PC Gamer - UK (2021-12)

Euphoria

Contentment

Despair

TIME

Thesetupissimple.Ourunnamed

protagonisthasleftfor the woods to

burnallhispossessions, and it’s your

jobtopush,drop,orslide the crates

ofhisbelongingsintoa fire. In this

block-y,voxelworld,

youcanonlymove

forward,backwards,or

pivotonthespot.Any

blockyou’reholding

willswingroundasyou

turntoo,sospaceis

key.Earlypuzzlesset

thestagesimplyon

howtonavigateand

manipulatethatspace – like how to

besuretoclimbstairs backwards, so

youdon’tbrickyourself in.

AsBonfirePeaksprogresses, it

introducesnewelements – longer

bricks,conveyor-beltlike streams,

andIndianaJones-esque pressure

trapsamongthem.Unlike the smooth

onboardingatthestart of the game,

theintroductionofthese complicated

puzzleelementscanfeel disruptive.

BUILDINGBRIDGES

Withthelongbricks,for instance, I

firstmetthemintheoverworld as a

bridge.Sointhepuzzle that

immediatelyfollowed, I built on that

idea,andtriedtoconfigure a bridge

betweenmyselfandmy crate-of-stuff.

Itdidn’tquitereach,so I tried

repeated,differentconfigurations of

bridge.Allofthemfailed, until I

eventuallyrealisedIneeded to use

thebrickstopushthe crate, instead.

Itmightseemobvious to try

anothertactic,butthe puzzles in

BonfirePeaksaretricky. They’re

full-onheadscratchers, and failing a

fewtimesisanecessary part of

troubleshootingyourway through to

thecorrectapproach.So building a

rubbishbridgedidn’timmediately

signify that I wasn’t supposed to be

building a different, better bridge – I

just thought my bridge was bad.

As you climb through the forested

overworld, you

encounter remnants of

the life you’re

presumably leaving

behind. The big

calculator and chunky

TV say ‘I’m burning all

my belongings to

escape to nature’, but

other elements suggest

something more tragic may have

happened. The distribution of large,

obvious symbols to suggest a story

feels more on the nose than it does

sentimental,however. Paired with

morerandomassets – including a

bafflingpileofsliced watermelon at

theemotionalclimax of the game –

andtheeffectfeels distracting.

PEAKTIME

BonfirePeaks’care to neither

frustratenorcondescend contributes

to its meditative feel. You only need

to complete a few puzzles per zone

to progress. It’s a quick tap of a

button to undo a careless mistake –

or to capitalise on one that triggers an

‘aha’ moment – and you can undo

your way all the way back to the

beginning of the puzzle, if you so

choose. It’s a careful balance to keep

you in your element.

This consideration backfired for

me, however. I increasingly found

that there was some foundational

part of the puzzle’s logic I didn’t get.

There were zones where I set a

significant number of puzzles aside

because I couldn’t even find ways to

experiment, let alone divine a

solution. So when I reached the

climax of the game, I found myself

unable to make the final ascent.

When the solution was later shared

with me, it turned out I’d been

building bad bridges all over again:

by not mastering a late-game

mechanic, I’d only learnt a wrong

way to read the puzzle.

Any individual puzzle in Bonfire

Peaks is good – brilliant, actually

• tightly crafted, using every part of a
  puzzle map for necessary bottlenecks,
  obstructing height, or escalating
  stairways precisely as needed. Its
  world is beautiful, and as a collection
  of puzzles, it’s incredibly smart. If
  only its uneven progression and
  self-conscious story additions didn’t
  makeforasroughaclimb.

79

Bonfire Peaks is

charming – but without

establishing its tricks, it

risks leaving less fluent

puzzlers behind.

VERDICT

A

sIsatin the snow at the peak of Bonfire Peaks, I’d reached

thefinal part of my journey: by failing to complete the

game.I’d been on a beautiful journey of puzzles so damn

trickythat I, too, wanted to pack it all up and go into the

woods, but it ended here. Whatever closure the main

characterwaslooking for by burning all his belongings, he wouldn’t

quitefindit,andneither would I.

FIRE WALK

BONFIRE PEAKS leaves plenty to think about – and to burn

By Ruth Cassidy

Other elements

suggest

something

tragic may have

happened

NEEDTOKNOW

WHAT IS IT?

A sokoban puzzler

where you burn crates

of your belongings in a

voxel-styled forest

EXPECT TO PAY

£16

DEVELOPER

Corey Martin

PUBLISHER

Draknek & Friends

REVIEWED ON

Windows 10, Intel Core

i5-8300H, 8GB RAM,

GeForce GTX 1050

MULTIPLAYER

No

LINK

bonfirepeaks.com

EMOTIONAL ROLLERCOASTER

The ups anddownsofpuzzle-solving

“I can do

this!”

“I am in the

zone.”

“I cannot

do this.”

“I am

moving to

the woods.”

“Wait a

minute...”

“Aha!”

Bonfire Peaks

REVIEW