I’m not sure many had the follow up to the much loved, and continually
expanding, Dead Cells to be a puzzle platformer based around putting out fires.
But that’s just one of the many things that separates the creative minds of the
folks at Deepnight Games from the rest of the world. There are a few tiny
similarities to Dead Cells but on the whole this is a fresh and clever platformer
that even has a kids mode containing lots of extra trucks and helicopters.
The plot is fairly light with you being called to a blaze
and ending up stuck in a secret underground lab where there may be more going
on than just the outbreak of a fire. The controls are straightforward with you
being able to spray water, roll and jump and that’s all you need in order to
get by. There are a few nuances to the system of course. You can create different
arcs of water spray and pushing down makes a sort of water shield around you.
This is particularly useful when opening doors as sometimes you’ll be hit by a back
draft and burn up if you don’t protect yourself or get out the way.
The levels are set out as self-contained puzzles of burning
death with you needing to extinguish the flames in a section before moving onto
the next. You must be quick as well as flames will begin to spread again if
left for too long. In order to help you can normally turn on sprinkler systems
or collect wheels to allow you to turn on water pipes. This at least gives you
a few safe areas from which to plan your next move. Your two main concerns are
your water level which you need to keep refilled and the fact that taking a
single hit means death and normally starting the puzzle again from the start.
Each section follows the same sort of rules and it’s more
about the design in terms of how you travel around putting out fires that changes.
There are a host of obstacles such as locked doors, falling debris, burst gas
pipes and the occasional key card that needs collecting but it’s all really
about working out how to get around without running out of water.
Should the game prove too difficult though there are a wide
selection of sliders that can be used to balance it out to your hearts content.
You can make minor tweaks or make yourself pretty much invincible. We got
through the game without playing around with it but some of the puzzles did
prove to be sticking points so it’s good to see players have a way to keep
their progress going should they wish.
Overall, Nuclear Blaze is a brief but fun platform puzzle
game. It’s both creative and challenging and while there are frustrating
moments it was never enough to turn us away from it. Once completed there’s an extra
‘Hold My Beer’ mode which adds even more challenging content as well so there’s
enough here to keep you coming back. It’s just something a bit different that
works well and we would recommend it to anyone looking to live their best
fireman hero life.
Overall 7/10
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