Leave it all behind. Burn the memories of a past life and look to the future. Bonfire Peaks, the puzzle game developed by Corey Martin (former author of Pipe Push Paradise and Hiding Spot), talks about this: putting an end to it, without regrets that can somehow block our climb. A common element, that of moving forward and above all upwards, with another game that exploits the puzzle elements and the difficult climb as a metaphor for change, for life: Celeste. The rhythm of these two works couldn't be more distant, with Celeste calling for a quickness and quickness of reflexes absent in Bonfire Peaks. A game devoted to an almost surreal calm, as if it wanted to tell us not to rush, that there is change, we are ready to embrace it and there is no need to rush the times.
A sort of concern, if you like, towards a past that has defined us in any case, is part of us; where Celeste requires hand-eye coordination, taking step by step more and more difficult as the mountain we are climbing, Bonfire Peaks tests our wits - as if to represent the difficulty in letting go of our memories.
The journey we lived was mentally tiring and, although some rough edges did not convince us, on the whole it is an experience where the puzzles were not just mere fillers and represented one after the other the path to take. , so you can look to a new future. If on the one hand everyone could try it, on the other it is a game clearly addressed to puzzle lovers and to those who want to take a break, looking for (and finding) in the calm rhythm and in the growing challenge the right interlude between games in which the speed of action takes over thought.
Let's find out how in the Bonfire Peaks review on the Nintendo Switch.
Alone adrift
Carried by a white swan, we reach the bases of our personal mountain. There is no one besides us, a loneliness that proves that this path belongs to us and to no one else. Waiting for us along the road we find extinguished bonfires, which light up when we decide to sit around them and remember: what we are not given to know, but it is clear to be something we have to do without, a burden to burn. Literally, as each of the more than two hundred puzzles that make up Bonfire Peaks involves bringing a box containing our memories: each puzzle is characterized by a name, which subtly wants to be a clue on how to proceed in the resolution.
On balance it does not always go like this and, as one proceeds, the names gradually lose their meaning until they are read out of pure curiosity rather than looking for a clue; someone is still able to give us a little help but most of the work depends on the spirit of observation, on the ability to exploit what the game teaches us but above all to think outside the box. If at first a solution can be identified at a glance, over time it will become increasingly difficult to find the right balance and it is here that Bonfire Peaks sends back to us players the effort inherent in the message it speaks for: go ahead, break up. all behind. It is by no means simple and there will be times when we want to let it be, surrender, don't touch the game anymore. These are the moments to sit down, virtually, and take all the time we need. Bonfire Peaks is not in a hurry, that's the important thing.
A burden that is sometimes excessive
Beyond being finely elaborated and equipped with ever-new mechanics capable of keeping interest alive, the puzzles of Bonfire Peaks weigh a little more than necessary: a burden that we owe above all to the absence of anything else, at stake, to the beyond these puzzles. Although the reward is the progression itself and taking a little extra step, the loop you fall into very quickly - climbing the climb, solving puzzles, moving on - often takes over and after a few puzzles you tend to losing concentration, then leaving the game aside to come back perhaps later. The lack of something to break this repetitiveness, avoiding falling into a soporific scheme where in the long run not even the variety of puzzles can do much, especially in the face of the amount of puzzles, plays against experience: while understanding the underlying message, even in the face of not having to solving all the puzzles to get to the end, we have often found ourselves unwilling to continue.
Two aspects do not help in terms of game design: first of all, the lack of one three hundred and sixty degrees view. Given the structure of many puzzles, being able to examine them as a whole would have allowed us to better elaborate some solutions. Of course, it is always possible to undo the previous move, even restart the level from scratch, however not being able to see beyond a given angle is unnerving. Then there is a more practical question concerning the management of the crates itself (the physical means with which we build the path to the bonfire): the game, with all its maps, is a huge grid in which we move by squares. vertically or horizontally, without diagonal movements, and our protagonist has a height equal to two blocks.
To this extent it can collect the breakage scattered in the levels, therefore from the ground or at eye level, and similarly can stack them up to where its own height allows it. Climbing any steps can obviously increase the number of crates stacked on top of each other. The stacked crates are taken and transported all together regardless of the quantity but cannot be separated, as long as they do not meet obstacles or push them away using another crate as a lever. In practice, therefore, when we are faced with two stacked crates from which it would be enough to take the one at eye level to solve the puzzle in question more easily, we are forced to find a much more cumbersome solution to separate the two parts - or avoid stacking them from the beginning. In essence, the protagonist is programmed to collect only the crates at his feet, a complication that we think conflicts a little with his inhuman ability to lift even six of them at once. A videogame Maciste who, however, is unable to separate two elements.
This is a rather important reason why, while recognizing the sophistication of some puzzles, the magic of Bonfire Peaks has sometimes broken: the obviousness of a solution is denied us for no particular reason, thus weighing on the experience in the game. complex. That said, it remains an enjoyable game and is also well enhanced by the voxel graphics, which for a few seconds manages to make us forget our pains, inviting us to sit back and relax.
Comment
Tested version Nintendo Switch Digital Delivery Steam, Epic Games Store, PlayStation Store, Nintendo eShop Price 16,79 € Resources4Gaming.com7.5
ReadersSV
Your voteBonfire Peaks is an experience with an important underlying message: getting rid of our past burdens in order to look to the future. The more than two hundred puzzles that make it up, not all mandatory to reach the end, have an increasing level of challenge that puts our brains to the test but some deficiencies in game design make the game heavier than it could have been: absence of a three hundred and sixty-degree camera, first of all, followed by an unnecessary cumbersome handling of the tills, invalidate the otherwise fluid progression of the puzzles - which must in any case be commensurate with the ability of the individual. It's not a game for everyone but it deserves its chance.
PRO
- Very evocative atmosphere
- Always adding new mechanics
- A XNUMX degree view would have been ideal
- Cash management runs into unnecessary cumbersome
