Firegirl: Rescue Review by Hack 'N Splash

Fire girl Hack 'n Splash Rescue is a charming platform game Decimal Games and Thunderous Group. This is a young woman who became a firefighter like his father before her, at a time when the city experienced more fires than ever. The DNA of the game is mainly composed of a platform game, but contains elements rogue lite and shooting games arcade 2D classics.

The core gameplay is to rush into burning buildings generated procedurally, trains run, shopping centers and forests in search of survivors. Fire girl uses his ax to destroy obstacles or doors of a new area, and its fire hose to extinguish the flames and boost his jump. In this game, Fire girl literally fighting fires. The flames are sentient monsters that stand in his way, based on her in the form of birds, throw fireballs as traps or explode as mines.

Some rescued survivors can become recruits to the fire station, offering bonuses and benefits that help Fire girl in its missions. Some recruits are increasing the amount of money earned through missions, some can improve its equipment and some help locate survivors. These capabilities and enhancements can be purchased to improve their effectiveness.

Fire girl Hack 'n Splash Rescue has a visual style that mixes 2D pixel art models for the player and NPCs in 2.5D / 3D environments. Sounds good, a caricature. The visual style fits well with arcade elements. The music also reflects the pixel art designs with electronic rhythms and melodies.

The game is elegant, inspired and creative. It has all the ingredients for a fun arcade game. However, it is made in ways that leave much to be desired. In a tragic combination of my lack of personal ability and level of difficulty of the game, Fire girl is both punitive and very indulgent. I found myself dying in various ways or run out of time on missions almost every time.

Again, I do not pretend to control this type of game, but success is incredibly elusive. It's frustrating. Even so, you still paid a basic amount for a mission, whatever the result. History also advance, although I have no idea what I'm doing to trigger this. The failed mission will bring you all the same sufficiently to gradually improve your skills and equipment, which will keep you alive a little longer.

Each level is generated procedurally, so there's no two missions. The layout of the level will also change mid-mission. What I mean by this is that you can move a screen to the right, descend into a new part, move left, then up and be in a completely different room than where you started. This is not inherently a bad thing, but it means that there is no turning back. If you miss a survivor, you can not go to them, and you can not get all the rewards for the mission. You also miss out and who knows if you have enough time on the clock of the mission before finding another. If you lack the time, it's a failed mission.

Lack of time is not however a big problem, because the enemies are a much greater threat to Fire girl. Some enemies are stationary, you can simply soak until they are extinguished, but other enemies flying. To take care of these flyers, you can aim your hose with the mouse, but there is no reticle. Only the fountain, which you can use to determine if you need to aim higher or lower. The more you use water, the higher the water pressure decreases, affecting the scope and power of your attacks.

Fire girl platform capabilities based on the pipe to increase the distance or height of the jump, which is again affected by the water pressure. This makes the platforms and frustrating fights because you can use the hose for attack or jump, not both simultaneously. When you start, you are vulnerable, but stopped, you may not be able to hit enemies.

Surviving room after piece of enemies and obstacles is difficult. Save all the survivors of a mission is the only way to succeed a mission. It was only after saving everyone that Fire girl fans will give extra money at the end of a mission. Going out with a single survivor will not bring any cash bonuses, so finding an exit at this point would return to save anyone at all. He also plays the music failure, which is quite discouraging. I would have really liked a mission proofreading option. I feel that I have no opportunity to learn from my mistakes or overcome something with a second try.

In addition to the difficulty of Fire girl: Hack 'n Splash, I bet constantly with orders. The hose and ax (both controlled with the mouse) do not literally respond half of the time. We do not know how many times a bat slowly slaughtered on me because my pipe did not work. I'm sure it could be corrected with a hotfix, but it's also a pretty important forgotten so that it only works half of the time.

Despite all the reproaches I had with Fire girl, some of these problems can be corrected to make the game more enjoyable. I repeat, he has all the necessary ingredients for a fun arcade game. Personally, I would like to see different difficulty options: a difficulty curve or option to choose between easy, medium or difficult missions. At present, the management of platform and combat commands is already quite difficult. It feels like there is an infinite way to fail. Most of them are not your fault.

The basic gameplay is fun, but constant and implacable failure fists really put a brake on things. Some of the problems I found with Fire girl: Hack 'N Splash could be improved with more polishing. However, others might require a little more work.