There was a moment in Flashpoint: Legacy of Flame — I think around the third or fourth mission — when I realised that I wasn’t playing a rehash of the original Flashpoint: Fire Rescue, but something more akin to the culmination of 15 years of feedback and design evolution.
The fire still spreads, the walls still collapse and the victims still need saving, but the stakes are higher, the decisions heavier and the board itself pulsates with tension. It’s still the Flashpoint that I loved, but now it’s slicker to look at and more fraught to play.
Published by Indie Boards & Cards and designed by Ken Franklin, Kevin Lanzing, Chris Leder and Kevin Rodgers, Flashpoint: Legacy of Flame is a legacy-style reimagining of the original cooperative firefighting game. If you’ve played the original (or if you haven’t, you should probably start by reading my original review of Flashpoint: Fire Rescue) you’ll know that it was a tense, thematic, and surprisingly accessible experience. It had a clever escalation system, a strong sense of urgency, and a core loop that was easy to teach but hard to master.
That said, Flashpoint: Legacy of Flame delivers significant changes. In the original game, the maps were static — flat boards with fixed layouts that offered some variety but didn’t evolve except through the addition of tokens or additional boards that came in later expansions. In Flashpoint: Legacy of Flame, the board is made up of two ring-bound scenario books that you place side by side. Each mission uses a different combination of pages, creating a modular map that changes from game to game. This is more than just cosmetic, and the layouts are wildly different page by page. Tight corridors, sprawling complexes, multi-level structures and more, with each one presenting a new tactical puzzle.
It’s a brilliant and simple system that we have seen similar implementations of in games like Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion, but nowhere near as often as you might think. It allows for significant variety without bloating the box too much, and it gives the designers room to experiment with spatial challenges that would have been impossible with traditional boards. You’ll find yourself rethinking movement, positioning, and line of sight with each new mission setup.
As the name suggests and you probably already know, Flashpoint: Legacy of Flame is a campaign game. You’ll play through a series of missions, each one introducing new mechanics, new challenges, and new twists. Some of these are subtle — tweaks to the fire deck, new types of threat tokens or modified objectives. Others are more dramatic. You’ll permanently alter character sheets, unlock new abilities, and even destroy cards (assuming you don’t just tuck them somewhere in the box, like I do).
But what’s impressive is how these changes feel earned. You’re not just opening envelopes for the sake of novelty — your group is telling a story. Your team of firefighters evolves over time, gaining skills, suffering injuries, and adapting to new threats. The decisions you make in one mission ripple into the next, and by the time you reach the later scenarios, your crew feels like a battle-hardened unit with history. I guess this is nothing new for a legacy game, but I do feel that the setting here makes these decisions even more impactful and weighty.
There’s a genuine sense of progression from one mission to the next here. In the original game, every session meant a complete reset — nothing unusual there. You’d pick your roles, set up the board, and dive in. In Flashpoint: Legacy of Flame, you’re carrying forward the consequences of each prior attempt. That sticker you placed on your medic’s sheet? It’s still there. That card you tore up because of a failed mission? It’s gone, and that injury you suffered? That’s limiting the use of certain other cards or effects.
Mechanically, the core system is still recognisably Flashpoint. You’ve got actions to spend, grid movement, fire spread and — probably most importantly — victims to rescue. But the fire deck replaces the old hotspot system, and it’s a major improvement. It’s more flexible, less predictable and more dynamic. You’ll draw cards that escalate the fire, trigger events, and introduce new threats, introducing a cinematic element to the gameplay that I really enjoy. You’ll feel the tension build as the deck thins, knowing that the next card could be the one that turns smoke into flame or triggers an explosion. Of course, mission-specific cards also play their part, adding further variety to each game.
As any veteran player will expect, explosions still matter. Walls will crumble, rooms will fill with fire and your team still has to make tough calls. Do you risk pushing deeper into the blaze to reach a victim, or do you pull back and regroup to reach a safer but more distant objective? Do you spend precious actions extinguishing flames, or do you focus on opening doors and clearing paths? The decisions are familiar, but the context is richer and the consequences now feel impactful.
One of the standout features in Legacy of Flame is the character progression. Each firefighter has two equipment slots, and over the course of the campaign, you’ll unlock new gear and abilities. However, injuries can block those slots, forcing you to adapt and again, adding consequence. It’s a clever system that adds depth without bogging down the game. You’ll find yourself making strategic choices about who carries what, who takes point and who hangs back to support.
The legacy elements aren’t just mechanical — they’re emotional. You’ll grow attached to your crew, celebrate their successes and mourn their setbacks. Because Legacy of Flame doesn’t spoon-feed you narrative, the story emerges organically, which is something I have always enjoyed about certain mechanics and/or systems. It’s not about scripted drama, and instead the game becomes more about the drama you create through play and through the interaction around your table.
That said, not every legacy feature lands perfectly. The scratch-off system, used to conceal new abilities and upgrades, is a bit of a chore and it really does mean that a “played” copy of Flashpoint: Legacy of Flame is hard to hand on and re-use. This system is meant to preserve surprise, but it ends up feeling fiddly and time-consuming. The stickers, once revealed, are a dull grey that lack the excitement you’d hope from something that comes as a reward. These are minor gripes, but in a game that’s otherwise so tactile and immersive, they stand out.
Aside from this gripe, component-wise, Flashpoint: Legacy of Flame is very good. The scenario/map books are sturdy, the cards are well-printed, and the tokens are functional. The artwork is clean and evocative, and the iconography is easy to process once you’ve played a few missions. There’s a training scenario to ease you in, and the rulebook is clear and well-organised.
As with most legacy games, Flashpoint: Legacy of Flame‘s campaign is long, the decisions are meaningful, and the stakes feel high. You’ll need to coordinate, communicate, and commit your time — ideally with the same group each time you play. In terms of difficulty, Legacy of Flame is not punishing, but it’s not forgiving either — mistakes have consequences and victories feel earned.
Compared to the original, Flashpoint: Legacy of Flame is a leap forward. The modular board system alone is a revelation, offering more variety and interest than any of the static maps from the base game or its expansions. The fire deck adds nuance and control, and the legacy progression gives the game a sense of scale and permanence that the original lacked. That said, it’s a legacy game, so what you have at the end of your experience may or may not be as playable as the original base game.
If, like me, you enjoyed the original game’s tension and theme (as mentioned in my original review) you’ll find that Flashpoint: Legacy of Flame retains that core experience while adding layers of depth and narrative. It’s not just more of the same, it’s the same core concept updated after many years of playtesting. I have a feeling that if there were to be a second edition of the game now, released as a non-legacy product, it would still use some of Legacy of Flame‘s ideas to make a more rounded and improved experience.
You can find Flashpoint: Legacy of Flame on Amazon.
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