Emergency 3

"Screams of pain, wailing sirens, flashing lights! Flashy gameplay?"

We see lights and sirens around us rushing to emergencies everyday. It seems like an exciting world, the perfect setting for a video game.

Gameplay:
You are faced with problems that range from everyday emergencies to disaster movie horrors. It is up to you to manage the resources at your disposal in such a way to alleviate the problem in the quickest, neatest fashion. This all sounds great and when the first cut scene shows you a driver plowing head long into a construction zone you are all set to save some lives. The game has other plans for you. First you must navigate to the incident scene and try to figure out what you need to send out to help. You can accomplish this with easy pull down menus that show which resources are available. When said resources are activated this is where the luster and polish disappears. You have to search the map and figure out where the units are in relation to the incident scene. Then you have to click on them and drag the unit back to the accident scene. Frustration brought on by this could have been alleviated by a simple zoom out feature for the game map. Moving you units becomes almost impossible as the missions advance and more scripted events happen at every turn. An example of this is that in one mission they have you respond to a sniper in a van. The sniper is shooting people so you have to send ambulances to each victim, while you are micromanaging the ambulances and crews you are expected to chase the van all around the city before it escapes. Gameplay takes a big knock due to these factors as well as the lack of AI in your units. In most RTS games units are allowed a measure of autoimmunity, not in emergency 3. Paramedics will stands 2 centimeters from a victim bleeding to death, firefighters and other units will stand and burn to death if placed to close to flames. Attention is required at all times on every unit, distracting from what could be a very fun game. The single best example of shoddy AI is in the sandbox mode. A traffic signal can go down and before you can get to it an accident happens. Now with two cars on fire the traffic piles up behind it. Common sense would say to back away but these cars sit there till the paint melts and gas tanks explode, before you know there are over 30 burned out wreaks you have to clean up.

Graphics/Sound:

An Alienware top of the line PC will not be required. It came out in 2006 so a couple of flashy particle effects would have been nice but are not there. The graphics will not tax any system bought in the last 4 years. Sounds are canned and repetitive. It would have been nice to see an option to allow your units to keep the sirens and lights on or off; instead you get one wail when they arrive on scene and one wail each time you tell them to move. There a few effects like fog and light distance but they look more drawn then rendered real-time.

Play Time/Replayability:

The campaign mode is 20 missions long. They are all scripted so if it happened one way the first time it will happen that way again. So passing missions just requires you to memorize each event and setup accordingly. A sandbox mode is included. Sandbox mode ranges from the downright boring to way to much to handle. Much like real life I'm sure but that does not make a good video game. One play thru is all it will take for you to get your fill of a video game life in emergency services.

I found this game interesting and worth the $25 I paid, but that is only because I have a deep fascination with emergency services. As a video gamer I can not recommend this game. So if you are red light nut like me get it for a few fun times but everyone else should avoid it.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 10/02/06