Games I Played In 2024 - Nuclear Blaze

  

Console: PC, Switch, PS4

Developer: Deepnight Games

Release Date: October 18th 2021

Nuclear Blaze is a sidescrolling firefighting game with a focus on water management, quick thinking, and risk assessment. Developed by a single developer, the leading designer behind Motion Twin's Dead Cells, Nuclear Blaze started as a Ludum Dare game jam project. Created in 48 hours, this version is included with the game, at least on Steam. While this is the fully realized concept of Nuclear Blaze, this is still a short and sweet experience in the 3-4 hour range on a casual playthrough.

Nuclear Blaze is a rare game that focuses on firefighting: with little emphasis on combat and platforming for the sake of platforming, all of the game's playtime is spent exploring an abandoned military facility and taming the fires within while uncovering its secrets. The tone is more on the lighthearted side, and the game's simple narrative is far from overbearing. The setting lends itself to some surprisingly tense moments despite the short playtime. The way the source of the fire is teased is actually really effective, even if the payoff leans more on the comedic side.

Sporting a pixel art aesthetic, Nuclear Blaze shines in how clearly information is visually given to the player. The main character is cute and small, and it's quite clear if you're going to be able to make a jump or not. Controls are tight and responsive, though there is a slightly odd feel to the jump, as it accelerates laterally in a flash which makes jumping faster than walking. The environments, though samey due to the setting, are nonetheless nice to look at and never an eyesore, and the player character's design is recognizable even when surrounded by flames. Strikingly, when there's a lot of fire near the player, the screen gets a deep orange hue to simulate what would happen near such a blaze. Extinguishing the last bit of flame and causing the room to get a bluish light, accompanied by a harp and choir jingle, never gets old.

As a firefighting game, the main things the player has to worry about are their water tank and where the fire is. Water is refilled automatically at refill stations that dot the facility as you get near them, and fire is always very obvious. Once the dodge roll is acquired, the game will start jumpscaring you with sudden ceiling collapses more often, giving the entire game a constant feeling of uncertainty. If something seems too simple, then how do you know if the ceiling won't collapse or the floor won't explode when you get near? In that way, Nuclear Blaze really does capture the unpredictability associated with a burning building.

Another brilliant way the game captures the way fire behaves is with the door mechanic. Doors need to be opened, often by force, constantly in the game. The game displays darkness where the player has never been, but fire will be visible on the borders of the darkness thanks to the light it emits. If fire is next to a door, breaking it open will cause fire to shoot out, requiring immediate evasive actions to survive. Due to the way fire spreads if left alone, sometimes it's even better to leave doors closed and go the long way around. With the fire spreading mechanic, each ordeal ends up forcing the player to correctly assess the fire's behavior and tackle the flames in a way that prevents an infinite loop. I think it's all very well designed, excluding one or two odd spots that feel a bit off.

Separated into 23 "chapters," Nuclear Blaze's campaign is a breeze, though it can be quite intense and thrilling nonetheless. Due to its short length, it also lends itself to speedrunning quite well. Each chapter includes a tiny bit of exploration and then one or two firefighting segments with different gimmicks. Whether it's electricity that needs to be turned off, collapsing ceilings, having to find valves to turn on select sprinklers, or needing to keep certain nuclear reactors out of the flames, it never gets boring or repetitive, and the gimmicks are adroitly rotated to keep you on your toes.

There is always one secret in each big chapter: a cat to save. Often cleverly (but not frustratingly) hidden, the cats are the one collectible in the game, and getting them all leads to a secret room at the end of the game that's quite funny. Finding each cat is a fun little extra that I always enjoyed. You can also find documents that add a bit of flavor to the game's world, but it's usually kind of silly either way.

