Emergency Fire Response Review (no fat)

Game Description

The big mansion on Elm is engulfed in flames. The fire started in the pool shed and the burning chlorine is causing toxic fumes to poison the surrounding area. A child is trapped in a windowless room. Two of your fire fighters have been mortally injured by a back draft. Your supplies, men, and time are limited. What is your first step? Emergency Fire Response puts you in the thick of things.

Emergency Fire Response- Gameplay

At fire glance, Emergency Fire Response might appear to be another simulation game to throw on the shelf with SimFarm and SimAnt only to collect dust. However, this real time strategy game sets itself apart with unique and exciting missions that pull you into its pseudo-world.

There are thirty-four missions for all aspiring firemen to attack. Each mission has different phases and a hundred different ways to complete it successfully. The missions are very challenging and intense. There is no cookie-cutter answer to every scenario. Not only are you given basic firemen to extinguish the flames, but there are specialty firemen that must be used in particular scenarios. For example, there are specialty technicians that are proficient at climbing and grappling, while other technicians are made to break down barriers and doors.

As with any real-time strategy game, resource management plays a large role in your success. There is a pump vehicle that must be placed close enough to you fire fighters so that they may refill, but it can not be placed too close to the action. If it explodes, you’ll have a whole new mess on your hands. The fighters can get injured and luckily there’s an EMS standing close by. However, the EMS will be little help if you let your fire fighters wander to their death.

Emergency Fire Response – Controls and AI

The controls in Emergency Fire Response are typical for a strategy game. If one has ever dabbled in SimCity, the controls will be logical and familiar. The only complaint that might be had is the cumbersome controls for the vehicles. To move a vehicle, it is a point-and-drag motion, which seems contrary to typical vehicle controls in any game. Also, the AI lacks in some areas. At times, a fighter might stand still waiting for his next command, even though he is surrounded by flames.

Emergency Fire Response Visuals

Though some of the graphics lack depth (such as vehicle movement and the fire fighters themselves), the fire animations are astounding. The flames come complete with particle animations that will put that NVIDIA card to work. In fact, the fire animations are even more astounding when you see that the vehicles are not even given flashing lights to add realism. The game looks like all of the budget was spent on the flames and gas particle effects and the rest was just thrown together in an exhausted rampage.

Emergency Fire Response Audio Quality

Once the missions have all been “extinguished,” there’s no strong need to repeat the game. However, each mission pulls you into the flaming world and does not release until the last spark has been quenched. The ambient noise is exquisite and engulfs you with its own details. The constant battering of police chatter, the snaps and cracks of the flames, and your men’s own cries for reinforcement bring you into the scenario more than most RTS games.

Emergency Fire Response 2cent

This game is not going to be your next day-in, day-out drug. As was stated earlier, once you beat the missions, there’s no real need to go back and try it again. However, for the skimpy price tag, it certainly proves its entertainment value. For the ten to twenty intense hours of game play that can be had from this RTS, the ten bucks is well spent.

Again, as with most RTS games, there is no multiplayer option. You and you alone are the master of your domain. Because of this, there is no need to double-click on that executable again after the missions have been beat.

Overall, the dazzling particle animations and impressive soundscape will pull you into Emergency Fire Response, but at the same time the frustrating AI and exhaustingly challenging missions might push you away. The unique idea behind the game is well worth the investment though. After all, how often do you get to live out those childhood fantasies of extinguishing menacing flames and being proclaimed the hero?

Price

The game retails for $9.97US, at the time of this review.