Embr
- September 23, 2021
- Muse Games
- 11h median play time
Embr is a great concept tied to deliberately off-the-wall and fun mechanics. Like Stretchers and Overcooked, it delights in turning something more serious into something silly.
Get on Steam
Get on Xbox Games StoreEmbr is a platformer game that can be played in single-player or multiplayer mode with up to 4 players online. As firefighters, you'll battle blazes, save lives, and salvage valuables in 25 unique levels across three districts. With high tech tools, advanced upgrades, and various ways to play building your firefighting empire, but beware of the many hazards and bugs that come with the job.
Nintendo Switch
PC
Playstation 4
Steam Deck
Windows
Xbox One
Xbox Series X|S
PlayStation
Xbox
Reviews
- Embr is a fun and chaotic game that shines in multiplayer, providing endless laughs and enjoyable moments with friends.
- The game features a unique blend of firefighting and heist elements, allowing players to rescue clients while also stealing their valuables.
- With a variety of gadgets and game modes, Embr offers a fresh and entertaining experience that encourages creativity and teamwork.
- The game can become repetitive quickly, with limited content and objectives that may lead to boredom after a few hours of play.
- Multiplayer connectivity issues and bugs can detract from the overall experience, making it frustrating at times.
- Playing solo can be less enjoyable, as the game is designed primarily for cooperative play, leading to a lack of engagement when played alone.
- story74 mentions
- 20 % positive mentions
- 76 % neutral mentions
- 4 % negative mentions
The game's story revolves around players taking on the role of emergency responders in a chaotic, humorous setting where they must navigate hazardous environments to complete various missions, such as rescuing civilians and salvaging items. While the missions are engaging and offer a mix of puzzle-solving and time-sensitive challenges, players express a desire for more narrative depth and variety, as the current content can feel repetitive after completing the main objectives. Overall, the game presents a fun, albeit janky, experience that highlights the absurdities of the gig economy through its gameplay and mission structure.
“The game tells you that you only have to save people's lives to do a good job and every dollar counts, and the faster you finish a mission the faster you realize you can make as much money saving their valuables instead and letting them die.”
“It's got a beautiful art style and fun physics with a rewarding gameplay loop that, combined with its design, tells an interesting story about the modern collapse of the gig economy.”
“Good: frantic coop focus, handcrafted levels, replayability through slight randomization, solo is amazingly fun, solid game mechanics, good progression system, funny concept and story characters.”
“The tutorial didn't really explain much and the missions didn't really make much sense.”
“The gameplay gets pretty repetitive very quickly; after about two missions you can see that the game doesn't do too much to mix things up for you to keep it fun.”
“However, as I am not a completionist, I am worried about what happens when all the missions and special missions have become exhausted - should I say, extinguished... - as the only reason to continue playing is to replay missions.”
- gameplay49 mentions
- 35 % positive mentions
- 59 % neutral mentions
- 6 % negative mentions
The gameplay in Embr is characterized by a unique blend of firefighting and heist elements, offering a variety of mission types and a whimsical art style that enhances its casual, cooperative experience. Players engage in time-sensitive puzzle-solving challenges while utilizing a diverse array of tools and upgrades, though some mechanics can feel unpolished or buggy. Overall, the game provides a fun and frantic experience, particularly in multiplayer, with a solid progression system and plenty of content to explore.
“Gameplay-wise, the game has a great sense of progression, with a wide variety of items and upgrades to pursue during your firefighting/fire-starting career.”
“The gameplay is fun and frantic, with a focus on quickly doing what you can rather than focusing on doing everything perfectly.”
“The child-like glee of being a firefighter who saves buildings and lives mixed with the Skyrim-esque gameplay loop of stealing everything that isn't tied down makes for an incredible casual title that is boundlessly entertaining, especially with friends.”
“Cuz... goddamn, so many things to do, and the fire won't stop messing with your gameplay.”
“The over-reliance on puzzle-game mechanics really detracts from the game.”
“However, I do have some things to tell you before you buy... this game is in early access so it can be extremely glitchy or bug-filled sometimes, some mechanics aren't very polished like how the inferno throwing axes can only break one thing at a time despite being explosive.”
- humor37 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in "Embr" is widely praised for its fun, quirky, and slapstick nature, making it an enjoyable experience, especially in co-op mode with friends. Players appreciate the game's satirical take on firefighting and the gig economy, alongside its amusing physics and dialogue, which contribute to countless hilarious moments. While some mechanics may feel buggy, the overall light-hearted tone and comedic elements ensure a consistently entertaining gameplay experience.
“Embr is a fun co-op game with a very quirky humor.”
“A hilarious romp with just the right amount of slapstick, cynicism, and optimism to make all first-time players laugh themselves silly and represent a legitimate challenge at the same time.”
“It's light-hearted, which is a great juxtaposition to running into blazing buildings and saving lives, which only adds to the humor and charm.”
- graphics27 mentions
- 33 % positive mentions
- 56 % neutral mentions
- 11 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are generally praised for their charming and whimsical art style, which is both aesthetically pleasing and reminiscent of classic cartoons. While the visuals are well-received, players have reported various graphical glitches, particularly in early access, which can detract from the experience. Overall, the game offers a solid graphical performance, especially on dedicated hardware, but still requires some polish to address the existing bugs.
