Firegirl: Hack ‘n Splash Rescue DX

In contrary to many other reviews, I had fun playing the game, enough to finish the story and get 100% achievements. The graphics are really nice, the music is good, and the mechanics are simple to use and understand. To me, to procedural generation of the levels felt robust, once I understood the logic of the various types of doors (a burning arrow means that you won't be able to go back, which means that all other paths except the level exit (green sign) will be dead ends, so explore those before), it felt really natural and intuitive.

The game is definitely not perfect though, I would have appreciated if the Firegirl would get to her running speed faster, and if the jetpack mechanic would have been more responsive. But aside from that, I didn't encounter any game breaking bug or anything bad. The train level is quite hard and frustrating, but becomes easier as more upgrades are bought, it also seems to me that it is shorter than other levels because there isn't much need for exploration, so it becomes easy money at some point. It would also have been a nice addition to allow us to choose the level once the campaign is completed.

Just like most roguelike games, it is hard until we master the mechanics and get a few upgrades, so the first few hours may be painful, but it eases up after a while. It took me about 8 hours to complete the main campaign, and around 3-4 hours to get the remaining achievements and level up the skills and upgrades.

Yes, but...

I first played it back in 2022. I was amazed by how good it looked, let's be honest, it really is visually appealing. However, I ended up quitting in frustration because I found it unfair and incredibly annoying.

In 2025, I realised that I had never uninstalled it, so I decided to give it another chance. It's still frustrating, mainly due to the procedural level design. Sometimes you die simply because of how the level is generated. Maybe it's an enemy you can’t avoid, a leap of faith that leads to your death, or a mission where the person you're supposed to rescue doesn't show up in time.
The difference now is that I persevered a little longer than I did in 2022. I started unlocking upgrades that gradually made the game a little more manageable. There are still frustrating moments, but it's now less likely that I won't have the tools to deal with them.
The real shame is that I think this game had the potential to be truly great.

So, would I recommend Firegirl? Yes, it's good value for money when it's on sale, but only if you're willing to be patient, as the beginning is difficult and requires grinding upgrades.

pretty good game but the upgrades prices are very high, and can be challenging at first few hours due to time and water tank.

Yeah, it's alright!
You face a series of fires in (eventually) 4 locales, rushing through the building to find and rescue survivors while dodging or extinguishing firey enemies before finding an escape. Extinguishing fires gives extra time (usually only a second or two, but there area more substantial exceptions), and between runs you can spend money to hire staff and upgrade your equipment and abilities.
It took me about 5 hours to finish the main game; didn't quite get all the upgrades or achievements, but a satisfying chunk of time. I think that's just about the right time to avoid the environments feeling too samey; while the random generation works pretty well, you will start to get very familiar with the staircases, cave networks, and vent systems across these locations.
There are a couple of tiny rough edges... A few minor typos here and there, camera placement being a bit too constrained in certain places, frustrating placement of enemies (especially on the train..., occasional level generation issues (on one occasion I wound up in an area where I couldn't go back, but the only way forward was blocked by one of the invincible flame cascades from a doorway... only once though!)... But overall this is a charming and fun title.
My advice? Concentrate on getting upgrades for your money, and when you start finding yourself in new locations, focus on hose power upgrades. Any time you think you're not having fun, upgrade your hose power; turns out, flying round on a jet of high-pressure water is a good time! Ooh, and; hire the dog ASAP. You won't regret it.

I got it off Fanatical for a dollar. I think at that price its a question of is it even worth playing or even a download? I think it is. Game does feel cheap, as in cheap deaths. Games not hard but is unfair and the platforming is annoying. Its appeal is its different, unique and to me because its a roguelite.

I can sum up this game with a metaphor. It's like dipping your toes into the shallow end of the pool, to get a feel, and then before you have learnt to swim, someone tosses you right into the deep end and has you figure it out. That's just how punishing the instant difficulty spike felt to me. In just my first two rooms after starting the game, I would commonly find my self facing a good dozen flame monsters with fire being tossed at me from multiple angles. By the time I saved the first survivor, I was already out of water and down to one heart. Adding to that, it was common to get hit or even killed just because the Goddess of RNG decided to put a fire demon right outside the door of the next room which hit me before I even saw it. This made an often unfair, and frankly frustrating, game to grind through.
But going to the positives, after you start leveling, you almost instantly feel the difference. Areas that felt impossible start feeling easy. And it feels unbelievably good becoming near un-killable and taking all that pent up frustration on the creatures that have been making you their torch lights (I won't say how, figure that out for yourself). Put together the full experience really did feel like being a rookie that had to trial by fire (excuse the pun) before becoming a true hero.
Final thoughts, if you can be patient and are okay failing a few times before getting it right, the game is worth trying. If not, you may want to skip it before destroying your laptop.

Not great, but not bad. Should have been a level based game rather than a rogue-like as the random levels and repetition adds nothing to the game. Core platforming and concept is fun, and the graphics are a nice blend of pixel and 2.5D, and the story is fine, albeit janky. I swear I missed a cutscene or two because the ending and twist just feels out of nowhere.
What really would kill the game for a lot of players is how it takes a while to get up to speed. Until you get some decent upgrades to hose power and water tank capacity, it's damn hard to get through a whole level while saving everyone, and until you start gaining fans at a good rate, getting funds is a slow process. The RNG can also make progress and play annoying as it can take forever to get to the people/items in a level, or you could get them at the very start. Or, you can get the same kind of level over and over and over again. There's four types of levels, and I was only getting one for the first third of the game.
My recommend, get it cheap, real cheap.