Man vs Lava 3 Demo

Sometimes, it is quite simple to leave people scratching their heads, as long as the riddle you are presenting them with requires a bit of concentration. However, video games are more tricky than that, because the answer must be both tricky and not very complex at the same time, given the fact that gamers usually do not have the patience to use a pen and paper to keep track of details.

Man vs Lava 3 is your typical platformer with a handful of puzzle elements thrown into the mix, which means that you have to figure out a way out of each level in order to advance. The danger is represented by the lava, which kills you instantly and makes it difficult to navigate the stages comfortably. However, don’t expect too much depth either, because the biggest challenge is the actual gameplay.

The controls and the mechanics feel a bit too sensitive and inaccurate, which is not what you want when the goal is to be precise. To emphasize the potential for boredom, there is no background story either, just a funny-looking main character. The lava comes in perfect cubes and it kills you instantly, which means that you die the moment you touch one of the red tiles.

As such, the first few levels are not difficult at all, except maybe if you never played a platformer before. On the other hand, things get somewhat tricky in the later stages, but not because the actual puzzles get tougher. Instead, you have to perform a few jumps that require good timing, so there’s not much of an intellectual challenge to talk about.

From a technical point of view, it doesn’t take a professional to pick up on the fact that the game is an independent production. The graphics are about as simple as they can get, with no animations whatsoever and some of the least impressive textures one could imagine. There is no sound either, so you might want to put a tune on before starting to play.

In the end, Man vs Lava 3 could have been a much better title if only it was a bit more polished and it featured more levels. In this state, however, the entire experience lasts for a few minutes, and you do not actually feel like you’ve accomplished anything at all.