Firework

About Firework

Firework was made by the Chinese studio Shiying Studio and published by Gamirror Games. It came out on Steam on 3 February 2021, reached GOG in December 2021 and the Microsoft Store for Windows in June 2024, and a Nintendo Switch version followed in Europe on 15 April 2026. On Steam it is one of the most highly rated horror games, with 98% of more than 44,000 reviews positive.

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 town's streets and houses left and right in 2D, drawn in a faded watercolour style, and examine the spots marked with a magnifying glass. The puzzles are woven into the story: sliding tiles, fuses to connect, a skeleton to piece together, an old pencil sharpener and a child's paper fortune-teller. Much of the game returns to the house of the murdered Tian family, which shifts around you, and a toy camera that turns rooms over is one of the stranger tools you use.

The makers set out to make what they call veiled oriental horror, with no jump scares, nowhere to hide and hardly a ghost on screen. The fear comes from funeral rites, paper figures around a family altar and rooms where something terrible happened, though Jump Dash Roll's review notes a few sudden loud noises too. That review also found the English translation rough and the plot hard to follow near the end, while players on Steam overwhelmingly praise the story.

It is also a story about a family and a small town in a changing China, full of details the makers remember from their own childhoods, such as slogans on brick walls and old school stationery. One playthrough takes about three and a half hours by HowLongToBeat's count. It suits players who like slow investigation, folk horror and puzzles over chases and monsters.

How to play Firework

1. Buy it on Steam, GOG or the Microsoft Store for Windows, or on the Nintendo Switch eShop in Europe.
2. Walk Lin Lixun left and right through each scene and examine the spots marked with a magnifying glass.
3. Collect items and clues, and use them on objects to solve each puzzle.
4. Read the notes and memories you find; they tell the family's story and point to the next step.
5. Follow the investigation from the funeral fire to the truth about the massacre.

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 children's drawings.
• The game unlocks its clues in a fixed order. If a puzzle stalls you, go back through the places you can reach and examine them again.
• The rooms of the Tian house look alike once they start to shift; note which door you came through.
• Do not rush the story; small details from early scenes come back later.

Questions