Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating: 9 out of 10

Flame Over is an isometric action roguelike twin-stick fire-fighting game available for download from the PlayStation Store for the PS Vita. Laughing Jackal was established in 2005 having released a variety of games for the PlayStation Minis range before moving onto the PS3 with Cubixx HD followed by the entertaining Hungry Giraffe, the addictive OMG HD Zombies and their latest game Flame Over for the Vita which was initially revealed at GamesCom 2013.

The player must guide a fire-fighting legend called Blaze Carruthers through the 16 floors of the Infernal Industries skyscraping headquarters across 4 different game zones including office, executive, lab and factory areas which all consist of hazards and flames which threaten to bring the building down to the ground on top of everyone inside it, so it really is up to Blaze Carruthers to save the day without the help of any team.

There is a timer of five minutes for each mission as players attempt to extinguish the numerous fires as some electrical appliances spit flames to create further fires, which only complicates matters further in regards to extinguishing the flames and safely evacuating people and cats from the premises. An interesting twist occurs as players can continue beyond those five minutes as they earn a time bonus for rescuing the people and cats from the fire which are encountered along the way, but they can still continue even after the timer expires; as the Grim Reaper will appear as an indicator that time is up and if the Grim Reaper touches the fireman, then it is game over.

Blaze will earn coins from extinguishing flames which also represents the accumulation of the points scored, while there are also various gameplay elements to be wary of as player’s progress, such as a limit to the amount of water which can be carried for the hose and the same type of limitation of foam for the extinguisher, although the hose can be refilled from a water source such as any dispenser situated throughout the building or an instant replenished water supply from the opening area of the floor and a replacement fire extinguisher can be picked up as well as an axe which can come in handy for breaking some doors down. There are two sets of health meters in which the first displays three hearts representing Blaze’s amount of lives, while the second meter displays how closely Blaze is to losing one of his hearts based upon how much he comes into contact with the flames, although he can run away from them temporarily to regain his health, but the same cannot be said for people and cats that need to be swiftly guided away from the fire with immediate effect.

Upgrades can be purchased prior to the start of each level, and while the upgrades carry over from one level to the next, none of the money earned is actually retained, therefore players have to perform exceptionally well to rescue all of the workers and cats, extinguish all of the flames throughout the level and successfully completing the mission in the fastest time possible in order to have a realistic chance of earning enough money to be able to purchase another high valued upgrade. The upgrades improve over multiple purchases and include a 25% chance of items being hidden in objects; magnifying glass duration lasting 4 seconds; people can be revived within 35 seconds; Blaze being able to withstand fire for 10% longer; water supply refilling 25% faster; all prices in the store being reduced by 10% and being able to hold up to 4 water bombs.

The character design is pretty good as it covers the fireman Blaze Carruthers with a well groomed moustache which he refuses to allow any flames to singe as well as a variety of people working in the areas of the building which is on fire and their pet cats nearby, while the environment design is just as good as it includes procedurally generated locations and flame patterns in a cartoon styling.

The player stats provide players with a breakdown of a wide variety of statistics including: the amount of games played; the amount of wins and deaths for the fireman; best time; best score; total time played; total cash won and spent; the amount of workers and cats saved; and the number of missions successfully completed. The data is appropriately detailed with a total of 11 statistics, which is a great design choice as it provides players with information and analysis in regards to which areas players are succeeding in and which area of performance needs improvement.

The controls are well mapped to the Vita with the control scheme consisting of pressing R to squirt the water from the hose; pressing L to squirt the foam from the extinguisher; pressing square to interact or use an object, open a door, break a door down with an axe and refill the hose or extinguisher; pressing X to interact with a person or cat to begin guiding them to safety; pressing triangle to use a power-up; pressing O to use a water bomb; pressing left or right on the d-pad to cycle to the previous or next power-up respectively; changing the direction of the left analogue stick to move the character or strafe; changing the direction of the right analogue stick to rotate the camera or aim the hose or extinguisher; pressing start to display the pause menu; and pressing select to open or close the mini-map or alternatively tapping the touch screen to enlarge the mini-map or swiping across the map to navigate it.

