Game Reviews

Fire Escape

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iOS
| Fire Escape
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Fire Escape
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iOS
| Fire Escape

Endless-climbers have been a mainstay on the App Store ever since Lima Sky kickstarted the genre with Doodle Jump.

Fire Escape is another example of the genre, and it's fine. The problem is that there are loads of games on the market doing the same thing better, with less of the frustration and grind.

You control a moustachioed fireman with Rayman-esque floating limbs. He's not a very good fireman, more concerned with escaping and collecting coins along the way than with putting out fires and helping people.

You launch your fireman from peg to peg, spinning around on each while an arrow points in the direction that you'll go in when you next tap the screen. The aim is to reach ever higher pegs, but eventually the inferno overtakes you.

It's also possible to slightly alter the the direction of each jump mid-flight by tilting your device. There are various power-ups, like a fireproof suit, or a fire extinguisher that flies you through giant letters made of coins.

There are also consumable boosts, like a speed booster, or one that multiplies the coins you earn. There's nothing wrong with the core mechanics, but they're extremely simple and grow boring fast.

Fire Escape attempts to plugs itself into the same area of your brain as Ridiculous Fishing, as you grind to improve your equipment and get past the marker signifying your best climb. The problem is, it takes an age to make progress if you decide to grind for coins instead of paying.

Ridiculous Fishing kept you coming back by drip-feeding new equipment that could improve your runs with every attempt. Here you can have ten runs with no advancement, and even then the upgrades are mostly minor buffs for existing skills or pickups - and the ones that aren't take an eternity to unlock.

But worse than that is the fact that Fire Escape just isn't very fun. Swinging around the nodes doesn't have the gravity-wrangling thrill of, say, Gravity Hook. In an oddly binary sort of way you're just orbiting, letting go, orbiting, letting go, your input limited to the most boring single element of pyrotechnic gymnastics.

The rate of progression feels cynical and greedy, but at least the dullness of the central gameplay means that you probably won't play Fire Escape for long enough to be irritated by levelling up mechanic.

Fire Escape

A free game that’s nowhere near as worthy of your time as a hundred other free games
Score
Kirk Mckeand
Kirk Mckeand
Kirk is a writer of many words and grower of many hairs. He manages to juggle family life with his passion for video games and writing. From the mobile indie scene to triple-A blockbusters, his life ambition is to play ALL the games. Yes, all of them.