PAPER FIRE ROOKIE (Formerly Paperville Panic)

I just don't get the design concept here. This could have been a game that all members of the family enjoy.

Have a city and inhabitants made out of paper and cardboard, looking like a child's game. Mechanics are simple, overall feel is cute and friendly.

Then, if you try to point the hand points with it's middle finger. Yes, the most simple VR controller gesture here is flipping the bird.

One of the bosses keeps saying the word starting with b and ending with itch. Why? Just why? Could have said anything related to the game or anything in general to being an arsonist. Nah, cursing at the player just to make it more frustrating. Other characters overload the what the f... phrase with anything staring with f.

THERE IS A MISSION WHERE YOU HAVE TO RESTART FOUNTAINS BUT THE LEVERS ARE IN THE CROTCH OF THE STATUES AND YOU HAVE TO PUMP THEM. JUST WHY?

These are so unnecessary, they don't contribute to the game, they only take away.

Npc's thank you for buying the game... which is, ok I guess, if you look at the things I wrote about.

Good:
+ looks uniform graphically
+ NPC's are talkative and funny
+ Length seems ok, though we haven't completed the game.
+ It doesn't seem lifeless and empty at any point

Meh:
# no sliding/joystick movement
# why the name change?

Bad:
- input scheme (for oculus/meta devices) aren't too good, clicking the joystick to move across great distances just feels bad for the controller. Devs could have gone with just tilting the joystick, since you can choose where to face when teleporting.
- using primary trigger for equipping, holding, shooting is not too intuitive or comfortable
- game lags when it loads up new sounds for the first time. A simple pooling would have fixed this.
- no options for teleporting. Just vignette and fast slide to the new location.
- teleporting is easily obstructed
- boss fights are too tough

I got this for a tenth of it's original price. The full price would be fair enough if the stuff above would be fixed.

3/10

Cool levels and many gameplay changing sections. I especially like the papercraftet world. The only downside is the repetitive noise made by panicking citizens.

This game is very entertaining but has surprisingly dirty humor. Nothing wrong with that but the aesthetic of the game gave me the impression it would be rather wholesome. I thought it was great.

this is funny people need to check it out and i hope you have more updates coming out

Awkward Index controls and general buggyness doesn't diminish this game's fiery sense of humor and charming gameplay. A surprise and certainly worth picking up.

It's cool but I am not fond of the controls. Game looks good, premise is good....gameplay would be good with better movement controls. I am prolly not going to play this again unless the controls are improved.

I got it on sale, I am not bitter.

Purchased this game drunk, looked funny at the time. Forgot about it till today. Played 25 boring and unfunny minutes and can’t get a refund... Don’t be me.

+Creative
+Fun
+$5.84 on sale is a great price for this

-Narration is a little too much
-Controls are a little wonky (But are okay for the most part)

3/5

This is a really fun, creative adventure game where you're in a land of cardboard putting out fires. I'd definitely pick this one up while it's on sale, possibly even if it's not on sale (Put play the demo first to see if you'd enjoy it).

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Played with WMR

In Paperville Panic, you take on the role of a newly hired firefighter in a cardboard board town. As you conclude your introductory training, fires and other mischief begins breaking out around the city. It is your job to save the cardboard beings from hazards and uncover the source of the current disasters.

The movement in Paperville Panic is done by teleportation with no other alternatives options available in the settings menu. The most notable settings available are individual knobs for adjusting different volume option, the ability to enable or disable room scale, and a single knob to adjust all the graphics options. With the settings menu addressed let's get into the game.

Paperville Panic barely takes over 2 hours to complete. These two hours are composed of a brief tutorial, exploring the main hub area - which is a delightful looking cardboard town, and completing a total of five missions.

The story is quite simple and is mainly delivered as a voice-over during various missions and in the hub world. These story updates often consist of your new boss altering you about recent events and telling you where to find the next mission. There is just enough of a plot to piece together the rather random events and the way the mystery unfolds is humours enough to be entertaining while allowing for the gameplay to take priority.

The main cardboard town acts as a menu for selecting the various missions. Between the cars zipping around the roads, vendors at their stalls, and individuals casually playing cards in the park there is always something visually engaging to look at within the main section of the town. Yet, when you arrive at some of the areas further along the outer edges there is a distinct lack of activity in them. They particularly stood out to me as seeming incomplete since they take up a good chunk of space and seem like an ideal place for adding on another mission which are a tad lacking in the game.

The five missions available are the heart of the game and provide a good amount of variety with decently-well crafted bosses at the end of each of them. Each mission has a completely different thematic problem to address and a unique water-based fire-arm to assist in tackling that situation with. You begin by doing standard firefighter duties such as putting out flames with your squirt gun and uncovering individuals who are buried beneath piles of rubble, you later find yourself sorting toys and taking down criminals. This allows for the pacing and engagement from mission to mission to be exceptional as you find yourself encountering new objectives and new tools constantly.

