diagonal running is your friend

Fears to Fathom- Ironbark Lookout has also become one of the best titles of the genre of retro horror I've ever played so far. It fit perfectly into the shelf of "being isolated in the woods, barracks, and other abandoned places", which also included other titles like Oxenfree, Firewatch (which I've finished recently and liked a lot), the Midnight Scenes, etc. I've only played the first episode of the FtF series besides this one, and I think I'll check the other ones sometime later. But for now, let's delve into this one a little more because I have a story to tell (as I always do). The rest of the review is going to be me babbling about just another odd personal story of mine, and I understand if you don't want to read a "Pillars of Eternity-style" wall of text. But if you do, here it comes.

(unskippable cutscene starts)

Alright, so, besides the reasons I've listed about why I really liked this episode in the series, the fact that I played it at the perfect time in my life also played a huge role. What do I mean by that? Well, recently, ever since I returned to my hometown after graduating college, to be exact, I've been spending more time alone at home, trying to enjoy the vast greens of my surroundings among the striking heatwaves (I am sorry if you know me and are bored of me constantly talking about the oddities occurring around the town. I didn't mean to make it a huge chunk of my personality, and yet, here we are, heh).
As I was trying to adapt back to the climate, environment, and general atmosphere of the town after getting used to the fast-paced yet steady lifestyle I had back in the city, the whole process started to make me feel like a stranger in a place I've lived for over 15 years. At that point, to romanticize the whole thing, I started to imagine myself as some kind of a lookout, an X-files type of investigator, or an author like the prime of Stephen King trying to write Pet Sematary to have some fun as I lingered around. This was where the story in my head started to take a Fears to Fathom-esque shape.

The best time to enjoy the atmosphere was the nighttime when all the heat would be lifted, and there wouldn't be sounds of cars and constructions. At those times, I made it a habit to hang around the balcony and try to write a thing or two, like blog entries or diary pages as I looked around for bats, wild birds, weasels (as they had a habit of invading my garden and the roof of the house) and other stuff that could be seen in the night. My work turned out pretty abstract or over-detailed, probably to hide the fact that not much was happening around me. Until...

One night, I started to hear high-pitched screeching sounds that almost sounded like they were coming from someone inhaling very deeply. Although I'd heard and seen all types of wildlings around here, I'd never heard such an eerie sound before. It could be heard from all windows around the house, but I couldn't pinpoint where exactly it was emanating from. I could imagine a story in which this sound was coming from a deer-like, Skinwalker-ish figure in the woods.

Later on, though, after listening to it more for a week straight, I concluded that it was just the sounds of a few baby barn owls. I remember attempting a stare-down with some type of an owl a few months back during my visit, so it made sense. Remembering that also made me feel less like a stranger and more like a part of the townsfolk again.

So that's how a couple of Skinwalker-sounding baby owls made me feel like I was home again, and that's also how I enjoyed this game as much as I did. Maybe I should rewrite this memory as a modern-day horror story, like Owl-man or a Skinwalker incident. Could be fun to see how that'd unfold but... I don't know. What do you think?

(end of the cutscene)

very good