This IGF Mobile finalist is innovative and humorous, but it gets repetitive quickly.
Innovative Light-Area-Effect Gameplay: place torches to execute as many enemies as possible at once
Amsuing Humorous Banter: Victorian-Era silly dialogue and other touches are really great
Repetitive Look and Play: Despite variations introduced, HF doesn't have staying power
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Helsing's Fire has been a popular critics choice this year, and is an IGF Mobile Game finalist at the moment. Created by Ratloop, Helsing's Fire is a sort of action-puzzle game, rife with Victorian-era humor, and involves the jounrey of 2 detectives as they seek to vanquish Dracula.
The core gameplay element consists of puzzle-stages that are set out in a warehouse-style overhead map. Each stage has enemies scattered about it, which must be eliminated by colored light sources. Thankfully, your hero caries a few torches in tow, of a specific variety of required colors. Gameplay consists of placing a torch such that the light shines on as many enemies of the appropriate color as possible, and then executing them. Some enemies have multiple color rings, and therefore require multiple hits. Furthermore, hitting an enemy with the wrong color "strengthens" it, giving it that torches light-color as a defensive ring. The object is therefore to place torches in the correct order in the proper locations to defeat all the enemies on a map.
Not all enemies will calmly let you execute them, however. There are a variety of denziens introduced with specific powers. Some will attack you while others will turn into humans which you need to avoid killing. Each set of stages takes place in a specific environment, and each environment also has a mini boss to defeat. Boss battles work the same as a normal stage, except that the boss moves around and attacks you while you try to light it up with your torches.
Unfortunately, gameplay gets pretty stale pretty quickly. Though there are new enemies introduced at a steady clip, and though the game can be fairly challenging at times, I never found Helsing's Fire to be nearly as good as other puzzle games out there. Sure, the gameplay element of light-area-effect is rather ingeniuos, but the game feels rather flat. Lighting up enemies just doesn't have enough weight after the first number of levels, which makes the gameplay end up feeling rather repetitive. The aesthetic design helps at times, with menus and scorecards having a nice ambiance. That doesn't really carry through to the levels themselves, though, which is where you spend the bulk of your time. The stages all look very similar to each other, which only adds to the repetitive feel of the game, and the look is more functional than stylish.
That's not to say Helsing's Fire isn't enjoyable at times. The humorous banter of the two detectives is especially effective, as are the high-fives, fist-bumps, and mis-ques which take place after successfully completing each stage. Watching the detectives banter with Dracula and his minions is equally amusing. It's too bad that the dialogue isn't bulked up more into an actual story, since that might give Helsing's Fire more legs.
On the whole, whle I can see why many critics and players enjoyed the game, I found Helsing's Fire to be repetitive and bland, despite some bright spots. The fact is, if you're looking for a great puzzle game, there's many others out there that are simply better. But if you're looking for something that has a unique presentation, and doesn't take itself too seriously, then Helsing's Fire might be up your alley.
6.8/10