Review: Helsing's Fire

If you’re in-the-know when it comes to indie game development or obscure iPhone games, then you already know that this review is extremely tardy…like months tardy. And I can only claim ignorance because Ratloop’s Helsing’s Fire was unknown to me. That is, it was unknown to me until it won the 2011 Independent Games Festival’s Best Mobile Game award. When I saw Helsing’s Fire win over games like Colorbind and Halcyon, I figured that I should play this game, and I’m glad I did.

Helsing’s Fire’s main characters are monster hunter Van Helsing and his assistant Raffton. They've been called to save London from the Shadow Blight—a terrible scourge that brings all sorts of monsters (Dracula included) out of the woodwork. Helsing and Raffton must use torches and tonics to rid the land of the impending evil. While the story sounds like something from a B-rate horror movie, it just serves as an interesting plot to draw players into a wonderful and humorous puzzle game.

Helsing’s Fire, like most iPhone games, has one really good mechanic and builds a game around that single hook. In Helsing’s Fire, the concept of light is featured as the central gameplay mechanic. Helsing banishes evil by first shining light on the enemy, then using a color tonic to destroy it. Sounds simple, and in the beginning it is simple. For example, in the first few stages Helsing and Raffton only have to destroy red rats. So the player is given one red potion and must figure out a way to ensure that every enemy on screen is hit by the torchlight before activating the red potion. When that happens, the tonic spreads through the light and the enemies are destroy—followed by a Helsing and Raffton slapping five or giving each other fist bumps, which is actually pretty funny.

But Ratloop throws in all the right wrinkles to spice things up. Later blue enemies are added into the mix. The trick is if a blue enemy is hit by a red tonic, then the blue enemy gets an extra protective shield, which normally prevents the player from being able to solve the puzzle. So the solution is to make sure that the light only lines up with enemies of the same color. Other colors are introduced as are multi-layered colored shields that must be destroyed before being able to damage the enemy. A particularly cool enemy is the werewolf. When a werewolf is defeated, the werewolf becomes a villager who you cannot attack because you don’t ever want to hurt the people you’re trying to save with an exploding tonic, right?

Enemies eventually become mobile and gain the ability to attack your torch. But don't worry, Helsing’s Fire is rarely a stressful game; rather, the game does a great job of gently introducing new wrinkles to the system. The developers clearly define the rules early in the game and each time they add a new element, they clearly explain it. Once you’re done with the campaign’s 180+ puzzles, you can always try Survival or Bounty mode. In survival mode you’re—wait for it—trying to survive as long as possible. You’re left with only your torches and tonics to fend off hordes of enemies. You are given a certain amount of tonics, and you are rewarded more tonic for how quickly you solve each puzzle. But the more interesting mode is Bounty mode. In Bounty mode, you compete against other players to solve the same pre-made difficult puzzle. The more players that play the bounty the more it’s worth. And bounties are updated regularly.

The only problem with Helsing’s Fire is that the campaign missions are randomly generated. This adds to the game's replay value, but it also means that you can get a string of really easy puzzle and fly through some stages. It’s a trade-off. But thanks to Bounty mode, you can always get your difficulty fix if the campaign is too easy for you.

5/5

At a .99 cents price point, Helsing’s Fire is everything you want from an iPhone game. It can be played for a minute at the bank or for an hour in the car. The game has tons of content and is updated regularly. The light mechanic sounds simple, but all the added gameplay wrinkles are extremely rewarding. And like most great puzzle games, when you finish a hard puzzle, you feel like the smartest person in the world. And that feeling, in my opinion, is what playing a puzzle game is all about.