Campo Santo's upcoming indie game Firewatch is largely driven by its narrative, a mystery surrounding the rookie park ranger protagonist. But with such a wide and stunning setting as the Wyoming wilderness as your backdrop, it's a good idea to throw in some exploration and navigation mechanics as well.
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A new set of gifs from the Campo Santo blog shows this wilderness exploration in action as Henry hikes, climbs and rappels through the national park he now protects.
Judging by what we've seen of the gameplay so far, the wilderness looks like a joy to explore, and the climbing and rappelling mechanics make sure that exploration is not limited to just walking around for lengths of time. The art style seems realistic enough to be engaging to the player (and be completely lovely to boot) while having enough cartoon elements to avoid crossing over into that uncanny valley.
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Firewatch has developed a very strong orange and blue color scheme thanks to the changes in time of day the game will incorporate. According to the developers, the game won't have dynamically changing times of day, meaning you won't be able to just sit around and wait for the sun to go down. Rather, the game has specific times of the day for specific story events to happen, so the player will be able to explore Wyoming in various light conditions – morning, evening and night – throughout the course of the game.
In Firewatch, the player takes on the role of Henry, a rookie park ranger who left his life behind to begin work in a Wyoming national park. The first-person game is largely narrative based as the player controls how the relationship between Henry and his supervisor Delilah evolves over time. The game also has an underlying mystery narrative that reappears throughout the game.
Firewatch is planned to be released for PCs in 2015.
