Arsonist Heaven | PS4 Review

It's Summer. The world is on fire in so many ways. From the wildfires to the extreme heat temperatures we're all feeling the burn. To add to the heat EastAsiaSoft has decided to release "Arsonist Heaven" across multiple platforms including the PlayStation 4. This mutant extermination extravaganza has the corporate purifier on blast. A specialist who uses jetpacks, and flamethrowers to burn down baddies that have escaped a company experiment gone wrong. Call it quality control, call it pest control, or whatever. All you need to know is that to make bank, and keep your job you have to fry some fiends. Your only problem being the limited stock of fuel tanks, health, and jet fuel at your beckon call. Management of said resources is the key of coming out on the winning side of this backyard barbeque. 

Setup in numerical groups of five stages ending in a boss fight "Arsonist Heaven" has you using the tools of your purifier trade for completion sake. The end goal being the eradication of all that moves. You have at your disposal a limited stock of fuel tanks for your flamethrower, a jetpack that has a cooldown period, and health to mind. Both health refills, and fuel tanks can be found scattered about the level, and collected when in a pinch to help finish the job. There's also the occasional gun upgrade that packs more punch which you can add to your arsenal. With these tools you have a certain number of mutants to melt before the current stage is considered done. Stages themselves are basic 2D platforming stages with pitfalls, hazards, and mutants abound. Done up in a pixel art style that is nicely animated. When, or if you make it to the fifth stage of each stage set you will encounter a boss that must be smoked in order to move on. In said boss battles you have access to an alternate weapon, and several fuel tanks with which to burn away the boss's health. The bosses do have attack patterns like every other mutant critter, and learning that pattern will help you end with a job well done, pun intended.

For $4.99 this is about all that you get. A basic action survival game based on extermination, and resource management. It isn't the most fair of experiences though as the game leans heavily on an artificial difficulty, and a randomness to enemy activity that will throw you off when you feel you are safe. For example, sometimes enemies will take longer to kill, and other times they'll move in close when you are in a cheat spot that allows advantage. The game does reward players that cheat the system and bait enemies to places they can't reach. Making that cheap approach the only safe one when it comes to completing the tasks at hand. Even though the jetpack offers boosted jumps, and double jumps to get out of the way those dodge mechanics are limited by a gauge that will deplete, and refill slowly. when not in use. Forcing the player to play extremely strategically or die trying. 

The Verdict ...

Honestly, I imagined this game being something entirely different than it turned out to be. It was very gimmicky, and artificially difficult by design. Forcing the player to play in a specific way, and that way was not fun. It was more akin to solving a puzzle than fire blasting the fool out of mutants like the title suggested. The protagonist felt very underpowered, and limited. Again, something that contradicts the title of the game.

Visually the game is alright. All character and creature sprites are well animated and constructed. As were the stages themselves. Even the soundtrack is alright in a retro kind of way. As a full package though the gameplay plus all of this did not deliver on the level I'd hoped it would. It's like instead of simply giving the player ways to enjoy the game they based it fully on road blocks, and hindrances placed between them and the end goal. I get that's what the game is designed to be, but I feel it's to a degree that it's so artificially difficult that it leaves little room for fun. To that end, even for the low price, I cannot recommend it.