Wildfire

Developed by Sneaky Bastards and published by Balor Games, Wildfire is an inventive stealth platformer that transforms elemental magic into the centerpiece of its gameplay. Instead of relying on traditional combat, the game places players in the role of a villager persecuted for possessing magical abilities in a kingdom where such powers are feared. Framed as a witch and pursued by soldiers loyal to the ruling authority, your mission is to evade capture, rescue fellow villagers, and slowly reclaim a land consumed by fear and oppression. While the story is relatively simple, it provides enough emotional weight to support the adventure without distracting from the game's primary focus on strategy and experimentation. The game's greatest accomplishment is the way it encourages players to manipulate the environment using elemental powers. Fire, water, earth, and plant-based abilities are not merely weapons but versatile tools that interact naturally with the world around them. You can ignite fields to distract enemies, freeze bodies of water to reach inaccessible areas, summon vegetation to conceal your movements, or reshape the terrain to create entirely new paths. Every stage is des…

unplayable with a controller, forces you to aim using a mouse

**Recommended** Wildfire was an excellent little surprise. I finished it in about 8 hours, which honestly felt just about perfect. It introduces its ideas, keeps building on them, and gets out before any of it starts to feel repetitive. The stealth is great, but what really makes the game work is the interplay between all of the elemental abilities. Fire, water, earth, and the environment constantly interact in ways that give you multiple ways to approach a level. It makes sneaking around feel less like following a predetermined solution and more like playing with a little elemental sandbox. As I unlocked more powers, the possibilities kept opening up without the game becoming overly complicated. There’s a really satisfying mix of stealth, experimentation, traversal, and figuring out how to manipulate the environment to get where you need to go. It also plays wonderfully on the Steam Deck. This is exactly the kind of game I love having on a handheld: quick to get into, mechanically interesting, and short enough that it never becomes a commitment. Short, sweet, clever, and consistently fun. I’d highly recommend Wildfire to anyone who likes stealth games, but honestly,…

yes

Slick little platformer with some clever ImSim design at play, stages are extremely flexible with a lot of room for expressive play and dynamic encounters. Levels are well designed and platforming feels snappy, it's a lot of fun replaying stages to try different approaches and see what you can get away with. The upgrade system feels a little a little unecessary and the music/sound is a little plain but overall, I had a great time with it.

Local co-op kind of broken/bugged.