“I also really enjoyed the art style and the game is very pleasing to look at.”
“Graphics are superb, with the world being very aesthetically pleasing and the lighting engine being more than adequate.”
“Charming visuals and solid multiplayer gameplay make this an easy recommendation.”
“I, of course, restarted multiple times and still ran into the issue after changing the graphic quality to low on everything.”
“The bad: graphic glitches are annoying.”
“Graphics glitches: doors are not visible from time to time, floors also disappear when you are in another room.”
- stability18 mentions
- 6 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 94 % negative mentions
The game's stability has been a significant concern among users, with many reporting persistent bugs, graphical glitches, and unstable framerates, particularly in multiplayer modes. While some players appreciate the fun gameplay and ongoing content updates, they express frustration that the developers have not prioritized fixing these issues, leading to a janky and at times unplayable experience. Overall, the game is seen as needing substantial improvements in stability before it can be fully recommended.
“The game runs great, has a good sound design, has tight enough controls for what is expected of the player, and provides solid customization options that incentivize continued gameplay.”
“This game is great, but it can be a bit of a buggy mess.”
“I tried joining an online game and it looked really buggy with not a lot of instructions on what was going on.”
“This is a fun game, and I understand it's in early access, but I cannot excuse that this game was a buggy mess 6 months ago. I come back 6 months later and massive effort has been put into adding more content, maps, etc., but no effort has been made in fixing up the bugs. Just because it's a 'fun' game is no excuse for still having janky, unstable framerates, getting stuck in windows, bugs that end entire missions, and connection issues after 1 year of constantly adding new content. It's shocking that the next step is release; I just hope they finally focus on making a better product instead of adding more stuff.”
- replayability14 mentions
- 29 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 21 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's replayability is a mixed bag; while some players find it offers significant replay value through various challenges and modes, others feel it lacks depth and would benefit from features like procedural maps or an endless mode. Many appreciate the frantic co-op gameplay and handcrafted levels, which contribute to replayability, but there are calls for more content and multiplayer options to enhance the experience further.
“Fun, frantic, and lots of replay value!”
“Even after you have beaten a level, there are challenges one can complete such as 'embrace' or 'steal everything' or 'minimal damage' etc. to add some additional replayability.”
“The replay value of this game can be endless, with updates and additions to the game.”
“Lastly, they really should add a procedural map for endless replayability, or a map maker of sorts.”
“That said, I wish there was more replayability value beyond grinding out some of the fancier unlocks, and a bit more of a public multiplayer scene, but hopefully that will come as the game gets more popular.”
“Would like an 'endless mode' to ensure continuous replayability: the standard missions pop up around a city and you respond to them as they pop up; especially good for variety content.”
- grinding4 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious, often requiring significant effort to obtain items and resources, which can be frustrating due to bugs and lack of quality of life improvements. While the money system and customization options are appreciated, many reviewers express a desire for greater replayability and a more vibrant multiplayer experience beyond just grinding for unlocks.
“I was able to get them all after some boring grinding, but it still needs a whole bunch of bug fixes and quality of life improvements.”
“To top it off, the boss eventually bugs out and stops doing anything, which you workaround by grinding resources to buy one of the late-game items to break the boss fight completely.”
“That said, I wish there was more replayability value beyond grinding out some of the fancier unlocks.”
- music3 mentions
- 67 % positive mentions
- 33 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The music in the game is highly praised for its fantastic quality and ability to set the tone, with a fast-paced jazz style that enhances the frantic gameplay. Additionally, the inclusion of voice-acted dialogue adds to the overall auditory experience.
“The music was fantastic; the fast-paced jazz actually reminded me of the music from 'Ed, Edd n Eddy', which definitely lends itself to the frantic pace of the game where you're throwing ladders and sprinklers around.”
“The game looks pretty good and sounds pretty good, with the music doing a great job of setting the tone. The occasional voice-acted bits of dialogue are great.”
- monetization2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- -50 % neutral mentions
- 150 % negative mentions
The monetization of the game has drawn mixed reactions, with some users perceiving it as a cash grab due to a lack of updates and communication, while others appreciate the effort and passion that went into its development, suggesting it transcends typical monetization pitfalls.
“Edit: posting this since my last review, there have been no updates or any news on this game recently, so it's just another cash grab attempt.”
“The monetization in this game feels exploitative and detracts from the overall experience.”
“It's disappointing to see such a great concept overshadowed by aggressive monetization tactics.”
- optimization2 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's optimization is generally well-received, especially considering its early access status, with few bugs reported. However, some players experienced performance issues, indicating that optimization may vary between different systems.
“The game seems fairly well optimized for such a new title and for one still being in early access.”
“Performance was messed up for me (not for my two friends I played with, though). There weren't too many bugs, but the gameplay loop just wasn't that fun in my opinion.”
- character development1 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Character development received mixed feedback, with some users expressing uncertainty about the character design but acknowledging the potential for it to become more appealing over time.
- emotional1 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The emotional aspect of the game is polarizing, as some players experience significant discomfort and nausea, particularly those prone to motion sickness, which may detract from their overall enjoyment and emotional engagement with the game.
