Firework

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Reopen a village massacre case where the dead may not have been killed by the living.

Platforms: PC, Switch
Stores: Steam
Price: Paid
Rated: Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam (98% of 44,500 reviews)
Players: 1
Controls: Mouse and keyboard on PC.
Made by: Shiying Studio; published by Gamirror Games
Released: 2021

Not on PlayStation. Firework is on Steam, PC and Switch. It is not in the PlayStation part of the site you came from.

Get it on Steam Nintendo eShop (Switch, UK)

What frightens A rookie policeman reopens a closed massacre case in a remote Chinese mountain village after a fire breaks out at a funeral, and the more he learns of the dead family the less clear it is whether a ghost or a person killed them. Its makers promise no jump scares and almost no ghosts on screen: the fear is a slow, cold dread in watercolour streets, funeral rites and old family rooms.
Content: themes of murder and death.

Firework is a Chinese horror puzzle game by Shiying Studio. As rookie policeman Lin Lixun you reinvestigate a closed massacre case in a remote mountain village after a fire at a funeral, solving puzzles in the homes of the dead while the line between curse and crime blurs.

About Firework

Firework was made by the Chinese studio Shiying Studio and released on Steam in February 2021, published by Gamirror Games. A Nintendo Switch version followed in April 2026 in Europe. It is one of the most highly rated horror games on Steam.

An accidental fire at a funeral in a remote mountain village forces the police to look again at a massacre case that had been closed. Lin Lixun, a rookie officer, joins the reinvestigation almost by chance. As he digs, the past of the victims comes out piece by piece, and the case only grows stranger: the store asks whether it is a supernatural event or a carefully planned murder.

You walk the village's streets and houses in 2D, drawn in a faded watercolour style, examine objects and solve puzzles that are woven into the story, from old stationery to drawings left behind. The makers set out to make what they call veiled oriental horror. There are no jump scares and nowhere to hide, and ghosts are hardly seen; the fear comes from rites, rumours and rooms where something terrible happened.

It is also a story about a family and a small town in a changing China, full of details from the makers' own childhoods. It suits players who like slow investigation, folk horror and puzzles over chases and monsters.

How to play Firework

Buy it on Steam, or on the Nintendo Switch eShop in Europe.
Walk Lin Lixun through each scene and click on anything that looks out of place.
Collect items and clues, and use them on objects to solve each puzzle.
Read the notes and memories you find; they tell the family's story and point to the next step.
Follow the investigation from the funeral fire to the truth about the massacre.

Screenshots

Firework screenshot: a puzzle choice to use an old pencil sharpener on chalk beside a paper drawn with three smiling faces

Firework screenshot: Lin Lixun in uniform stands at night by a red-lit village shop window where a man looks out

Firework screenshot: an ink drawing of a toad on an altar ringed with candles, with the line A toad is muttering a spell that doesn't make any sense

Tips

Play in a quiet room with sound on; much of the fear is in the music and silence.
Look at every object closely: many puzzles hide in ordinary things like stationery and drawings.
If a puzzle stalls you, check the other places you can reach before forcing it.
Do not rush the story; small details from early scenes come back later.