Review: Fire: Ungh’s Quest

When a Nintendo Switch review code for Fire: Ungh’s Quest arrived here at 60MW Towers, I had absolutely no idea what it was about.

20 minutes after downloading it and jumping into the game, I was still none the wiser as I controlled the Neanderthal Ungh across a landscape in search of the titular fire.

The text and dialogue free gameplay confused me (though admittedly I am older than the target audience for most games these days) and I found myself aimlessly clicking around the screen to see what (if anything) happened.

It’s all Ungh’s fault though, as at the beginning of the game he falls asleep and lets his tribes fire go out and so is banished from them.

In an attempt to ingratiate himself with them again, he sets out on his quest for fire.

This involves travelling around 10 maps with simple, yet beautifully drawn and animated, landscapes. All while trying to solve a series of puzzles that are constantly put in front of you.

The lack of dialogue and text is made up for with an engaging soundtrack…and a few grunts from Ungh.

Movement is a simple left to right, with the D Pad used to select different items that you can interact with…though not everything is immediately shown to you.

Once you know what there is to use (and these can be spread across multiple screens), it is up to you to decide what to do with them, and in what order.

This trial and error gameplay did begin to wear thin pretty quickly with me, ultimately ending in me getting very frustrated with it and not wanting to see the narrative through to its conclusion.

Even if you do make it to the end, there will be little replay value as you will know exactly what each puzzle requires, and the lack of text and dialogue takes away a layer of immersion that is sometimes a reason to go back through a game again.

Fire: Ungh’s Quest is a nice looking and competent puzzle game, but its structure left me cold…much like Ungh’s tribe after he left them with no fire.

Review by Dave.