The quality of the combat substantially fluctuates based on the weapon that you are using, ranging from bland to good. The one that stands out as being the worst is the ax which is, unfortunately, the only melee weapon that you have for the entirety of the game. The impact that this ax has when comes to cutting down doors or breaking object is solid as the impact is visually shown and audio cues back up the action. The biggest issue is using the ax on enemies. For flying enemies you merely have to touch them they will simply fall onto the ground. While standard enemies will usually let out a mild grunt or moan when decapitated. There is also no requirement to hold the ax with the sharp side facing the enemies, you can just slap them with the side of it and somehow de-head them. The lack of meaningful audio cues, visual feedback, or required precision results in a noticeable lack of impact which makes the ax, especially for being the one melee weapon that you have during the entire game, lame to use.

On the other hand, most of the water-based weapons are enjoyable to use thanks to them having a solid visual splash and sound effect. The double-barrel shotgun stands out as being particularly enjoyable since it requires you to constantly load up new ammo in the form of water-balloons into its chambers. The steady requirement of quick player inputs in order to successfully operate the weapon is highly engaging. The same can also be said for the pump-action gun as it requires accurate rapid movement in order to refuel it. The three remaining weapons which are: the squirt gun, timed pistol, and water balloons are all decent enough but lack the constant engagement that the other guns provide.

The artistic design is cheerful, bright, and charming despite the unfortunate events that are taking place. The game looks like a kids arts and craft projects and is visually joyful to experience. I particularly like the simple hand-drawn style of the faces for the cardboard characters and the design of the major who has toilet paper for his head. While it visually conveys a childish demeanor there is also a bit of edginess mixed within the story and gameplay. This is demonstrated by how you can decapitate civilians and the raunchy jokes that mixed in throughout the story. An artistic area that is a bit neglected is the animation of the characters. Even the main characters often have overly simple animation loops that look passable at times and rather bad in other cases. There are also some rather jarring animation shortcuts are taken at times.

Lastly, a lot of the game’s humor relies on referencing other media or games which I personally did not care for. But there is some lowbrow humor which is entertaining for just how dumb it can be.

Overall, Paperville Panic is a tolerable title. The main portion of the city is lively and the game’s world is creatively wonderful. But, the empty parts of the open world sections should have included two more mission to better fill both the hub area and the overall game. However, the missions that are included do a good job of frequently keeping the player interested with different themes, guns, and bosses. Yet, the fluctuation of the game’s combat depending on the weapon of choice prevent the game from being a fair title.

I really had fun with this. The sense of humor is silly and off beat. Would show it to my cousin Scotty. ... ... If the jerk was still talking to me...

I ended up returning it after playing half of the first level.

For an FPS-style game, the control scheme is quite unintuitive. Please give more options for movement (clicking the middle button to move & reorient is really slow and cumbersome)

Also, please figure out that the same button to holster and then fire feels quite weird. You pick up your water gun as it starts firing while you're still picking it up from your belt.

Grabbing this game ended up being a welcome late-night distraction after a longer day at work.

It's short, as many Unity VR titles are, yet sweet, as many indie VR shooters are. The small selection of levels each offer distinct scenarios centering on a different weapon. Gunplay feels great and, as always, I wish there was more of it.

As a silly America, I love how Australian the game is in its outrageous dialogue. It's easy to tell that the team behind Paperville Panic had a good time crafting the game.

It should also be noted that this game is surprisingly vulgar and features many crude innuendos. It's all fun and games, but I'm still concerned about the kid-friendly cardboard/paper visuals reeling in a younger audience.

I really suggest playing the demo. While it spoils some of the best bits of the game, it's a riot and fits into a short session that’s worth experiencing or even sharing with friends locally.

G'donya Ultimerse.

TLDR; This is already is a pretty good game with a LOT of potential, that needs a bit more content, but worth it in its current form.


Game has around 2-3hrs of story levels, Each being different on its "mechanics", i was expecting at least 2 or 3 levels like the demo/1st level (run around in a building saving people and putting out fires) but only the 1st one was like that, after that each level works different, as in you need to do different things, this kinda screwed with me because some levels you walk until you reach an "action" point where you cant move, and enemies start coming in waves and you had to take cover within your designated play area... but then other levels once the "presentation" was over you could teleport and move way more freely around the VR playspace.

The last level is the best by far imo, the most "campaing like", when it was over i STILL WANTED MORE! that obviously is a good sign, but it also means it felt unfinished, sure the last mission does feel like a final mission... but id absolutely would have loved to have at least a couple more "pure" firefighter levels, instead of almost immediately going from fighting fire, to to fighting the evil cronies of a mad man in a conspiracy that goes to the highest place in the goverment.

