Campo Santo has a bit of a help-me guide for gamers who want to take the Firewatch experience to the next level and utilize a real life map to help them get through Shoshone and navigate the forest as the lookout, Henry.
Game Informer is reporting that there's a free map download over on the official Campo Santo website, where gamers can either grab hold of a “clean” printable map or a “textured” printable map from the website.
Over on the site they suggest maybe playing the game with a friend and having your friend work as a navigation co-pilot, directing you where to go in the map and how to get around the forest. To make things even more challenging, they suggest turning off the little beacon on the map that says “You are here”. This way players will have to use their own wits and navigational wherewithal to find their way around Wyoming's Shoshone forest and get from one location to the next.
Firewatch has generally received a lot of praise for the way it combines narrative storytelling and navigational exploration. A lot of gamers also loved the interactions between Henry and Delilah, feeling as if the game really came to life thanks to their natural interactions and how well their dialogue bounced off each other.
One of the interesting things about the game is also how it was designed. Campo Santo showcased some of the behind-the-scenes elements of Firewatch for the PC and PS4, showcasing how Henry was animated for the first-person perspective. Game Informer put together all of the little separate tweets which show how deformed Henry really is when viewed in third-person.
This is a common design technique given that in most non-multiplayer first-person games you'll never see the main character so the world view model is a deformed character designed to react and interact with things only as far as the player view is concerned. This oftentimes results in the character being rather strange, double-jointed or just a polygonal freak of nature. In games like Call of Duty, Counter-Strike or Half-Life they put a lot more time and focus on the world-view models since other players will see the characters and you obviously can't have monstrous freaks running around.
Anyway, if you want to take your Firewatch experience to the next level and you want to utilize a real life map to help you navigate the forest, you can do so right now by hitting up the official website and printing out the two different versions. If you really want to get serious about it you can grab a red marker and make checkpoints on the map after you print it out to help you navigate along the way.
Firewatch is available right now for the PlayStation 4 and for PC. You can grab the game rightn ow from participating digital distributors.
