Firewatch, which comes out for PC and Playstation 4 Feb. 9, is the first game from indie studio Campo Santo. Set in the late 1980s, it tells the tale of Henry, a woebegone fire lookout trying to escape the emotional toll of a ruined marriage. (Henry is voiced by Mad Men actor Rich Sommer.) It’s also absolutely gorgeous. TIME games critic Matt Peckham writes in his review of Firewatch:
I love the audacity of a game like Firewatch. Not just its grand WPA-style look, but Campo Santo’s attempt to lay out a quasi-open-world experience that’s not about fighting or collecting or “beating” anything, and where the action-adventure premise slyly becomes an experience tuned more to the frequency of a Raymond Carver or Richard Ford story. … Ultimately we need more games like this, not fewer.
Check out a few minutes of gameplay above.
More Must-Reads from TIME
- Why Trump’s Message Worked on Latino Men
- What Trump’s Win Could Mean for Housing
- The 100 Must-Read Books of 2024
- Sleep Doctors Share the 1 Tip That’s Changed Their Lives
- Column: Let’s Bring Back Romance
- What It’s Like to Have Long COVID As a Kid
- FX’s Say Nothing Is the Must-Watch Political Thriller of 2024
- Merle Bombardieri Is Helping People Make the Baby Decision
Write to Matt Peckham at matt.peckham@time.com