![]() It lays waste to the character’s emotional interior and then that personal apocalypse launches into not the mechanics of the plot but instead, the character’s connection to and the necessity for the plot. It does not establish physical stakes, but rather, emotional stakes for one character. Firewatch on the other hand uses this opportunity not to set out a plot problem but rather, a character problem. What’s interesting with Firewatch is that we assume those initial story moments must be PLOT-focused, right? As in, SET UP THE PLOT PROBLEM WITH AN INCITING INCIDENT BECAUSE OH NO ROBOTS ARE GOING TO LASERBOMB THE SUPERBOWL. Those opening moments are an opportunity to chum the waters with narrative blood - then the audience comes swimming closer, looking for bait, and that’s when you draw in the net or use a gaff hook or something-something some-other-fishing-metaphor. ![]() Point is - you gotta get in early and make those first moments count. In a comic the first five panels - whatever. ![]() Maybe in your book it’s the first five pages. Here it’s the first five minutes, same as it might be with a film or a TV pilot. This leads us to our first lesson, actually - The Earliest Moments Matter Challenges that are purely emotional, that are difficult because adulthood is frequently about setting up expectations for yourself and yet sometimes, sometimes, those expectations are dashed against the rocks of reality until dead. Mature not in the sense of, OMG IT’S PEE PORN, but mature in the way that adult life sometimes throws challenges at you you would’ve never before imagined. I won’t spoil how this game opens, but I will say that the emotional collapse that awaits the character of Henry is one that is painfully adult in nature. It’s not even quite in the vein of UP, where you watch a man’s life and marriage zip by in fast-forward to an unfortunate, if inevitable, conclusion. Those first five minutes are harrowing not in a genre sense - it’s not like, OH, DANG, MY GIRLFRIEND WAS TAKEN AND KILLED BY NINJAS, NOOOOO, I WILL AVENGE YOU, BETTY-SUE. It’s also frequently beautiful in ways both visually and emotionally. It’s almost like being a house so empty it invites a haunting - and boy howdy, this game is haunting. You are an empty person waiting to be filled up. You as the player have been hollowed out much as your on-screen avatar, Henry, is hollowed out. This is an important moment, narratively. At their end, you are left gutted of your stuffing - and then, only then, does the game begin. The first five minutes of Firewatch are sweet until they are harrowing.
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