Graphically, Flame Over has a charming quality with a cartoon stylised approach to the art direction of the visuals which is really clear to see, particularly from the lead character himself, while the surrounding environments have an appropriate level of detail with a variety of electrical appliances spitting out flames, billowing smoke and impressive flame effects.

 

The presentation of the game is solid with a great touch screen based user interface across various menus such as the main menu, player stats, online leaderboards, options menu and gameplay menus with support for navigation via the left analogue stick, directional pad and face buttons, although it does not include support for navigation via the right analogue stick and rear touch pad. The background of the menu screens consists of the fireman looking prepared in his full uniform as he holds his axe as a fire burns behind him.

The audio consists of sound effects such as the steps Blaze makes, doors being opened, collecting coins from extinguished flames, flames of the fire burning, water spraying from the hose, foam squirting from the extinguisher and more, while the music consists of a jazz soundtrack which becomes faster and gradually more frantic within the final minute of the countdown timer.

The trophy list includes 36 trophies with 20 bronze, 10 silver, 5 gold and 1 platinum trophy. The majority of the trophies will be earned naturally as progression is made through the game such as the Feline Patrol bronze trophy for rescuing a cat; the Time to Go bronze trophy for rescuing a worker; the Every Little Helps bronze trophy for buying a stat upgrade and the Fight the Power bronze trophy for cutting the power to a level using a fuse board room, although there are noticeably harder trophies such as the No Man Left Behind gold trophy for completing the game saving all of the cats and people along the way as well as successfully completing all of the missions; The Hard Way gold trophy for completing the game without buying any power-ups; the Perfect Conditioning gold trophy for fully upgrading all of the player stats and the Fireproof gold trophy for completing the game and saving all of the people without any of them being downed by fire. It is estimated that depending upon skill and a good trophy guide to provide some helpful tips that it would take between 15 to 20 hours to platinum the trophy list.

There are no difficulty levels, but the difficulty curve is challenging in a manner in which players will have to gradually improve as they encounter procedurally generated environments and dynamic flames which both work against the player by making everything unpredictable, while the timer also applies pressure to move through each room as quickly as possible in an attempt to save the people and cats trapped by the flames and successfully complete each mission, although if players are able to overcome the challenging difficulty then they may upgrade their equipment given a high enough quality of performance which is capable of reducing the difficulty.

There are no ad-hoc or online multiplayer features, although it could have had ad-hoc and online multiplayer support for co-operative multiplayer in which both players would have been working together in an attempt to save people and cats as well as extinguishing the flames and successfully completing the mission with the added twist of both players attempting to earn more points in a faster time than their co-operative partner which would provide a competitive edge to the co-operative multiplayer.

 

However, there are online leaderboards focusing on global scores with both leaderboards containing each player’s rank and name (PSN ID), the name of the level in which the player’s best score was achieved and the score or time with the positioning of each player in based upon the best score or time.

The replayability stems from saving the day by extinguishing the flames and the heroics of rescuing helpless people and cats, while chasing the best score and time for the highest positioning on the online leaderboards to the reward factor of being able to upgrade equipment following an excellent performance is quite appropriate as it requires a standout performance to earn enough coins to be able to purchase any upgrade and is therefore rewarding in accordance with the progression made in improving performance.

Overall, Flame Over is a challenging game with enough charm to provide an addictive nature to the gameplay as the game perfects the very same one more try vibe which worked so well in Laughing Jackal’s previous game OMG HD Zombies. Despite being potentially frustrating to not progress far into the game; players will always continue to a point of even enjoying failing miserably as when you do progress it will feel all the more of a rewarding experience for you having overcome the difficulty curve. If you are a fan of the action and roguelike genres as well as isometric and twin-stick games or the PS1 classic Rosco McQueen, then Flame Over is certainly a must purchase game for the Vita collection.

Jason Bonnar

Analysis

• Title: Flame Over
• Developer: Laughing Jackal
• Publisher: Laughing Jackal
• System: PS Vita
• Format: PSN Download
• Cross-Buy: No
• Cross-Play: No
• Players: 1 (Online Leaderboards)
• Memory Card Space Required: 733MB