The Power of Story in Uncharted 4 and Firewatch

These are two vastly different games, but they both tell incredibly powerful stories

I play a small-to-moderate amount of video games every year, games that are normally either from a trusted studio or simply happen to catch my eye as the year passes. I don’t have the time or money to play every game I want to, so I try to budget both of these resources for titles that look truly exceptional or unique.

I played Firewatch and Uncharted 4 within a week of one another this summer (both made my list), and I was absolutely floored by each game. Despite coming from dramatically different backgrounds, both games presented beautifully told stories, and it was their storytelling — more than anything else — that set them apart.

Firewatch was released in February of this year, created by Campo Santo, an independent game studio based in San Francisco. Players control the character Henry in the game, a middle-aged man who is trying to escape (or recover from) tumultuous personal problems by spending a summer working as a fire lookout in a Wyoming forest. The story is told through exploration of the (real) Shoshone National Forest, as Henry hikes around following various objectives. Almost all of the game is spent communicating with another fire lookout by walkie-talkie, a game mechanic that results in startlingly poignant and moving conversations.

Firewatch has received notable critical acclaim, earning a 9.3/10 from IGN, while also attracting an enormous amount of internet attention. I loved every second that I spent playing this game, a success that comes from the beauty of the story that it tells. The voice acting and writing are both phenomenal, driving an emotionally resonant story through the beautiful setting of the Wyoming wilderness. Perhaps the best indicator of the game’s quality is that when I finished it, I was left wanting more for several days.

At first glance, Firewatch seems to be as different as possible from Uncharted 4. Published by Sony and setting PlayStation sales records, the fourth installment of the Uncharted series is a big-budget action game that is filled with the many gunfights, explosions, and action sequences that marked its three predecessors. Uncharted 4 has the feel of a big-budget action movie, a feel that is almost the antithesis of Firewatch.

Despite these seeming differences though, Uncharted 4 tells a beautiful story as well, one that is marked by excellent writing and voice acting. The Uncharted games always told their (admittedly) somewhat outlandish stories well, but the storytelling in the latest entry overshadows everything in the series to this point. The writers place a premium on character development, examining the game’s protagonist, Nathan Drake, in a light that calls into question the value of his constant ambition and exploration. While this game, like all its peers, involves a quest for treasure and a ruthless villain, the focus of the game is on the beautifully-written characters themselves rather than just on their actions.

While there are many differences between these two games, the same quality of storytelling pervades each one. Uncharted is filled with quiet moments of exploration and conversation, moments that feel markedly like much of Firewatch. Characters and themes are explored to their smallest detail in each game, creating many parallels.

More than anything else, the similarities between these two games are a testament to the power of storytelling. Small studios like Campo Santo create games that are purely story-driven, largely because they lack the finances to pursue the graphical complexity and bombastic action sequences of larger games. These larger games though, as Uncharted 4 shows, need powerful stories as well, and can only be improved by focusing on writing memorable characters.

These two games are hardly alone in their story focus, even if they serve as the most powerful recent examples. Uncharted 4 clearly draws from the story focus of The Last of Us, especially since the same individuals made each game. Firewatch explicitly references Gone Home, a similar, indie game published some years earlier. More and more video games are placing a premium on telling a story, and I find myself increasingly drawn to the story elements of such games as I grow older. There will always be a place for action games, but more and more studios are showing that powerful storytelling is becoming an increasingly important part of the video game landscape I don’t know what games will continue this trend in the future, but I plan to support this type of media whenever and however I can.

Originally published at thecoastlineisquiet.wordpress.com on June 16, 2016.