teenage hooligans while on patrol. Firewatch can be narratively compared to the likes of Gone Home and Everyone’s Gone to the Rapture in that depending on the way that you explore the environment can reveal more about the story and the situation that your character finds himself in.

What makes this game special is the branching paths that our protagonist Henry can have with his supervisor Delilah. Depending on the way that you carry and shift conversations with her, the player can change their relationship and have it blossom in to something strong or allow them to become confrontational with each other. The prospect of creating a relationship with another character is exciting because some of the greatest games out there have great characters with strong relationships between them; The Last of Us, Half-Life and Portal are among the great games out there that not only play well but allow for intimate narratives by showing how two characters can either grow apart or closer together. That coupled with a gorgeous art style and an overall charming presentation has caused Firewatch to catch my attention. A release date has yet to be given for the game.