You know that feeling when your wife has early onset dementia and you take a job in the woods because you don’t know how to process your emotions? You don’t? “Firewatch” can give you that feeling. 

Every fall, as the leaves shift from green to brown and orange and yellow, “Firewatch” is in my thoughts. A story game created by entertainment company Campo Santo, the story of “Firewatch” spans a temperate summer in 1989, although the crisp leaves and color palette are more emulative of a Kansas autumn. 

Released in early 2016, an era that I have deemed the golden age of indie games, “Firewatch” draws players in with its stunningly simple visual identity and then breaks your heart after less than five hours. 

Although it’s classified as a mystery game, one could argue it’s a walking simulator. Its character development and open-world exploration give “Firewatch” the ability to remain relevant almost 10 years later.

This year, though, as the mornings get cooler (not as much as I’d like), “Firewatch” crosses my mind even more. This previous summer was my last summer off. 

A faint panic of time running out was my song of the summer. Am I experiencing this enough? Am I taking advantage of the summer before time runs out? But time ran out, and another countdown has started.

This is my last year in school, my last autumn walking through campus and crunching on as many leaves as possible. My last fall semester, meaning my last year wearing a hoodie to my 8 a.m. class only to shrug it off by lunchtime.

The resounding feeling of time running out, of reminiscing on the past while still experiencing it, is one of my main takeaways from “Firewatch,” and it rings true in a different way with every playthrough. 

The game

Firewatch starts with, alongside a beautiful composition by Chris Remo, a heartbreaking sequence reminiscent of a visual novel. Campo Santo walks you through the genesis of your relationship with your wife, Julia, as well as her descent into early-onset dementia. 

Through the eyes and voice of Henry (played by Rich Sommer, who I recognized as Pam’s art school friend in “The Office”), you distance yourself from your wife and your identity as her caretaker and ultimately take a new job for the summer: a fire lookout in Wyoming. 

Throughout “Firewatch,” your interactions with other people are incredibly limited. The only sign that you’re more than a floating set of hands is your hand radio. 

Buzzing from the hand radio is the voice of a fellow lookout at a different station within the park, Delilah. Delilah is voiced by Cissy Jones, who has a list of TV shows and movies she’s voice acted for with “The Owl House” being her most notable. 

The game plunges you into the Shoshone National Forest, a real park that spans more than two million acres in northwestern Wyoming. Shoshone is a pivotal part of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, but for our purposes, it’s the perfect setting to accompany grief, loss, longing and most of all, change: both current and impending.

The art

The video game’s call to fame is the art style. You’ve likely seen it before: multi-layered rigid levels that bring a distant fire lookout tower into view. The style was so coveted that a Ford dealership stole the art for an ad campaign. 

The world is at once cozy and intimidating, diving toward each end of the spectrum based on how the music sets the mood. Watch the sunset and feel like you’re being watched. Take pictures of your beautiful route with a film camera and watch as a shutter flashes in the distance. Find (and name) a cute turtle and find abandoned camping gear. 

“Firewatch” has a lot of extra elements that appeal to both the achievement hunter and the casual player. These little touches give “Firewatch” its charm, while the art and the story give it the ammunition to back it up. 

“Firewatch” is far from a traditional open-world game with no set paths, but the exploration aspect sets the story into stone. You do really feel like a fire lookout in Shoshone — well, as much as you can when you’re sitting in the comfort of your bedroom with a headset on.

Between objectives, Henry is free to explore wherever he pleases, with more and more sections becoming available as the player finds more tools. As Delilah tells Henry early in the game, “It’s a long summer. You can explore later.” Time runs out, though, and you’re left wishing you had more.

The story

The game starts slowly, as all good games do, but quickly spirals. What seems like a cut-and-dry fire lookout simulator with no overarching plot becomes a complex and compelling narrative about love and loss. 

What you learn about Henry is formed through your interactions with Delilah. Certain aspects of Henry’s temperament are your choosing, but his core motivation remains the same: a need to get away from his life. No matter what dialogue options you choose, nothing can change this fact. If you took away Henry’s profound grief, the entire story would unravel. 

As you embark on various quests throughout the park, watching the two-dimensional distance dissolve into stylized yet effective renderings of nature, your relationship with Delilah grows, as does the core mystery of the game. 

With every step Henry takes in the forest, he gathers more information about previous fire lookouts, such as two friends who interacted with each other through notes and a negligent father who illegally brought his son out on the job with him. 

The mystery is actually the least interesting thing about “Firewatch,” although you might believe it is at certain points. There are tons of opportunities for chaos throughout the story, but Campo Santo steers in the complete opposite direction. It’s charming and reminiscent of the lingering paranoia you feel in the woods. 

Unlike other mystery games, there are no opportunities for failure to collect data or clues. There are no branches with different endings. Although this aspect of the storyline is intriguing for sure, the characters are what pack a punch. 

Despite chances to create various interactions, “Firewatch” is fairly linear. At the beginning, Henry arrives in the woods. And in the end, no matter how you play your cards, he leaves. And I cry every time. 

Following the success of “Firewatch,” Campo Santo was bought out by Valve, the distributor and software developer of game franchises such as “Half-Life,” “Left 4 Dead,” “Counter-Strike” and “Team Fortress.” 

This buyout paved the way for Campo Santo to begin development for their next project, “In The Valley of Gods.” 

Updates have been few and far between, with many speculating that the project has been shelved due to the Valve acquisition, but I’m willing to wait for a game that will make me feel the smallest fraction of how “Firewatch” did.