Something that isn't adequately communicated to the player is how thin platforms that can be passed can also be climbed up on if you jump to them but don't reach them with your feet. This led to a short bout of confusion early on, and though it feels nice, it feels like something that should've been shown a little better. The game's checkpoints are also programmed in a primitive way: only the character's position is saved. As a result, discovered areas stay discovered, and environmental events happen again... even those that happened before the checkpoint was activated. Though not major issues, they are noticeable, especially the latter. There's also a single enemy type introduced late in the game and it has an annoying tendency of flying at a diagonal dead angle for the fire hose, which is annoying.

Perhaps Nuclear Blaze's greatest strength, however, is the amount of difficulty adjustments you can make right from the pause menu. From water strength, fire spread speed, and other optional modifications, players can truly adjust the game's difficulty to make it just right for them. What's even better, should only a single room be giving you too much trouble, you can reduce the difficulty for just that room, then put it back the way it was afterwards. It makes me wonder if the checkpoint programming is due to this accessibility feature.

There are three main modes in Nuclear Blaze: Normal Mode, Kid Mode, and Hold My Beer Mode. Kid Mode is an extremely simple mode where you have to rescue cats and all difficulty is stripped away; this was specifically designed so that solo dev Sébastien Bénard's 3 year old son could play it. I think it's a really charming little addition. Hold My Beer, on the other hand, is Normal Mode with both the difficulty cranked up to 100% and also modifications to each chapter. A new enemy type is introduced, fire spreads much faster, and you can destroy doors quickly, not to mention that saving all the cats gives a new secret room and dialogue this time around. I'd say it's worth playing through both Normal and Hold My Beer, as both are different enough to warrant separate playthroughs. There is only one boss in the game, and it's an adequate one, though it can be frustrating on default difficulties due to the player dying in one hit.

The game's soundtrack was made by Pentadrangle. With chiptune synths over "real" instruments, Nuclear Blaze's soundtrack is like the game itself: short, sweet, and effective. It's quite memorable and some of the more intense tracks really stand out, my favorite being "Getting Out." The electric guitar's tone throughout the soundtrack is really satisfying, and the entire thing really fits the general feeling you get playing through the game. Sound design is also quite good, with the water refill sound and the success jingle being really satisfying.

PROS AND CONS

PROS

• Fire mechanics that are both immersive and fun.

• Great visual style with a focus on clarity even when things get hectic.

• Effective soundtrack that enhances the gameplay experience.

• Saving the cats is a fun extra task that's never frustrating, especially thanks to the chapter select.

• Plethora of difficulty adjustments right on the pause menu allow you to finely tune the experience to what you prefer.

• Hold My Beer genuinely warrants an extra playthrough.

• Surprisingly good and tense atmosphere.

CONS

• Checkpoints feel very basically programmed and events that already happened before activating them will happen again.

• Small lack of clarity on the jump mechanic when it comes to thin platforms.

• Boss is more on the tedious side.

• Short in a way that leaves you wishing the game had more to do.

WORTH PLAYING?

The main thing that comes up when discussing Nuclear Blaze is its length. Indeed, after playing through both Normal and Hold My Beer, getting all the cats on both, and then playing Kid Mode just to see what it was, my playtime is just under 7 hours. Like I said in the cons, the game left me wanting more firefighting action, partly because I've never played a firefighting game and I enjoyed it, and partly because it feels like the game is scratching the surface.

However, if you're more of a quality over quantity kind of player, Nuclear Blaze is absolutely worth playing. The price point doesn't sting, it's a fairly rare concept for a game, and almost everything is executed so effectively that it's a joy to play. There's some fun secrets in there, the extra tasks are just as fun as the main goal of the game, the atmosphere and tension is surprisingly good, and all the accessibility features are wonderful.

Deepnight Games (Sébastien Bénard) is now working on Tenjutsu, a roguelike beat 'em up that looks like a blast to play. Streets of Rage 4's DLC proved that there is value in roguelike mechanics in a beat 'em up to me, so I'm looking forward to see how Tenjutsu does with its premise. I'm expecting the same level of care, if not more, to be put into it.

I'll also be seeking out more firefighting games, this was a blast.