Videogames have a dearth of good Americana. We're lacking many games about exploring the frontier, or living in a dead-end town; those small, slice of life stories that that rely on mood and setting to portray a facet of what it means to be a normal person living in the isolated parts of the United States.
That's why I'm so excited for Firewatch, a first-person narrative game developed by Campo Santo, a small independent team of industry veterans based out of San Francisco. (Formerly, founders Jake Rodkin and Sean Vanaman led the development and writing of Telltale Games' acclaimed adventure game version of The Walking Dead.) Even more exciting, a release date was just announced: the game will be available February 9, 2016, on Windows, Mac, Linux, and PlayStation 4.
Firewatch takes place in the Wyoming wilderness. You play as Henry, a Colorado native who takes a job as a fire lookout in the middle of nowhere to escape his failing marriage and generally collapsing personal life. Henry's only companion is Delilah, his supervisor, available through a small handheld radio. Other than that, it's just him, the orange rays of the sun, and whiffs of smoke in the evening air. Or so he thinks: the few hints of plot shown focus on a mystery of a strange, possibly dangerous man who keeps appearing in the distance.
