Fire & Forget: The Final Assault Review

Just once I'd like to see a post-apocalyptic world where people are able to rebuild society without the threat of mutants, zombies, raiders, wackos, or any other form of nasty stuff. I mean come on, hasn't humanity endured enough by that point? Of course such a concept would probably make for a fairly uninteresting game, so until someone finds a way we have Fire & Forget: The Final Assault to slake our road warrior blood lust.

A lone hero has been called back into action after preventing an attack aimed at the International Congress of Peace. Now he's got to hop into his Thunder Master III and put a stop to a mad general's plans, or die trying. It's kind of like the Playstation 2 release of Spy Hunter. Players must steer their Thunder Master III down an assortment of treacherous highways as they pursue their target; darting between barricades, blasting rivals with lasers or missiles, and even converting to hover mode to glide harmlessly over mines and shoot down bombers. This isn't an "endless" game, however. Each level has a definitive path to follow and hazards to avoid, complete with boss fight at the end, while the Thunder Master III can take a fair amount of punishment before getting blown to bits. That's not to say it's invincible, but it can take a licking as well as repair itself by driving through health power-ups.

Fire & Forget uses a pretty impressive combination of horizontal and vertical level design, but what really makes it so cool is the fact that it's up to the player to decide when and where to take to the skies or the ground. They can use their hover jets in quick bursts to "jump" over obstacles, steer around them, blast through them, or simply spend most of their time in the air. Completing levels also earns medals (and completing them with enough points earns more), which unlock new car parts and paint colors that can be equipped as soon as they're available.

I've never been a big fan of tilt-to-steer controls, and Fire & Forget's are no exception. They're manageable, but even after adjusting the sensitivity they just didn't click with me. They can also lead to trouble when transitioning between ground and air modes as the vertical tilt controls kick in as soon as the Thunder Master III is airborne, usually resulting in some frantic tilting in order to reorient the deathmobile.

Despite the occasional control problems Fire & Forget can still be plenty of hectic arcade fun. Being able to shift between the air and ground at a moment's notice gives players the opportunity to approach each level in a variety of ways, and there are quite a few Thunder Master upgrades to chase after. Simply put: it's fun and gives players good reason to stick with it.