The mood of the forest changes too, from a safe, solitary place to somewhere where you feel like you’re being watched.

Just as you’ve settled into the easy rhythm of Henry’s new life, you’re faced with a series of unnerving experiences, and the change is quite jarring. What begins as a gentle David Attenborough documentary suddenly turns into an episode of Lost, and the pace gets more fraught as a result. A series of strange events, including a brief glimpse of a shadowy figure in the woods, sets a mystery in motion that shifts the tone of the game dramatically. A joke is always waiting if things get too saccharine.īut this calm can’t last forever, and it’s not long before your daily routine is interrupted. And the dialogue is touching, but never feels cloying or forced. The way their relationship grows, and how they comfort each other at low points, is wonderfully written, even though they communicate entirely by walkie-talkie. Cissy Jones, who plays Delilah, is great too, and the chemistry between the two characters is one of the highlights of the game. He has a wry, self-effacing sense of humour, and I enjoyed spending time with him. Henry is played by Rich Sommer-Mad Men's Harry Crane, TV fans-and his performance is superbly understated and naturalistic. You never see his face, but his limbs alone have more personality than some entire characters in other games. Everything happens in the first-person, and I love the chunky, expressive animations of Henry’s arms and stubby, hairy legs as he scrambles up rocky cliffs, picks things up and examines them, and reclines at his desk. It’s more about story, ambience, and exploration than any kind of challenge. There are some problems to overcome in the wilds, like abseiling down shale slides with climbing ropes, locating supply caches, and finding ways around impassable areas, but it’s not a taxing game at all.

And although you’re almost always in conversation with Delilah, there are some sections of quiet where you can enjoy the game’s excellent environmental audio design. This limited use of scoring makes the times when the music does come in more special, because you know its arrival heralds something emotional, dramatic, or revelatory. A stylish, minimal soundtrack by Gone Home composer Chris Remo uses sparse layers of electric guitar and bass to give weight to important moments, but most of the time all you can hear is the sound of nature around you: trickling streams, rustling leaves, the quiet howl of the wind, squawking birds.

Firewatch game rating