911: Fire & Rescue

It takes a special kind of individual to brave temperatures in excess of 400 degrees, to wade in against an adversary so tenacious that it is liable to attack you from the front, as well as from behind, and your sides.

Sunstorm Interactive, WizardWorks and Infogrames are willing to challenge players to take on that adversary with their latest release for the PC. The game is 911 Fire Rescue, and it is based on the premise that every child would like to be a firefighter when they grow up. If worming through a labyrinth of an office building, looking for flames and victims is the kind of game that appeals to you, you may just like this title.

The perspective is a first-person shooter, with a variety of weapons at your disposal – such as a fire hose with an unlimited supply of water, or foam tank and extinguisher with a limited supply of chemical deterrent. Now the latter two are self-contained mobile units, which are not, or at least shouldn’t be the case with the fire hose. After all, that hose is attached to an outlet. You are not supposed to be able to weave at will throughout a structure without paying attention to the hose trail.

That little feature is missing. This game enables players to move at will, and randomly through a structure dragging a fire hose. Move down an aisle and turn – nope, the fire hose isn’t behind you. There is also no tiring effect on the fireman as they drag that charged beast through a structure. You should not though that water is not always the best option for putting out a fire. It really depends on the type of fire you are combating. Some fires are only spread and aggravated by a high-powered hose pummeling the flames. The program does take that into account.

While the game is mission-oriented, it does give out a score and pass or fail grade for each of the 15 missions. The scores are based on a variety of things, including the time it takes to put out all the fires in a scenario, and the number of rescued victims. Each mission does get progressively tougher, although each seems to vary very little from one attempt to the next. That really takes away the element of replayability – especially when you know basically where to find the victims, and what order you should rescue them in to insure their survival.

The control elements are keyboard- and mouse-based, and are so simple that any novice player will be going strong quickly.

Graphically the game is good. There is a three-dimensional quality to the buildings, the reflected light of the flames gives you an idea of where to attack next, and the smoke in each room will have you adjusting the brightness controls on your computer screen so you can see where you are. The audio element is comprised on vocal characterizations for the firefighter, and a pulse-pounding musical score, which can be turned down. Environmental sound effects – the crackling of the flames, the sound of the hose pouring gallons of water at the fire – are merely average.

911 Fire Rescue is not a bad game – if anything, you can view it as a quick and pleasant diversion. You won’t learn anything that will be practical in the real world, and missions don’t last long enough to get you deeply involved. If this game does have a niche, it would be in the realm of parent and child competing against each other in an obvious alternative to a shooter-style program. Yep, you are shooting, and not everyone survives in each scenario, but the overall action is rather innocent.

This game is rated for Everyone, but does contain mild violence.

Install: Medium.
This program only consumes about 200 megs of hard drive space, but goes on the computer quite slowly.

Gameplay: 7.
The timed missions are nicely designed, but it seems that victims are always located in the same areas of the map, which takes the surprise element out of the game, and makes it a race for the best score.

Graphics: 7.
The three-dimensional environments are well designed; the polygonal characters are well done, but the game doesn’t add anything fresh or new.

Sound: 7.
The musical score is good, but the rest of the audio track is rather ordinary.

Difficulty: 6.
The game gets progressively harder with each mission. You can, however, learn exactly what you need to do as you repeat a scenario, and that quickly erodes the difficulty and replayability of the game.

Concept: 6.
There have been other firefighter programs that played out like a SWAT mission, with an aggressive enemy. This game lacks that, though it does a nice job with the first-person perspective.

Multiplayer: N/A

Overall: 6.5.
While the graphical elements are nicely designed, and the music is a definite boost, this game still falls into the average bin. It is tough to get wildly excited about it. This game is pleasant and user-friendly enough; it just doesn’t do much that is special and unique.