Firefighter F.D. 18 Review (no fat)

Game Description

With the firefighting as a niche genre, Firefighter F.D. 18 seems to hold a very good chance to make itself be recognized and appreciated. As Dean McGregor, a veteran firefighter, you will be given an extremely long fire hose (that seems to drag water from an ocean) an axe to pass the obstacles, and fire extinguisher. With these, and lots of courage, you will have to save all the distressed before they find out just how hot hot actually is.

Firefighter F.D. 18 Gameplay

Firefighting could’ve been transformed into a very exciting and full of adrenaline game, and that is most probably what F.D. 18 aimed at. Nevertheless, the excessive scripting, the fire hose that seems to know nothing about physics, the robots that want to make you hell bound, and all other ideas that could never work in this sort of game, don’t let the game reach the level it could’ve aspired to. In point of fact, there is stuff in Firefighter F.D. 18 that is present just because the producers really wanted it there instead of it all netting together to make an exceptional game

One of the most annoying parts of the game is the fire hose. It seems to be extremely long, it’s not affected by fire, and you can move in circles through the rooms for as long as you want: water will never stop coming out of it. Its efficiency depends on the types of fire you want to extinguish: you can set it to wide-focus spray, if you want to quench flames in a broad angle, or to a narrower stream if you want to put out single targets, but the fire hose seems to lose its efficiency when you have to fight the “boss” fires.

The other items you can use are the axe, with which you break down the doors or the walls, and the chemical-based fire extinguisher, sometimes more efficient than the fire hose. From the environment you can collect health packs to boost your life, and special fire extinguishers.

Firefighter F.D. 18 Rescue Efforts

Saving people is your main goal…though quenching fire is actually the thing you will do throughout the game. The rescuing activity implies getting to the survivor, and seeing him disappearing as they become ‘safe’. While this makes the game easier, the downside is that it also makes the game look a lot more superficial.

Having said that, it’s not easy to get to the survivors. You have to fight both the fire around you, and the fire surrounding more and more the survivors. Their “hit points” decrease as time passes and you have to hurry if you don’t wish to see them roasted.

The impression of superficiality is further heightened by two aspects: you can call Craig, another firefighter, to save you three times from the flames when you are cornered and can’t escape the flames. The way Craig shows up and disappears after he has done his job is, again, suspect. To top things off, the lab robots that have a great pleasure in shooting electricity are not affected by water at all ( …waterproof maybe???).

Firefighter F.D. 18 Flames

Flames are present all around the game. And, for once, they look real. The fire that burns the floor, the burning roof that falls on the player and sets him on fire for a while, the backdrafts that burst from the opened doors, the “boss” fires that are very hard to extinguish, all build up to fuel the adrenaline pumping. Lets not forget the exploding barrels, shall we.

The unrealistic thing about the fires, however, is the fact that when Dean starts burning, he extinguishes the fire himself and gets on with the job as if nothing happened. Alright his hit points decrease, but no rolling on the ground or showing by any way that he was actually burnt.

Firefighter F.D. 18 – The Enemies

The main activity is, of course, extinguishing fire. But there are diversions in the shape of exploding barrels around you, the roof caving in, or robots shooting you with electricity. Also, you have to fight against time… if you don’t get to the survivors before they are surrounded by the flames they won’t live to tell you how hot it was in there.

Firefighter F.D. 18 – A News Reporter and the Firefighter

The storyline explores the love interest between a reporter Emilie, and the firefighter Dean (you). Although it’s a love story that presents the two in exciting situations, both doing their jobs as well as they can. It is not an idea that is developed too well. In fact, the storyline turns out to be a diversion from the game’s actual action streak, and with a half hearted attempt at catching the interests of plot craving PRG fans, Firefighter F.D. 18 falls short of making any real impression

Firefighter F.D. 18 Sound and Graphics

The fire effects are created well, but the rest of the environment looks mediocre: the textures are small, and the level of detail is also reduced. The music is atmospheric, creating a good sensation of immersion in the game, and the explosions contribute to the action’s rhythm. The voice acting is nothing exceptional, and the voice heard in Dean’s radio doesn’t make much sense. In fact, Dean is told things which would make you feel that the control room people do take our hero to be pretty ‘thick’…why would they make state such obvious statements otherwise.

Firefighter F.D. 18 Summing up

Using a very original idea, Firefighter remains a mediocre third person action adventure. It does boast good action, but it’s not really exciting or atmospheric. Firefighter F.D. 18 becomes repetitive after some time, and there is not enough variation: extinguish fire, break down doors, extinguish more fire, save survivors and repeat these steps again until you saved everybody. There are also some elements that are not quite inspired: the electric robots, the fire hose, the lack of reaction from Dean when he is on fire and so on.

It is not an exceptional game, but in how many games can you run through flames with only a fire hose in your hands and all the burning building against you? All in all, Firefighter F.D. 18 turns out to be a niche game which will attract fans who wish to live out their childhood dreams, but will not remain in history as a revelation.

Firefighter F.D. 18 Cost

The game retails for $48.99US, at the time of this review