Firewatch is the first game from Campo Santo
A beautiful game with nostalgic art design, fantastic sound, and very good voice acting performances from Henry and Delilah.
Getting around the map proved to be a bit of a chore sometimes, simply because of the vastness of the environment. Getting lost is tedious, but lets be honest, hiking feels exactly like this feels. You get desperate to find the path to where you want go, and albeit to my annoyance, it makes total sense in creating drama. The FOV was fine for me, but I understand how subjective that can be. I loved the clean UI, this is how I personally get immersed into the world. I personally found myself looking at the map constantly and walking around with it instead of putting it away.
Fantastic instrumentals, sound layering was also fantastic. Both voice actors sound clear, the forest is alive as you wander about and I really enjoyed the subtle audio queues. I was so immersed the experience, having been in a long distance relationship for years, only communicating without being by each other's side hit home for me.
No spoilers here. Being the Henry you want to be is entirely up to you, and the voice acting does not suffer whether you are a vulnerable character or an outspoken one. It is a bit bizarre to play through it not uttering a word, which is possible and what I did during one of my own playthroughs seeking all possible endings.
I appreciated the quality of their banter, Delilah made the vast emptiness of the forest feel much smaller than it actually was. All this is well and good, but the ending kinda fluffs it a bit. I will admit that I was left wondering more than I felt any closure. One might say that I was even very upset at the ending. A few more lines of dialogue would have helped the ending at least not end on such a whimper.
I always gauge a "interactive narrative" game's quality by how much time I spend pondering about it after I've finished it, and this game has been doing exactly that. Coming to my own conclusions as to what exactly was going on, the intrigue, the mystery.. Going on forums to find answers. Giving me that feeling is the sign that these developers warranted the discounted launch price and a recommendation from me. I got my fill and enjoyed the journey, summer ended and it was time to move on.