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A Fantastic Idea but too much to do...

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 10 / 10
Date: March 11, 2003
Author: Amazon User

In this game, you are the emergency services commander in charge of police & special response teams, fire dept., hospital, k9, psychologists etc. There are a wide range of different units available for you to deploy after the emergency call is made. You're stationed in a special emergency center with all these departments around you. The actual work is accomplished from the tactical command center by instructing the field operatives.

It is your responsibility to solve some 25 case scenarios varying from simple traffic accidents to difficult hostage situations. After each mission, you will receive a detailed report of success rate. Missions take place during different daytimes and in various weather conditions which adds a feeling of reality.

Before each mission there is a video file that plays and visually explains some details of what has happened. These videos are very well designed and rather impressive. The units are rather detailed with flashing lights.

The game idea, in itself, is good and missions are very interesting, versatile and challenging. Graphics, sound and music alike are of fine design. The scenes are very beautifully created (little bit in the same fashion as in the newest Sim City) and you can enter most of the buildings and do number of things there as you'd during a real emergency.

Unfortunately, the AI of your units is zero. In other words, you have to command each and every emergency unit on the scene what to do. They just cant think for themselves like real rescuers. A BIG MINUS. Say you have deployed 5 police units, two ambulances and five fire engines on the scene. They won't do anything unless you click each of them separately and point the actions that they should take... You don't get any sort of feedback of their progress unless you go to the right window and check their status by yourself. BIG MINUS. Checking the status of each unit can be rather disturbing in the long run.

The game designers should have given more consideration to this. The idea of commanding each unit separetely does work during the first few missions as they are not very complicated and there is plenty of time to accomplish your mission objectives.

However, as the game advances, the missions become larger and there is more to do around the city map. You might be working on three different locations at once -- and it is impossible to comamnd every unit in each location. So the units are just there.

The game is realistic as there are lot of bystanders, traffic around -- and during the real emergency the feeling is really like "WHAT THE HECK AM I SUPPOSED TO DO FOR ALL THESE PEOPLE AROUND?" If you issue a police officer to isolate a crime scene, he will isolate just a small area instead of isolating the whole scene. So you need to deploy five officers to do what one officer could do.

Also, I don't understand why the game has regular traffic cops who are unarmed, then shooter officers who have regular side-arms and then sharp-shooters for critical situations... In my opinion -- those traffic cops could carry a side-arm as you get confused which officer is armed and which is not. When the situation gets hot, your traffic cops get killed... and no, the shooter cops don't know how to conduct the traffic stops or other things---they are so stupid that they can only shoot.

ANOTHER BIG MINUS is that Once the action of the unit is accomplished, the unit just stands idle, doing nothing -- even if there were a new victim to help or new suspect to arrest.

Maps are rather enormous in size -- and once something goes wrong, the player will have to search the endless map for suspects and eventhough there are police and fire helicopters to be used -- they won't do anything unless you are pinpointing to them where to go.

For example, once the suspects is at large -- it would have been a good idea to issue the helicopter to fly around and search for the suspect independently -- but this is not possible. Instead you have to move the helicopter around. While you are working on your helicopter, your other units stand idle or continue doing what you have assigned them to do.

Since the AI of your staff is zero -- if the situation gets hot and you are not there in the right window, your officers, fire-fighters and other staff will get killed. The police officers do not draw their weapons or use them without you commanding them to do so. Not even if the suspect stands right next to them and is shooting at them. BIG MINUS.

Your fire-fighters will stand idle next to an explosion and get themselves killed unless you can issue a command to leave the scene.

After the doctor has taken care of one patient - he won't proceed to take care of the next patient unless you command him to do so. This obviously makes the game difficult to play.

To make things even more difficult -- the player is not aware of what is required of him/her until during the mission play. There are always surprise factors that will result to need of playing the same mission again.

So, the only reason why I am giving this game 2 stars instead of 4 stars that it obviously should deserve is that the computer AI is missing. In many ways, playing this game reminds me of early PC games with improved graphics and sound -- but the game play has the same problems as those games in 1990s.

However, there is something you can do to help the game to perform better. Get yourself a trainer and cheat codes from the Internet. With the cheats -- you will get more time to handle each situation, more money and thus the game becomes possible to play.

As a soon-to-be law-enforcement officer I wanted to buy this game in spite of its obvious flaws. However, before you buy this game, download the free two mission DEMO from the game developer's home page. You should definetely test the demo to make sure you enjoy this type of game.

For those interested in law-enforcement and fire people this game should be of interest in spite of its problems. Some 19 bucks is not all that bad -- but I wouldn't pay a dime more than that.

