Firegirl: Hack 'n Splash Rescue

The tutorial explains the mechanics of axing down doors, spraying the fire demons with water, and using your water to boost jump, or soften your falls. I don't recall it explaining how to refill your water, or how to restore health.

When you run out of water, really you are just losing pressure, since you can still spray water but with less power. A tip on the loading screen says you can refill just by waiting but I'm fairly sure this only happens with an upgrade. There are bottles of water to collect, and sometimes you can stand in some pools to refill.

The aim is to rescue a certain number of people (usually 1-3) then reach the exit. There are also animals to rescue, but you aren't told how many they are, and are an optional bonus.

I think the buildings are randomly generated, but you do see recurring patterns so it gets more predictable with experience.

Early on, it seemed quite random if I actually found the people to rescue or not. The only hint you get is your chief telling you that you are close... but define "close"; many times I went through several rooms and didn't find them, so maybe there were branching paths that I didn't see. Some people and animals can be really hard to find due to being covered by debris which you need to axe. Sometimes I only caught a glimpse of them as the camera panned.

You can pan the camera up/down to see if there is anything above/below, which is required in the apartment building levels where you will be spending your initial time. When you see what looks like a hole in the floor/ceiling, a quick pan will check if there’s any immediate danger. There are stairwells with destroyed stairs and you have to boost jump up to any platform/doorway and work your way up the levels. It’s beneficial to look in the direction you are moving.

It's easy to lose health from fall damage, being hit by a fire demon you didn't see or charge at you without much warning. Sometimes I thought I put out a fire, but then walked into the small bit that was remaining. I think this might be because it can be hard to discern what is background and foreground (as some fires are just décor) then the fact that you are encouraged to rush due to the time limit. In the final minute on the clock, you are told to leave as the flames increase and some titling screen effects come into play.

At the end of the level, you are given a small amount of cash for your efforts (City funds), and additional gains based on your performance and the amount of fans you have - although you must save everyone for that payment. With the money, you can purchase different kinds of upgrades, and better equipment to boost your health.

I thought the beginning of the game was really tough because it was difficult to complete the levels successfully which really caps your progress with the limited money. After grinding out enough money for extra water/reach/health, it does become easier. This is the problem with adding upgrade systems in games - it becomes hard to balance the difficulty. Even when you are introduced to new challenges with different level themes, it's not long before these become easy too.

Another aspect that made the game easier and less frustrating is that when you find a dog, a dog icon will appear in the level (at the end of the section) to show you that you have missed a person in that section. At that point it's impossible to miss people unless you intentionally ignore the icon. That means when the path splits and you take one route, you know that the person is in the other route if you see the dog icon. If there is no icon, then you know it is fine to proceed to the next section, and they must be further ahead.

The doors that lead to the next section have a fire demon icon and an arrow, and it took me ages to work out what this means. When you pass through these doors, a blast of flame comes through, so it's a “point of no return”. This is why the dog is really beneficial because you know not to go past this point of no return.

The first new level to be introduced is a train. The train can mainly be navigated from the roof, so you spend a lot of time in the air. The passengers you save are just at the final cart, and you have to rush otherwise the carriages spread too far apart - which means it's more of a time trial - therefore encouraging you just to jetpack across, and therefore bypassing the challenges. The difficulty is the moments you can get knocked off which is instant death.

The woods have tall trees, and cave systems. Sometimes the people can be in the trees, but there's large parts of the map which can just be covered at ground level, and therefore you are just running and occasionally jetpacking.

Then you are introduced to the plaza which kinda looks like a train station/shopping centre which really has the difficulty as the normal building levels but then has way more enemies, and some tricky ones that throw fire from the background layer. You definitely need upgrades to health here because you will be hit from enemies you couldn't quite see.

The graphical style is really nice. It's pixel graphics but rendered in 3D with lots of depth and detail to the backgrounds and a great lighting model. So the visuals are modern rather than being a SNES-throwback style.

My Steam time shows as 5.4 hours but it did feel like it lasted longer than that. I felt the game started to drag towards the end since you are just seeing the same level themes over and over again. I think the aim of the game is to find 12 Fire Tomes; which some seem to be placed at certain story-beats, and the others seem to be random. The Fire Tomes can also be slightly hidden, or placed really high in the woods. You will be told by the CIA agent that a tome is nearby, but that is a vague hint like the Fire Chief telling you there is a person close by, so you can still miss them.

I think my review sounds overly critical. I did enjoy the game but felt the difficulty curve and repetitive nature held it back. I think one or two extra level themes could have made a huge difference. Then maybe they could have played with the objectives a bit; maybe you should be forced to put the fires out in some levels. You do get time bonuses for putting fires out, but mainly it seemed better just to jump over the fires if they weren't a direct obstruction. Additionally when you can buy the Time Upgrades, they seemed far too generous and meant the time limit started to feel irrelevant, and that was a large part of the difficulty.