Paperville Panic

Review

As with many young boys, I was always fascinated by these people who were called firefighters. At first it was the big red trucks with loud sirens that were driving down the street at full speed. Any cars, trucks or other vehicles in front of them were moving away as fast as possible while pedestrians became immobile for a few seconds until all the fire engines made their way through. And what courage to stand in front of devilish flames that emit extreme heat for hours or even days at a time! Finally, my dream came through, I was accepted as a rookie firefighter in the small town of Paperville, where all people are made of . . . Paper! Oh no, there are fires emerging all around town. It’s Paperville Panic!

Paperville Panic is an FPS / adventure Virtual Reality game, developed and published by Ultimerse, were you play a rookie firefighter in a town where the inhabitants are made of paper. The game was released on 20^th of September on Steam.

The game starts at the fire station, where your new boss decides to welcome you by taking a day off! Fortunately, both of you will be able to communicate through talkie walkies. The fire station is basically a small and fun tutorial. You’ll learn how to teleport, interact with objects, and shoot ducks with your water pistol, just like a stand at a fair.

From here, you’ll get to town where you’ll directed by your boss to a mission. Make your way to the house with the shield and shoot at it with your water pistol until the shield is filled up with water. Not only will you have to put out the fire in the building, but you will also need to make sure that you help the poor buggers on fire by shooting at them with one of your water weapons. Some of them will be trapped under debris which needs to be removed in order to save them. On some occasions, you’ll have to use an axe to break down doors to be able to move forward. However, just be careful when using the axe, as you might accidentally chop the head off the individual you try to save (I did that a few times)!  Also, you’ll have to avoid getting hit by missiles or avoiding explosions, otherwise, you too will be on fire and might even die! In some other levels, you’ll be engaged in fierce gun battles against bad paper people. Plenty of squatting and moving left and right to avoid their fire bullets. Good exercise too, I might add!

Each of the levels will finish with a boss fight and you have an additional unique weapon to use at your disposal: the water bomb (remember those - such classic weapons!). Anyway, you’ll be able to throw them at the enemy or use them as ammunition to load your water shotgun or the Gatling water machine gun, for example! Not easy to shoot and reload or shoot and throw simultaneously, let me tell you! It will take a good 5 to 10 minutes to beat them.

Graphically, the game looks great, and the soundtrack is really fun too. In terms of the controls, they are fine, and I had no problem teleporting myself from one place to another. The other thing I like about this game is the narratives, which are full of humour and jokes.