Firestarter starts easy enough, but dishes out quite a challenge in later levels. Of course, that might happen a lot anyway. Not surprisingly, you'll want to use the default first person camera unless you want to die very, very quickly. Sadly, the third person camera is next to useless and actually hinders your aim and response time. You can also make minor cosmetic changes to each character during character selection, but this only makes a difference when using the third person camera. While each of the six characters starts off with an attribute bonus depending on their expertise, each class gets a +10 Health bonus for each completed area. The choice is yours to make.Įach character has three basic attributes: Armor, Health and Speed. Some of the game's sequences allow mere seconds for players to complete an objective (more on that later), so characters with a greater speed attribute benefit greatly. On the other hand, you won't need to run away from enemies when you're wielding two miniguns as the four-armed mutant. For example, the Agent's speed allows for quick getaways when gun fights turn sour. Character selection could have been a gimmick, yet the developers made the most of it - you really want to play the game over as different characters because the system works so damn well. More than any other feature, the ability to choose different characters effects gameplay most. Fortunately, gameplay varies depending on what character you decide to pick. Gamers pick among the beefy Marine, the agile Agent, the four-armed Mutant, the super-accurate Gunslinger, the heavily-armored cyborg, and the fair-and-balanced Policeman. Choosing campaign mode brings up the character selection screen. The game mainly revolves around a campaign mode, which takes you through all of the game's levels as one of the six characters. Yet where Serious Sam dished out swarms of brain dead enemies and wildly hectic gameplay, Firestarter delivers smarter enemy AI, interesting weaponry, six playable characters, upgradeable skills and some of the nicest eye candy ever to grace a budget title. Like Serious Sam before it, Firestarter embraces its simplicity and runs with it. Firestarter makes no apologies for its shallow story. The player has 48 hours to blast through the game before the computer virus binds his human consciousness into the virtual world forever. A virus has infected a futuristic game and altered the rules, transforming a simple arcade game into a real life Valhalla filled with monsters borrowed from id's DOOM. Basically, the player assumes the role of an unnamed avatar trapped within a virtual reality game gone haywire. Actually, staring at the box art for a few minutes will likely give players more "story" than blasting through the game. Playing through the game reveals little more in terms of plot. The opening cinematic failed in conjuring any sense of excitement and told me nothing regarding storyline or characters.