Firewatch review: Getting lost in the remote wilderness and loving it

In most games, you'd expect this lake to hide a hideous monster you have to kill. Not in Firewatch...

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I'm not a big fan of getting lost... mainly because I do it so often. In the real world, if I'm not being actively guided by a GPS voice or a human navigator, I generally end up hopelessly off course. In games (especially first-person games), I usually need a detailed mini-map or a big, flashing arrow pointing me in precisely the direction I need to go. Otherwise, I tend to meander around the game world, trying in vain to remember which paths I've already tried and which landmarks I've already seen.

Yet I didn't really mind getting lost in Firewatch. In fact, by the time I made it to the game's somewhat abrupt end, I found myself wishing I'd had more opportunities to get lost in its detailed, well-built wilderness.

Getting lost is incredibly easy in Firewatch's intimate sliver of national forest. Instead of a mini-map or a bright flashing arrow, protagonist Henry gets a compass and a less-than-detailed paper map that he has to physically hold in front of him to even see where he is (you can turn off the flashing red dot that pinpoints your location on the map if you want to really test your navigation abilities).

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