Campo Santo: In the Valley of Gods
If you’re as much a fan of first person adventure games as I am, then you were probably really excited when Firewatch first came out. The developers over at Campo Santo really know how to immerse the player in a richly told story with intriguing voice acting. Last year, they announced their second game, In the Valley of Gods. Being an independent studio, money can be hard to come by to fund future projects. Currently, the game is set to come out sometime in 2019. Fortunately, both Valve and Campo Santo announced that they would be working together as the small indie studio makes the move to Seattle. Of course, being a local, I was pretty excited. Hopefully this also confirms Half Life 3. Just kidding…mostly.
Before we get into the meat of the trailer for Campo Santo’s new game, I have a funny little story. Coincidentally, I text a friend who I dance with and asked him what he was up to. He told me he was in Hawaii for a retreat with Valve. My next question was if the Campo Santo guys were there and he replied with, “no ones supposed to know that yet,” so I kept it a secret for all of four hours before Sean Vanaman and Jake Rodkin made it public.
Life is funny sometimes and I have now realized I’m a psychic. Anyway, below is the trailer for In the Valley of Gods. Check it out, and we’ll take a closer look.
Set in the 1920’s, along with a partner, you explore the rich history and mysterious land of Egypt with a camera hoping to uncover the secrets of the land. Side note, I’m loving all these games centered around Ancient Egypt, and by all I mean like three. The trailer begins with a black and white film reel of the rolling sand dunes as you and your partner ride away on camels. Then the view is expanded to show even more…well, sand. We are then shown a montage of scenes with you exploring tombs. Even though this game is not related to Firewatch, I’m sure we can expect the same level of voice acting as well as our character having their own voice, which was one of my favorite things about the previous game.
If you remember the story throughout Firewatch, it kept you guessing until pretty much the end of the game. Is the government involved? Conspiracy theories galore! Then we were met with an anti climactic ending but that was ok because it fit for who the characters were and what the story was. With the time period and location of In the Valley of Gods, we could potentially see some supernatural events occur. One can only hope. Do you have any thoughts on what the story could be about?
From what I can tell watching the trailer, you seem to be racing against the clock. By the end of the trailer, we see the two characters racing to the top of a structure just as the sun is coming up. Gettin’ that golden hour sunshine for some selfies. If this game is anything like Firewatch in the way it was written, it will be interesting to see what mystery there is. The tone of the trailer suggests urgency, especially with the song Muddy Waters by LP playing throughout it. Either way, this is all we know and can speculate about what is to come. I personally am very excited to get my hands on the finished product. If you’re a fan of the indie developer community, be sure to follow their journey. I’ll link their website below so you can add it to your wish-list if you so desire. Until next time!
