Although as adults we all get desensitized and we could say\u2026rather jaded, sometimes, if you\u2019ve had the sort of literary upbringing that I\u2019ve had, you may eventually hunger for something beyond the sorts of gaming conventions that are churned out these days. Sprinting around a corner to evade a rocket fired at you, leaping from impossibly high heights in order to pounce upon legions of thugs, shooting combatants over smoldering battlefields and reducing them to piles of gibs, or commanding some vast fantasy army or space armada into a martial collision of units with foes, in order to see who will be the ultimate, supreme ruler\u2014games have more or less devolved into violent, action-oriented conflicts with very little in the way of variation or tonality.<\/p>\n Granted, I do appreciate the new wave of survival horror games, such as the ones ushered in by the Penumbra <\/em>series. Not being able to arm yourself and fight back against various horrible entities really does allow for folks to concentrate a little more on a storyline (granted there is one) and think about one\u2019s actions a little more carefully before taking action. But still, they are basically games where things are eventually resolved through violence.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why it\u2019s refreshing to see new games in the ever-growing FPX genre, games like upstart studio, Campo Santo\u2019s, Firewatch <\/em>come to fruition, and shine. It\u2019s the perfect example of a game that puts its writing front and center, lain bare of distractive clutter and boisterous sound and fury. Firewatch<\/em> is a game with such enthralling writing and plot elements that it doesn\u2019t have to hide behind artificially contrived bluster and blaring action sequences. It takes storytelling back to story-telling. This should be as no surprise since Firewatch<\/em> was forged by some of the same creative leads that made Telltale\u2019s The Walking Dead<\/em> series\u2014another brilliant, story-driven gaming experience.<\/p>\n In Firewatch<\/em>, players step into the well-worn boots of Henry, a volunteer fire watchman, during a summertime gig in the aftermath of the Yellowstone fires of the late 80s. Surprisingly, Firewatch<\/em> doesn\u2019t start you off in a forest nor atop a hill, but rather in a college bar where Henry met his sweetheart Julia. From there you\u2019re taken on an emotional rollercoaster ride over the next half an hour or so, and this intense prologue almost functions as an entirely independent story, detailing the happiness, despair, and genuinely fascinating relationship that progresses.<\/p>\n Things then shift to the retro-present, where Henry stands fire watch over the Shoshone National Forest, deep in the Wyoming wilderness. When Henry eventually sallies forth from his watch tower, you find out that his surrounding environment is a lonely one (I mean come on-its Wyoming for Heaven\u2019s sakes), with only a few oddball characters lurking around on the fringes of his existence. The game really conveys a sense of loneliness and isolation which is, in my opinion, is a pre-requisite for any great horror or mystery film, book, game, or verbal story.<\/p>\n Henry spends much of his time traversing through and exploring the beautiful and rugged Wyoming wilderness and conversing with his supervisor, Delilah, via his walkie-talkie. Thankfully, Henry\u2019s only starting \u201cweapons\u201d are his wits, some clues, a map, a compass, and the aforementioned walkie-talkie. While he chats with Delilah he roams this way and that, scaring off drunken teens and checking out bizarre emergency calls which occur over the course of the summer of 1989. As the first mysterious act concludes, players are introduced to the basic gameplay mechanics and are given a few additional tools such as a backpack full of (no spoilers here) let\u2019s just say\u2026other items.<\/p>\n Gamers looking for more of a Tomb Raider<\/em>-esque cinematic blockbuster experience will be let down here, as there are no arrows to be shot through craniums, or raucous platforming puzzles to be conquered. And yes, that means there is no combat\u2026at all (okay minor spoiler).\u00a0<\/em>Forget Rise of the Tomb Raider <\/em>this is Rise of the FPX. Firewatch\u2019s<\/em> plot is narrative driven and unfolds in a more organic way that makes sense, as opposed to more of the \u201chit that thing there, which triggers that, and then that happens\u201d -type of forced triggers. The focus is all on the story here, which is fine by me, and I\u2019m sure others will find it equally intriguing.<\/p>\n What I really enjoyed about Firewatch<\/em> is that it starts off very tranquilly, and it was both calming and reassuring to take Henry along various jaunts through the wilderness. As the story progresses, the game\u2019s tension is ratcheted up gradually by degrees (couldn\u2019t resist the pun) until Henry is scrambling around, rushing all over the countryside while trying to figure out if a mysterious figure is stalking him, or if he\u2019s just losing his mind and going bonkers. The forest progressively becomes darker and more foreboding to match the decline in comfort and safety\u2014clouds of ash and smoke begin to drift into the woods and once-familiar landmarks become hazy and indecipherable. I won\u2019t spoil anything from there, but suffice it to say that some really dramatic, cliff-hanger happenings, jump off near the end.<\/p>\n Firewatch\u2019s <\/em>visuals are exceptionally well-handled, and impress even on mid-range gaming PCs. The lonely Wyoming wilderness is beautifully rendered with a creative, almost dream-like brush, and prove that you don\u2019t have to have ultra-realistic graphics to make a game visually impressive, or expressive for that matter. The ambient sounds are also excellent (and sometimes eerie) and with my headphones on, it almost seemed like I was listening to a calming New Age nature soundtrack or something. The voice acting was top notch as well, and no one had any sort of annoying valley girl, uptalk, or vocal fry accents going on, so you could actually understand what the characters were saying for once.<\/p>\n Firewatch<\/em> bumps the entire FPX genre up to a new level with its strong storytelling, razor-sharp writing, charming graphics, and no-need-for-violence gameplay, focusing on its story instead. It marks an exciting time in the gaming industry, a new path that has been taken which others are (fortunately!) following, with games like What Remains of Edith Finch, Adrift<\/em>, and Tacoma<\/em> looming just around the corner. It\u2019s an enthralling, original experience that I think anyone who enjoys a good mystery should pick up and play.<\/p>\n SCORE: 90%<\/p>\n Kane\u2019s Conclusion:<\/p>\n Firewatch\u2019s <\/em>visuals are best enjoyed with a modern gaming PC or gaming laptop in order to fully pull you into its immersive mystery:<\/p>\n Visit CyberpowerPC\u2019s website<\/a> to check out all of the other great deals as well!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Firewatch Campo Santo Let me start this review off by letting all of you know that I\u2019ve played quite a few First Person Exploration games (or FPX\u2019s for short) recently, including Dear Esther, The Stanley Parable, and the spectacular Gone Home. To be quite frank, as I\u2019ve gotten older I\u2019ve really hungered for games such… Read More »Firewatch Review \u2013 Rise of the FPX<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":5558,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2732],"tags":[2520,2560,2562,741,2561,2559,2488,2527,67,2486,2524,1791],"class_list":["post-5550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-games","tag-4k-gaming","tag-adventure-games","tag-campo-santo","tag-cyberpower-pc","tag-firewatch","tag-fpx-games","tag-game-review","tag-game-reviews-2","tag-gaming-pc","tag-ian-kane","tag-laptop-gaming","tag-pc-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5550"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5557,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5550\/revisions\/5557"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Courtesy](\"http:\/\/www.cpgaming.gg\/w\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/11-915x514.jpg\")
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