Good idea - poor programming

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: April 12, 2003
Author: Amazon User

The concept of the game is that of a sim-city type game but in which you only deal with responding to emergencies. This sounds like a good idea and probably would make a great game if executed properly. However this game does not live up to expectations. I enjoyed the very first mission, but after that it started to get tedious and frustrating as a result of mission-solving bugs. The tasks necessary to complete each mission are not clearly defined. There is a built in hint system but it does not give you enough information since this game is very focused on micro-managing every little detail of each vehicle and person. It is critical that the player know what they need to do in order to complete the mission. This is where the game falls apart- there is a lack of instructional detail both in the manual and in the in-game hint system. I also ran across several bugs where even when you follow the instructions the game does not recognize it. For example, in mission 3 you have to supply a getaway car to bank robbers in order to prevent them from killing the hostages. Well I put the getaway car in front of the bank numerous times but the hostages kept asking for the car! Given that this was only mission 3 of 25, I decided I did not want to deal with that type of frustration throughout the game and returned it. I read another review of the game that rated it 4 out of 10 due to those type of frustrating bugs as well as the complete lack of any AI. The units just sit there until you move them. I would recommend avoiding this game unless you have the patience to micromanage many units, as well as work through the bugs. The official game site offers a free demo for download if interested in trying it.

This game is good!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: June 18, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Hi

I just started playing the game through a second time because i liked it so much.

The two previous reviewers critized the lack of AI in this game. In my opinion however, clicking all units and telling them what to do is exactly what this game is about. The situation can easily get out of your control if you fail to keep a watch on all your untis. Very stressful, but fun.

The bugs however annoyed me too, that's why i give it a 4/5. Sometimes the mission just wouldn't end and you have no clue what to do about it. Also, pathfinding of the units is sometimes a bit flawed, but this is a problem with most RTS games.

The overall experience remains positive however. I always dreamed about such a game and Emergency 2 really lives up to my expectations.

World's Dumbest Emergency Services. In the unluckiest place on earth!

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: September 08, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I have never in all of my years of gaming seen such an absolutely HORRIBLE A.I. (Artificial intelligence.) These units have no inititive, no ability to move around objects, no abiity to respond quickly, or complete a mission without being coaxed along. And for God's sake they need to teach these charaters how to RUN!!! Speed is of the essence in these scenarios and no one seems to be in a hurry to go anywhere. At least in the old game, you could select a police officer then BAND select a group of charaters and they would obey (Move, go away etc.) I've never seen budgets so small to save lives.... this game was poorly planned, programmed and animated.

IF the creaters were thinking, they:
1. would have units reporting their status (like being at the scene or where they were sent.)

2. abandon the blocky approach of movement. If a police car needs to drive across a walkway, then do it!!! (The stupid AI.)

3. design the people to move away from moving emergency vehicles.. (The stupid AI again.)

3. Program some inititive into the units. The firefighters dont seem to know about advancing on a fire or retreating when needed.
(The stupid AI again.)

4.Give SOME indication of where fires/criminals are. (After all, the units were called from somewhere!) In the case of a fire, you can see it for miles... in this game you don't know where it is. You literally have to search for the fires... that's poor planning on the gaming side.

5. That comsat truck is useless, yet you still have to pay for one. (JUST SEND THE THING IN AT NO CHARGE!!) If the gamer wants to pay for upgrades or something, then fine. Give them thermal imaging or something like that.

6. As A retired Military man I can tell you that it takes less than 3 seconds to aquire a target... even at long range. Why does a sharpshooter take a year in this game? Why does your entry team only carry one flashbang? Ever see a SWAT/HBT/Tactical/ERT Unit?
They carry between 2 and 4.... plus long weapon... plus side arm... plus whatever the team needs for that incident. C'mon guys... do some homework.

7. How do you send units in without information and updates? Your units in the field should be able to give you updates and not just die standing there doing nothing.

Then there are the bugs.... LOADS of bugs. Vehicles that cant move around objects or each other. Units that will jam itself into a fence or each other instead of going around. (The stupid AI again.)

Do yourselves a favour... Play command and conquor for a while.. Observe the AI. These units can track, move along a path, move around obsticles and if needed, RUN!!! If they are attacked they retaliate. If they are in danger, they usually tell the player.

I know that this game is from a culture that does not endorse inititative, but it's something VITAL in emergency workers every- where. They just don't stand around, waiting to be told what to do. They act until told to do something otherwise.

I wouldn't recomend this game unless you like needless frustration.

TFC

It's ok

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: July 23, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Being a Paramedic student I saw this game and thought it would be as good (and realistic) as the real thing. I was right and wrong. The game does a great job with the graphics and detail, however it was the AI and some small details that really bothered me. Being a classic kind of guy I didn't like the fact that all of the emergency vehicles had the same type of siren and that they were all the HI-LO (European style). Plus most of the vehicles were all European style van type with all blue lights. Being that the game was made in Europe I can understand this, however I would have liked to see an American style system as an option or version of the game. I also thought the AI was preety terrible, it was as if the emergency personel never knew how to act. That wasn't to bad however because I would rather have to tell everybody what to do (like in a real MCI) then have them off on there own doing the wrong thing. The other thing was all the Multiple Casualty Incidents not very realistic. My biggest problem with the game was that the paramedics were preety much body carriers, they could not give any care at all, all care had to given with the doc. Other then those problems the game was fun the only bug I had to deal with was the fact that the cheats never worked.

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