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Fire is a puzzle adventure set in the Stone Age about a quest to bring fire back to your village. It's a game with a simple story, told without words, where the fun is in the enjoyable puzzles.

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The game is similar to Amanita Design's Samorost games in that all puzzles are set in the environment. You can pick up certain items that you need to solve puzzles; but only one at a time. Picking up another item causes you to drop your previous one. Each level consists of a location spread over three scenes that you have to interact with to solve a multi-step puzzle. When you've done so, you pass on to the next level. There are also three hidden trinkets in each location that often require a bit more searching and puzzling to find, but these are optional.

I've put a little over an hour into the game so far, and have beaten five levels. The difficulty has gradually increased as I've played, but thanks to the good visual feedback you get on any interaction, I haven't been totally stuck at any point so far. One thing that did have me a bit stumped is that some things in the game has to be swiped, not clicked, to yield any result. I don't think that was explained at all; but if it was, I completely missed it. Another thing that tripped me up a bit was a musical puzzle, since I'm always terrible at those.

The game does have one very annoying issue on my computer, as it almost completely locks up my desktop cursor on Alt+Tab. I've experienced the same issue with a few other Unity games as well, and I've reported it on the Steam forums for the game. The game also comes with a prototype of one of the first levels, which uses Visionaire Studio, and that doesn't give me any problems at all.

This is an accessible and enjoyable puzzler that I think fans of the mentioned Samorost games might enjoy. If you prefer more open-world puzzlers with lots of things to explore and intricate minigames, Fire might not be for you though.

Fire can be bought from Steam or as a Steam key from the Humble Store. There are DRM free versions available through Gamesrocket.com, but they are unfortunately only for Windows and Mac.

About the game (from Steam)
FIRE is a puzzleventure with intuitive puzzle design. Without losing many words it tells a savagely hilarious story. Journey into the Stone Age and face the most challenging task of this era: The search for fire!

This story's hero is the lovably chaotic Neanderthal Ungh who dozes off during his very first night watch. The next morning, the catastrophe ensues: the fire's gone out and Ungh is banished from his village. Now you have to help Ungh finding a new flame, searching every corner of the Stone Age world. No matter if he has to search the insides of a dinosaur, smoldering volcanoes or even through time itself, there is no place Ungh wouldn't look for new fire.

One click or swipe and your environment comes to life. A small dash of logic and you'll be able to solve any puzzle and there will be no limit to your exploratory spirit while interacting with the game's world: fire coconuts from a mammoth's trunk, turn into an animal or save the fair maiden from the Octo-Boss' grasp. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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About the author -
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A big fan of platformers, puzzle games, point-and-click adventures and niche indie games.

I run the Hidden Linux Gems group on Steam, where we highlight good indie games for Linux that we feel deserve more attention.
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4 comments

FrasierCrane Apr 10, 2015
QuoteAnother thing that tripped me up a bit was a musical puzzle, since I'm always terrible at those.
I like music puzzles as well as sliding puzzles. Not because I particularly love them but because I know they annoy a lot of people and I'm that kind of ass who finds that enjoyable (and I believe most adventure game designers are also.). :P
flesk Apr 11, 2015
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I don't really mind sliding puzzles. My main issue with music puzzles is that you don't have all the information required to solve the puzzle up front, and have to constantly keep listening to the audio clues. Some developers do these puzzles right (in my opinion) by supplementing the audio clues with visual ones, like e.g. different colors for each note/tune.
TazX Apr 21, 2015
Nice article. I'll be following your reviews, since your favourite games correspond so well with mine. Have you checked out Glare yet?
flesk Apr 21, 2015
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Quoting: TazXNice article. I'll be following your reviews, since your favourite games correspond so well with mine. Have you checked out Glare yet?

Thanks. :) No, I haven't tried Glare yet. I bought it a couple of months ago, but have forgotten about it. Looks very neat.
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