Candle: The Power of the Flame Review

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2D, Action, adventure, Candle: The Power of the Flame, Candle: The Power of the Flame Review, Daedalic Entertainment, Fantasy, Hand-drawn, indie, Merge Games, Platformer, Puzzle, Rating 7/10, Teku Studios, Xbox One, Xbox One Review

This week I was hoping for something better put together than the last game I reviewed. Candle: The Power of the Flame by Teku studios was the game for this week. Candle: The Power of the Flame is a game that I have been thinking about trying for a bit now. Let’s hope that it is enjoyable, and that it isn’t going to be a game to avoid… I don’t think I could handle that two weeks in a row.

Candle: The Power of the Flame is a visually, lovely looking, 2d puzzle adventure game that seems to get the balance in the puzzles right nearly all the time; I will talk about that a bit later. In Candle: The Power of the Flame, we play as Teku, who is tasked with the job of getting the Shaman back that has been captured by a tribe called the Wakcha. All you have is a candle that seems pretty tough to actually extinguish at times, and your ability to solve the puzzles that will lie ahead. Candle: The Power of the Flame is one of those games that does not hold your hand. You may get a little hint, but that might be for something that is still a good half hour or so away (depending on how quick you can beat everything else that is ahead of you). This is what can make it either really annoying at times, and at the same time, make you feel so goddamn happy and proud when you figure something out.

2D, Action, adventure, Candle: The Power of the Flame, Candle: The Power of the Flame Review, Daedalic Entertainment, Fantasy, Hand-drawn, indie, Merge Games, Platformer, Puzzle, Rating 7/10, Teku Studios, Xbox One, Xbox One Review

I tend not to be one for games that are too difficult when it comes to the puzzles, as sometimes I will admit, I can maybe rage a bit. However, as I said, Candle, in my opinion, seems to get it right. I have come across puzzles that I can get my head around within a minute or two, the sort that seem to come naturally within seconds, and of cause the puzzles that can take a fair bit of time in order to figure them out. The thing is that I have not felt like I am always facing puzzles that I am having trouble to solve, it seems you will tend to come across a challenging puzzle, but then met with a couple nice ones. This helps keep you motivated and invested in the game, and not deciding to give up after a short time. When playing this, I was remembering playing Grim Fandango, and Day of the Tentacle. I think Candle: The Power of the Flame, wants to be like these, a point and click adventure almost, the way some of the puzzles feel, and how the items appear when trying to do puzzles. If that’s the case then I have to say I have enjoyed this more than the two I mentioned.

There is something about Candle: The Power of the Flame that I always wanted to come back to, I wanted to return and beat the puzzles, and I felt kind of proud when it was a tough one. I never had that with the other two I mentioned.

Candle: The Power of the Flame does have maybe a slight issue with the controls, and at times while I learnt that I have to try and remember to explore areas in case I missed anything…well, there have been times I felt that Teku wasn’t as responsive as he could have been. I have died a fair bit trying to make jumps, when everything seemed lined up, because he never grabbed the ledge, or seemed to not understand that I was jumping under something that, not two minutes ago, he was happy to grab on to. This can get somewhat annoying, and can be made worse if you are doing a lot of back-tracking in figuring out a puzzle, more so if it is a really challenging puzzle.

2D, Action, adventure, Candle: The Power of the Flame, Candle: The Power of the Flame Review, Daedalic Entertainment, Fantasy, Hand-drawn, indie, Merge Games, Platformer, Puzzle, Rating 7/10, Teku Studios, Xbox One, Xbox One Review

Teku studios have done an amazing job with the visuals. Candle: The Power of the Flame has a gorgeous hand drawn look to it. The lighting is beautiful, which means I didn’t care about doing some back-tracking in the game, when trying to figure out where I had to go or what I had to do next. It gave me an excuse to be able to take in the environments that had been done so lovely.

There are a couple of times that this made things difficult to know if there was something hidden away behind something. This only happens every so often, and I learnt that sometimes I will end up having Teku jump to his death… or find a little hidden platform. However having things sometimes blend into the background can be a little annoying when all you want to do is progress.

Overall this has been an enjoyable and rewarding game. I love the hand drawn art design, as well as the story that unfolds as you play. The puzzles in the game tend to be nicely balanced, and have not got to the point where I felt that they were being unfair and making me want to quit.

The only issues that I have are the controls when jumping, and that sometimes things that are needed to progress can be blended in with the background. Meaning that the game lasted a little longer than it should I feel, and I, at times, could feel myself getting annoyed for all the wrong reasons.

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary Microsoft Xbox One code was provided to Bonus Stage for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to press@4gn.co.uk.

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Candle: The Power of the Flame Review
  • Gameplay - 7/10
    7/10
  • Graphics - 7/10
    7/10
  • Sound - 7/10
    7/10
  • Replay Value - 7/10
    7/10
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User Review
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Comments Rating 0/10 (0 reviews)
Overall
7/10

Summary

Overall this has been an enjoyable and rewarding game. I love the hand drawn art design, as well as the story that unfolds as you play and the puzzles in the game tend to be nicely balanced.


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