Henry, the lead character in Campo Santo’s game Firewatch, isn’t your usual video game hero.
I like that about Henry.
He hasn’t had training in seven different martial arts, he isn’t 7ft tall and genetically modified and he doesn’t carry a variety of weapons in a leather briefcase (or strapped to his back).
Henry (who is voiced by Mad Men‘s Rich Sommer) is an everyman. He’s a middle-aged, slightly chunky man who is having marital problems after his wife develops Alzheimer’s in her mid 30s. He has a beard. He has a pet dog (a beagle or a German shepherd, depending on how you play the game). Henry takes a job as a fire watch officer in a Wyoming forest park to “find himself” and decide where his future lies.
Henry loves his wife – he still wears his wedding ring on his left hand (most of the time, anyway)– but doesn’t know what sort of future they have together yet I get the feeling he’s still clinging onto hope at the beginning of the game, at least, no matter how small that hope is.
Henry finds a disposable camera early in the game and in the PC version you can download and even order prints of the snapshots you take. Here are some I took.
You know how I said Henry’s an everyman character? That means he’s based on a real man, an everyday man. He’s not muscular with a torso carved from marble: He’s solid. He has a middle-aged spread, which you catch a glimpse of every time he lowers himself down steep climbs. He has a bushy beard (how many video game heroes have beards?) and can’t run far for long.
I like Henry a lot because he’s modeled on a real-life person and not muscle-bound and bulked on steroids and here to save the planet. Henry has a back-story that many of us can relate to: He’s married and has real-life problems. He’s my kind of hero – and not just because I’m married, have a dog (although, not a beard) and middle-aged myself – but because he’s a human character than I can relate to.
He’s the type of hero I’d love to see more in video games but most game developers are afraid to tackle. Henry shows human frailty and vulnerabilities, he’s unsure what’s ahead, perhaps scared of what the future holds.
Early on in the game, Henry is introduced to fellow fire watch officer, Delilah, via two-way radio, and what starts as small talk at first soon turns into deep, thought-provoking dialogue about their pasts and futures. They joke with one another, finding out what makes the other tick.
Through these over-the-air conversations, Hank and Delilah form a close bond, and one that by the end of the game has a profound impact on both of them, but interestingly, despite their intimate conversations and probing into each other’s personal lives, Henry and Delilah never meet. The closest they get to each other is looking at each other from their respective watchtowers.
I’m not going to reveal what happens in Firewatch – if you play it then you’ll find out for yourself where the game heads – but Henry is the type of character that video games need to have more. Characters grounded in real-life that have real-life problems and that normal people can relate to. I like that Henry isn’t afraid of being alone, of being in his own company. By it’s very nature, the role of a firewatch officer is one of isolation and solitude. Henry is happy with that, wants that and it’s how he comes to grips with his relationship with his wife breaking down.
That’s not to say that it’s all cheery conversations and reading books while the sun sets for Henry and Delilah, because it isn’t, and as the game progresses Henry (and Delilah) have some serious decisions to make but Henry is a refreshingly welcome character when most video game heroes are super soldiers, warriors or cartoon animals. There aren’t that many games based on seemingly real-life characters that I’ve warmed to and probably the only other game in recent memory that takes a realistic, if somewhat clichéd, look at characters is DontNod’s Life is Strange, a game which deals with teenage problems.
So, thanks for Henry, Campo Santo, he’s a character grounded in reality – and I love that about him. We need more characters like him. Let’s hope other developers start taking notice.
