Little Inferno is AWESOME! – Episode 2, 7.0 out of 10 based on 9 ratings

“If you have nothing good to say, don’t say anything at all.“

That’s almost true, although I can praise the game for working. Not once did I encounter a glitch or frame rate issue and the controls/interface are easy to use. The simple design and flow of the game open the door for anyone with the ability to both point and click. However, I would state that, due to the rather depressing and somewhat twisted narrative, younger gamers should probably be steered far away from this title. The art style is original in the same way that a new Tim Burton movie is original–mixing a wacky colorful cast of creatures and objects with depressingly grey undertones. It’s pleasing enough, but felt better placed in World of Goo, also developed by Tomorrow Corporation’s Kyle Gabler.

That is where my compliments end. Little Inferno is easily one of the worst games I have played in a long time. In fact, I find it hard to classify Little Inferno as a game at all, and not in a “Journey and Flower are more than games” kind of way.

The basic idea is that you need to burn items to stay warm. You start with a little money and with this you can purchase a variety of items to ignite from a catalog. Torching said items produces more money which then allows you to buy a larger selection of flammable objects. Items must be delivered before they can be used and depending on the item this can take seconds or minutes.

You can also spend money on increasing the amount of items you can hold at one time or a new catalog of items. The latter requires you to have found combos, which are simply 2 or 3 items that burnt together fill some criteria, like a pirate and a boat to complete a sea related combo. These combos allow access to the purchase of new catalogs as well as gifting you tokens which can be spent to near instantly deliver an item to your inventory.

It’s a very simple premise with easy point, click, and drag components. The problem comes in the way of point, as in, “What is the point?”

Letting the fire go out does nothing to hamper your progression with no penalty or setback for doing so. Items that cost more don’t necessarily burn better, just produce more money when burnt, speeding up the process of finishing the game. All you need to do is burn things, make money, and discover just shy of half the 100 combos in the game to complete the title, which can easily be done in a couple of hours. It really isn’t that taxing.

It occurred to me at one point during the game that what I am doing is essentially dragging items into my recycle bin on my desktop, just with flashier graphics. The combos weren’t exactly fun to find, nor were they particularly difficult to figure out, with each available combo having a name that less resembles a clue and is more akin to a neon light spelling out the items you need to use.

I actually spent the entire experience trying to figure out what the point was, and even after the bizarre ending sequence of events, I found myself still wondering the same question. That was when I started to get angry. I wanted those hours back.

There is a story that runs alongside the burning process, but it’s both nonsensical and full of pretentious rhetoric. The letters often appear in your item slots, hinting at some bigger meaning for your actions and the world around you, but the game eventually proved to be so involved in itself that it failed to ever make its point. This is indie writing at its worst and coming from one of the minds behind the wonder that was World of Goo, I am deeply disappointed.

The developers promised a title that was “short, polished and as a perfect as possible”, and they delivered on 2 of those 3. What is there works and works fine. Despite there being no graphical or sound options in game, Little Inferno runs really well and is a smooth experience. The issue is that I never want to experience it again. The best thing I can say about this title is it made me want to play World of Goo, but quite frankly I would have taken Daikatana at an hour in.

If I had paid money for this game I would have been furious, and I mean even if it was a 99 cent app. I genuinely fail to see the point of Little Inferno. Even when this game inevitably hits the Steam sales in the future, I recommend that people avoid it.

This game was provided by the publisher for review purposes on PC. The game was completed in under 3 hours including the pause time it took to cook and eat. There is a single player mode with no multiplayer or additional unlocked modes upon completion.