Customer Reviews

Emergency 3 (Strategy First)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After the first 2 titles of the Emerrgency series, one would have thought that the game's developers would have done more than make the game prettier... but that's exactly what has happened. I reviewed Emergency2 with my chief complaint that the A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) needed major improvement.... well, sadly they have yet to address this issue.

Firefighters will stand around and die rather than fight the fire, they wont advance on a fire... and worst of all, they STILL will crush themselves into a corner rather than go to the places directed... they will even head off in the opposite direction even though it's obvious that there is no path to the destination.... The civilians regurally cross police lines and walk directly into danger...very sad.

Sorry Guys, but adding slow motion flying bodies and nicer graphics does not improve the game.... it only improves the look.

You're charaters and vehicles are still have the I.Q. of a bag of hammers.

The scenarios are good and can be won, but most players will get so frustrated with the A.I., that they will more than likely put the game away. I'll take FireFighter Command over this any day.

TFC

It's sad to see a crop of games that come out that seem like a half hearted attempt to make money but arent polished enough to become a hit. Granted there are a few that just are plain awful. Interestingly enough this isnt an awful game but it does need some polish, updated graphics and new interface. Even if you arent a paramedic, police officer, or EMT, this game will tickle your playing-bone. Personally I like doctor, fire, police, and EMT type of games. Lately there hasnt been many in this genre. The Police Quest series sadly has long been retired, the Emergency series has stopped (one of them was really good then got bad), and the Emergency series hasnt been turning out good products. I happen to like Emergency: Fire Response.
In this game you are introduced to an incomplete tutorial and clunky interface. Sometimes you forgot to click on a characte and accidently move your emergency vehicle. It takes a few clicks to click on thecorrect person or vehicle. You would think that when you get a firefighter to click on a hose and click on the hydrant he would immediately start fighting the fire: no. When he does start shooting the water, it looks like a half hearted attempt. Definately not like our brave firefighters as well as other emergency personell as well as the police. Concerning the police, in one of the scenarios, you are directed to stop speeders who get caught in a speedtrap to redirect them to the parking lot. It would of been nice in the tutorial to be shown how to do that. I failed that scenario many times until I finally clicked the police officer correctly. Using the barracades is another story. It's a nice touch that you select which emergency vehicle and which emergency (fire, police, other) to bring in that vehicle. All of this while on a budget. With many games using DVD storage, Strategy First could of added more than one city, each with its own fire and police department. If one city is in need of help, other cities can join in just like in real life situations. As I said before multiple unique cities with its own emergencies can make the game more random and the introduction of a database that people can upload there own scenario to see how others cope with your "disaster" that youve created. The graphics arent horrible but can be better. I like the flashing lights on the emergency vehicles even though it sounds like Im in Paris. I wish the emergency vehicles looked like the real-world vehicles (maybe some in there familar red or green) with flashing lights, strobe lights, and blinkers. It owuld be nice to control the vehicle on the way to the emergency as in driving it. Turning on the emergency lights, going thru traffic lights, avoiding crashes with civilians and pedestrians would be unique and a definate crowd pleasure. The camera zooming needs some work. You cant really zoom to close and the moving of the camera angles is a little clumsy. A budget constraint is a nice touch but is incomplete. Nothing is really said or done about the budget. You see it when you "order" your vehicles and personel. A nice touch would be to order new vehicles, or allow vehicles to be fixed by a mechanic in your firehouse, police station, or garage. When you look at the vehicles to see who to bring, the summary about the vehicle isnt very informative. It would be nice to see real-life firehouses and police stations. Building a new firestation complete with multiple bays and living quarters, police stations which can allow you to bring in more police officers, a jail (to lower the crime in the city, stop speeders, drunk drivers, and drugs) can be a nice addition. Do it by the book and the criminal will go to trial and the mayor wouldnt breath down your neck. If no conviction then yes some breathing, and possible firings or budget contraints, and/or civil lawsuits. Include hospitals (burn units, trauma, ER each with there own life saving techniques that you can control/do combined with police, fire, EMT/EMS can make an interesting never ending blockbuster that could take forever to complete. With a downloading center from people who can create scenarios this game can go even further after you complete the games scenarios.
I do like the scenarios and trial and error isnt all that bad considering our real life heroes only have one shot at it. The introduction movie of the emergency is very nice and is a plus. I like this game however the glaring issues (interface, incomplete tutorial, camera zooming, camera rotation) make it tough to enojoy for a long time. It's not in my just one more scenario pile. It's right in the middle. I enjoy it when Im playing it however, after 2 or 3 scenarios, I quickly shut it off. Again $30 is way too much. More content and polish would justify the $30 tag but it is more like $20. This could of been a real hit.

