Posted on: January 2, 2017
Shantih1
Possesseur vérifiéJeux: Avis: 17
Beautiful interactive fiction
Firewatch fits into a genre which some call a walking sim but which I prefer to think of as interactive fiction; it shares more with a good novel or binge watching a great TV show then it does a traditional game. In the case of Firewatch, the story is one which contrasts the idea of escape versus escapism. Are you as the main character running away from your problems, moving on from them or taking a break? Interactive fiction succeeds best when the visuals, sound design and interface are focused on emphasizing the core themes of the story. Firewatch is a great example of this: the setting of a US national park has been designed to not be photo-realistic, but to be a sculpted, beautiful location with a wall implemented day / night cycle where you could easily spend your time wandering off the beaten track and taking photos of sunrises and sunsets rather than engaging with the story at hand. The main game mechanic of a relationship between two characters through radios is a clever way of bringing human interactivity into the story without losing its sense of isolation. Ultimately, there does have to be incident to propel the narrative and its here where Firewatch stumbles. Like Gone Home before it, Firewatch relies on utilizing tropes to create a certain mood. And this is where the disappointment in interactive fiction can sometimes set in: tropes are more of a tease than a promise. I feel that Firewatch's tropes could have been better chosen; a paranoid thriller makes sense but only on a smaller, more human level. Firewatch chooses to play with the idea of an overarching Government conspiracy complete with Alien-style tracking device and it suffers while that thread is played out. But the core story works beautifully and so Firewatch succeeds. More then that, it succeeds in living out the promise of interactive fiction and embodying its theme of escape vs. escapism. I spent hours letting the story idle, just wandering the trails at sunset with my in-game camera.
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