Blue Fire reviews

3D precision platformers are hard to do... Blue Fire nearly nails it -- the controls are tight, the speed is palpable, and when the "jump / wall jump / dash / another wall jump / double jump / double dash / wall run" combos work, it is an incredible rush. But for each great set of moves you pull off, a stupid death follows, usually when the perspective (or the camera) fools you and you realize too late not to be quite on top of that last platform... :( At least the purest platform sections (the so called "voids") are semi-optional; they provide you with upgrade slots, but there are enough not-too-hard ones anyway. There are also a few dungeons with lots of platforming, and a couple of such challenges are timed, but I found the timing fairly relaxed if you planned out your path beforehand, and these designs are actually the smartest part of the game. There is also a bit of functional fighting, but it feels a bit underdeveloped -- after a while, I found more productive just to avoid enemies instead. Boss fights, in particular, are serviceable but uninspired, relying more or less on the same tactics for each one. The second half of the game feels a bit rushed, as if the developers ran out of resources to produce good dungeons. The whole world hints at something greater (the whole game has this Hollow Knight vibe, a sense of sadness that permeates a doomed world), but at the end there are too few characters and their stories feel incomplete. I am also pretty sure the music was inspired by Hollow Knight's moody soundtrack, and this is actually a high point -- the calmer tunes are very nice, if not as memorable. Graphics are nice enough, if you enjoy the stylized minimalistic style, and some of the architecture is impressively vertical (especially when you realize you will have to somehow climb that whole darn thing). At the end of the day, despite a few shortcomings, I had fun with the game, and I still remember those cool double dashes and wall jumps in 3D. Score: 77/100.