10 Video Games That Immediately DEVASTATE You
2. Firewatch
Anyone who has seen Disney Pixar’s Up knows that it's possible to tell the emotional rollercoaster of a relationship in the first ten minutes and have your audience already feeling tender before the story has truly started.
Firewatch, the 2016 adventure game from Campo Santo, does a very similar thing with even less.
The game starts with one simple line of text, “you see Julia”, and from there takes the player on a text-based story of love and heartbreak. Given choices on how to approach each situation, the player takes part in their first meeting with Julia, moving in together and even the first pet they buy together. As with any relationship though there are tough decisions to make and the player is eventually faced with the crushing reality of Julia’s early on-set dementia.
Interspersed with the player character Henry arriving for his new job at Shoshone National Park in the aftermath of this and set to soft, beautiful piano tones, it’s a credit to the written word how powerful this intro is. Even better, when Firewatch truly begins the player has already formed a bond with their avatar Henry by making these choices and experiencing his painfully realistic struggles.