The guns feel like 1 use and be done with, way underused. Different types of guns i recall: auto turret that has to be aimed and reloaded, double barrel balloon shotgun, pump action pistol, automatic reload pistol, the axe and the semiautomatic pistol and granades. so, a decent ammount of guns, that basically you once on 1 level and never see it again.

There are a few different enemies, like the ones that rush towards you, the ones that shoot missiles from afar, and the ones that shoot at you, and of course the level bosses.

If "weapon selection" was a thing, it would be obvious to make each weapon extra effective against a different kind of enemy... and having the player change them on the fly depending on what wave the game is throwing at you, obviously not forcing the player to change, but adding extra damage because affinity or something. (i dont get why getting the paper enemies wet with the gun wouldnt work at least a bit, why it HAD to be with a granade or viceversa)

A couple more indicators would be welcomed, like with the final boss i wish it had an indicator that my bullets where not doing anything as i spent like 10 minutes avoiding him and shooting him without it doing anything until realizing the "slap attack" was meant to be kind of a queue for me to slap him... with the axe :/ so it would trigger his move where i could actually damage him.

Dialogue is pretty funny (Subtitles should be added!) and i liked all the voices, the 4th wall breaking was great!

I feel the settings had very little to choose from, and of course, there is only Teleport movement, which is a bummer, but being the kind of game it is, its fine imo. (but having more movement options would be better)

I dont know the "roadmap" for this game, it feels unfinished, BUT it already has a respectable amount of content and it truly shows potential! I bought it on a 60% off sale, and i feel it was more than an adaquate price! ~3hrs of gameplay, good graphics, good performance, nice audio (voices music and sounds), funny dialogue and a LOT of potential.

Recommended.

Great game. The style is awesome, and all the characters walking around really makes the town seem alive. The levels are aren't too challenging, and the game ran under 3 hours, but lots of fun and some replayability. Definitely recommend.

One suggestion i have would to have a language filter in the settings. The game has great humor that i didn't feel was bad, but there were a few places where the language gets a bit rough and not appropriate for kids. However most of the game seemed perfect for all ages.

One wish would be to see mods for this game. With the town and characters, there is so much potential for more levels and mini games.

Seems like a fun idea but lacks execution. I had difficuilty with the teleportation. Sometimes it didn't seem to work, and when it did work it made me feel a little sick. It uses teleportation style movement, which is fine, but it zooms you there instead of blanking the screen and teleporting you there. For some reason that just bothers my stomach. It may just be me, or that I was distracted by the movement, but I also had a bit of a hard time knowing where I was supposed to go next, and the announcer in the game is not impressed. My boyfriend came in the room and asked me why an Australian man was yelling at me so much lol

This games a bundle of fun. Great humour and storytelling in a VR title.
I was surprised how fun it was just exploring the hub world listening to the silly lines everyone had to say.
The story is just a tad bit cheeky with a lot of references and surprise laughs.
The throwing controls initially were hard to master on a Windows MR headset. Probably more due to the tracking of that headset though. Not game breaking just had to change my throwing technique a little.

Ps. Super glad to hear australian voices in games for a change.

This is a really cool concept for a game! Trying to save people made out of paper whilst watching the world burn is ridiculously fun and it ignited a weird dark side in me... I enjoyed watching the people burn, running around like headless chooks... only in the game... of course...

Not a big VR player usually, but it was recommended by some friends so thought why not! Didn't make me feel sick, it felt very smooth, so double ++

If you've got VR, get amongst it, you won't regret it!

I just finished the title, and its rather short but fun. In this game, the player play as a rookie firefighter, who is issued with a water gun that can be sprayed at fire to pull them out. In the first level, the player can find an axe, which can be used to break down doors to rescue the survivor.

This is not a wave shooter. in this game, player will be navigating linear paths to pull out fire and rescue people along the way, which is rather straightforward. The game uses teleportation, and in some situation, you will have to shift your body to dodge the fire projectiles (or just shoot them out of the way). There are also bosses which you can fight too.

The game is rather short, about an hour of gameplay length, but the developer will be adding more stages which will increase the length and expand the content of the game.I will be returning to this title few months later after the update has been out.

I REALLY liked the firefighting parts of this game. It ran very well and had no issues. The latest addition sadly I did not enjoy very much (it's the conveyor belt whre you have to shoot the defective toys)
I will try the conveyor belt game a few more times but the fire fighting parts are just so much fun.
I really hope they add more firefighting parts to the game.
Its short but it's in Early Access so I know there will be more.
It's very funny and the attention to detail is very nice. Here's hoping it gets more fire fighting parts soon.

Thanks to the devs for fixing the exe bug that was going on. Just have to say this game is super fun. Alittle short atm but im sure they will pack this thing full of stuff to do. Keep up the great work guys.