SaltCon 2015: Flash Point: Fire Rescue
Events
Flash Point: Fire Rescue is a delightfully elegant cooperative board gaming experience. The players take on the role of a specialist in a team of firefighters who must save as many people as possible from being burned to death in a house fire. Each specialist has a unique ability that makes the scenario slightly more manageable, but without teamwork and a little bit of luck, your team is unlikely to survive the encounter. This is not your beer-and-pretzels kind of game—Flash Point is an all-out thrill from beginning to end, where mistakes are costly and death is swift. Despite its challenge, the rules never felt clunky or over-complicated. Turns moved quick, and even careful decisions never took much longer than a minute. Flash Point never seemed unfair, and despite its moments of extreme punishment, it always felt like there was a way out of the scenario. Our group easily found humor in the randomized gouts of flame, brushing off most of the tension with jokes about a clumsy dad who keeps leaving flammable materials around the house. Once you beat this one, it’s got plenty of extra challenges to keep you occupied, including higher difficulty levels and alternate building layouts. At $39.99, Flash Point beats out 90 percent of the other games at its price level. Get this one if you love a challenge, or just want to joke about high-fiving each other in slow motion after a job well done.