Review: Escape From Flare Industries

 Escape From Flare Industries sounds like a pretty awesome game. When I heard the title I assumed it would be a fast paced, stealthy puzzler with lots of excitement and… fire. For some reason the word flare makes me think of fire. Anyways, I was disappointed when I was finally able to play the game. There were numerous bugs, long load times and just some super frustrating gameplay in general.

When you first start up the game it asks you what language you’d like to play in. This would be fine if this just popped up the first time you turned the game on, but it pops up every time you play. It wouldn’t be as frustrating if the load times weren’t so long. But they are, and I can’t really fathom why since the game is so small and simple.

One positive is the adorable main character Splat. Nothing more than a green slime ball, but a cute green slime ball. You must navigate him through the Flare Industries factory in his attempt to escape and be free of his cage once and for all. There are also other slime prisoners to rescue along the way and flasks to collect. Successfully rescuing another slime and collecting the flask is your mission in each level. You can finish the level without collecting them, but what’s the challenge in that? There’s also your health bar to worry about. When Splat leaves the safety of the light he will gradually lose health. Gettiing him back under a light source will replenish his health. I don’t really get it, but hey I’m not a game designer now am I…

As I navigated my way through a few levels I began to feel very angry towards this game. Not only is it a bit laggy at times but the jump button is wishy-washy on when it wants to work. There are also times when you will have to push a block(s) onto a switch to open the exit or reach a higher platform. Trying to get these blocks where you want them to go is the tricky part. Usually you could just tilt the joystick in any direction and your character will push the block along. In Flare Industries you have to push the joystick over and over again (kind of like tapping) and the block barely moves. Since these block were involved in a lot of the puzzles I was dreading moving on with this game.

There are a few other small problems but those are my main concerns. The graphics are pretty cheap looking, like an App Store type game. The music also isn’t great and gets a little repetitive at times. Level design wasn’t great either due to the fact that I could barely navigate the blocks I needed to proceed and the same background and scenery was used a lot. I really hate to down a game this much but I’m kind of tired of these games that belong on phones making it into the eshop.

Overall Escape From Flare Industries could have been an ok game for the WiiU but it seems the development was a bit rushed, Not to mention there are only 16 levels in the game. None of them are too complicated so if you can get through them without glitching and breaking your controller it wont take you long at all. Hopefully they can sort out the bugs and make the game a little less frustrating for the people that are interested in purchasing it. Flare Industries is available in the WiiU eShop for $3.99, if you’re willing to give it a shot I would definitely wait for a discount.