Bonfire Peaks

Bonfire Peaks is a grid-based sokoban game about manipulating blocks in order to burn away your past. Each self-contained level is solved by maneuvering boxes full of personal items over an open flame. The puzzles are often challenging and elegant, forcing you to devise surprising moves in cramped three-dimensional setups.

You play as an unnamed male protagonist seeking to start anew and find closure by relieving himself of his past. To do so, you push and stack blocks until you’re able to get a special box — one which contains old, distressing belongings — to burn on a bonfire. Later levels introduce traps, channels of water that will carry off the character, and longer boxes that require a different strategy to move. Bonfire Peaks features an undo and reset mechanic, allowing ease and flexibility in solving its levels.

Similar games like Stephen’s Sausage Roll and Patrick’s Parabox also feature confined puzzle rooms which interconnect into much larger overworlds. Here, clearing the levels will light up campfires in the overworld and grant you boxes to aid in your ascent of the titular Peaks. A lot of lateral thinking and spatial visualization is required to address the limited space of each level, although some levels can be skipped as long as you’ve gathered enough boxes to reach the next overworld area.

One of the most striking features from Bonfire Peaks’ is its unique voxel art that brings a sense of coziness. The crackling flames and soothing soundtrack add to the ambience — but also play into the environmental storytelling. With a lack of a timer, there isn’t any pressure to complete the puzzles and it feels akin to the process of letting go.

A 3-part DLC called Bonfire Peaks: Lost Memories was later released, adding new mechanics and areas to explore.

This description was written by Hira.