Helsing’s Fire Review: Brilliant!

App Name:	Helsing's Fire
Platforms:	iPhone, iPod Touch
Publisher(s):	Clickgamer
Version Reviewed:	1.0
Genre(s):	Puzzle
Release Date:	July 10, 2010
Price:	$0.99

Clickgamer has already struck app fire with their physics puzzler Angry Birds. Now, they’ve put out another great app in the form of Helsing’s Fire.  In the game, you must help monster-hunter Helsing and his assistant Raffton drive off a monstrous horde under the control of Dracula, all using torches and colored tonics. This color-based, Victorian-flavored, horror-themed puzzle game brings a fun and original puzzle mechanic and excellent styling, making it another potential hit.

The puzzle mechanic in Helsing’s Fire is deceptively simple. You have a torch; that torch throws out an aura of light; and objects block the light, casting shadows. Within each object-littered area, there are creatures of the night, each vulnerable to a different one of your colored tonics. By using the interplay of light and shadow thrown by your torch, you must target creatures with different vulnerabilities and then hurl your tonics into the light, creating a burst of colored light and destroying your enemies.

The best puzzle games are the ones that keep the basics simple, and let complexity come in the way the basics are applied. Helsing’s Fire hits the mark in this regard. By wrapping blue monsters in red shields, stashing innocents amongst the monsters, and giving certain creatures the ability to fight back, Helsing’s Fire makes the most of its simple-but-tricky premise.  To round out the challenges, each level of the game also has a boss. Bosses move around, shoot back, and pull other stunts , and they always require multiple hits to defeat. These were especially fun, because you have to keep the torch moving and use your limited tonic reserves wisely. On these levels, the puzzle game almost rises to the level of action game. It’s a neat change of pace.

When you complete the regular mode, there’s also a timed challenge mode. I almost like this more. In addition to everything else, Survival mode adds a clock to the mix. So it becomes a game of think fast. It’s a whole lot of fun.

The game’s great play is accompanied by a wonderful design sense. It’s a comic-book Victorian design with some wry humor and a bit of modern flavor tossed in. There’s the occasional banter between Helsing and the monsters, or Helsing and his assistant, to help direct you in the game; and each time you complete a level, Helsing and R celebrate with an anachronistic hand slap or fist bump. The flavor of the game reminded me of the Hellboy comic, as well as the old Cheapass Games line, like Kill Doctor Lucky and Witch Trial – all things with great flavor. So Helsing’s Fire hit all the right buttons.

Also, given the nature of the App Store of late, I have to say this: Thank you, Clickgamer, for a monster game not built around zombies. Seriously. Thank you.

I generally only have two criticisms of the game. The first is that, after awhile, the game loses a little steam. I don’t know if they stressed the puzzle mechanic to its limits, or if they just kept the skill level casual, but towards the end it seemed like the difficulty of the game just leveled off.  The second issue was one of stability. On a platform where I’m used to games almost never crashing, Helsing’s Fire did it to me twice as I evaluated it for this review. In both instances, it was preceded with some moments of jittery slowdown, the sort of thing that happens when memory is being stressed. Not sure what was going on, but stability might be something the devs want to investigate in the future.

Helsing’s Fire gets almost everything right. It’s got a great aesthetic, an excellent and original puzzle mechanic, a wry sense of humor, and no zombies. I hope that later updates address the stability issue, and perhaps offer some higher level extra content. But even as-is, it’s well worth your 99 cents. Go download it now.

Our Score: 4.5 out of 5.

Helsing’s Fire is $0.99 at the time of this review.

About the Author

Writer@Large Brian P. Hudson is an educator and freelance writer currently living in Dearborn, MI.

 

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