Emergency 3 is a really fun challenge and it requires good thinking skills. The graphics are really good and it has realistic gameplay and scenarios and the price for such a game is great! Overall I think that this game is a real blast. The only problem is the game conrols are really hard to use and sometimes the game freezes up.

Note: this game was purchased for, and reviewed by, my 12-year old boy and he is the one who plays it. The transaction was handled through Pay Pal without any problems and delivery was within an acceptable time.

If you are like me, a paramedic/firefighter who can't get enough, than this game is a good game to buy for those times when you are doing nothing. Realistic scenarios, all the equipment you need, and lots of things to do to keep you busy. It has provided me with hours of entertainment while I am at work with nothing to do.

There is no storyline it is simple mission to mission play. The game economics also leave a bit to be desired. It is a fun little game to play from time to time just sadly fails to keep my interest for very long.

I purchased this game for my sons birthday, unfortunately..my computer wasnt compatible for this game. The people at hitgaming are AWESOME. They refunded my money for this game even though it was my fault for not reading the information that stated that the game wasnt compatible with vista. My son was very upset that he couldnt play the game that he wanted very much for his birthday, but since hitgaming was willing to work with me and refunded my money for the entire purchase, I am able to go and get him another game for his birthday (even though its a late present). I just wanted to say thank you to the people at hitgaming for working with me and in the future when I purchase another game from them, I will be sure to read before purchasing to make sure that the game is compatible with my computer. To anyone that is thinking of buying anything from this company... dont hesitate to do so... they are really great people and you will be 100% satisfied with your purchase. Oh, by the way... I had to rate this product as excellent because even though my son wasnt able to play the game on my computer, he has played the online version and he absolutely loves it......

First, yes this game works on VISTA as is. Another thing that enhances this game is the [...] . Yes the game defaults to European sirens and equipment, but it does not impact the game play. There are mod paks to change these to LA vehicles. Overall the scenarios range from simple to challenging, and some that may leave you scratching your head for a solution, which you will figure out. The tutorial is a bit thin, but covers most what you will need to do. Overall a definite recommend if you are into stragety sims or work in an emergency occupation you will get a kick out of this. I picked this up for [...], worth every penny.

This review is intended for people who are buying the game.

First of all, I LOVE this game. It's a really great game but i think that if your not interested in the overall subject, than you will be easily frustrated. One thing I find frustrating is the vehicles. THEY'RE ALL GERMAN. There are no American fire trucks or ambulances, only German vehicles with that annoying donkey sounding siren. Of course, this would be cool if gamers had the option of switching between styles of vehicles from different countries like in Firefighter Command: Raging Inferno. Also it is very hard to keep up. Your units can't fend for themselves. You always have to keep them constantly under your watch to keep them from dying or screwing up. For example: I had a team of firefighters on one side of the map, and an ambulance doing something on the other side. All I asked my firefighters to do was to keep the water coming on one side of the building. I spent 3 minutes doing something with my ambulance and when I went back where my firefighters were, they all dead and the vehicles had exploded for no apparent reason. You need to always watch your units...this becomes annoying with the growing tendency of combined maps where all of the different types of units have specific tasks to do which have nothing to do with the other tasks. The vehicles and men are slow. But they move realistically...which would be fine, except the incident gets way out of hand and fire spreads way too quickly. But yet, I still love this game. I love it because of the control. You decide what units you put out there, and where, and how. You get to decide what you're going to do and how many of what specific units you call. I like this feature. It's not like other strategy games where you have pre-determined units and tasks set up for you...you just have to do it. So the idea is great, in fact it is amazing because you really do have FULL control of how you go about things. All they need to do is but a brain on the units and a mode where you can choose between American and European emergency vehicles. Then, you would be willing to spend way more than $25.

The game itself may deserve more or less than 3 stars but I'm not going to trash a game because I never got to play it or praise it when I really have no idea. At any rate.....

I downloaded this last night onto Windows 7 64-bit and it did not work.

Several times I tried to dl, install and run it and it just refused to run. The download and install appeared to go off without a hitch but it kept CTDing immediately after starting it.

Oh well, that's the breaks I guess and this is the first time I've ever had a single problem with any of several Amazon downloads.

Great game that lets you get a real look at first responders job in real scenerios,love the Graphics,Highly Addictive!!Playability High