Firefighting Simulator – The Squad is a multiplayer simulation title revealed by astragon. The premise is that you just play as a firefighter going from one job to the following, extinguishing fires, rescuing folks from their homes, and… that’s about it.
The sport opens with you arriving on the scene of a hearth. The sport kind of teaches you the best way to put out fires with the assistance of your NPC teammates. When you get via that, then the coaching opens. It was virtually as if the start was providing you with a bit teaser of what the sport could be like. The coaching is non-compulsory, however I did it anyway to study the controls.
The controls are easy. It’s just about simply urgent and holding the Y or ZR buttons if you wish to choose one thing up, drop one thing, use the hose, break a door down, and many others. You progress your character with the left analog stick and have full management over the digicam with the appropriate analog stick.
Nevertheless, the coaching took about an hour to get via. It’s damaged into mini-levels which you could choose and select from in any order. One coaching includes hooking up your hose and utilizing it, one other is the best way to use the ladder on the truck, one is about utilizing completely different instruments, reminiscent of an ax, to interrupt down doorways or home windows. However the coaching additionally taught about completely different fires – common fires might be put out with water, however grease or chemical fires wanted the extinguisher. Electrical fires will reignite when you don’t flip off the ability first.
It seems like there’s lots to this title, proper? Technically, sure, there’s. However once more, all of the controls are roughly the identical, which makes the precise gameplay repetitive. It didn’t matter what I used to be doing within the recreation, I mindlessly pressed the identical buttons. I solely wanted to make sure I had the proper instrument in my hand.
When finishing a stage, you earn expertise factors primarily based on how briskly you set out the fires. As you stage up, you’ll get entry to completely different fireplace vans. Though, I most popular the unique truck you begin with as a result of I knew the place all the things was inside. Additionally, after finishing a stage, two or three extra will open up. You might have free reign on the map and might go to any stage you need, so long as it’s unlocked primarily based in your expertise factors. You may also redo the degrees as many instances as you need.
When going right into a stage, you’ve the selection to deploy on scene or drive to the scene your self. I all the time deployed on scene as a result of the one time I attempted driving to the scene, it took me 15 real-life minutes to take action. I crashed into so many vehicles to the purpose that the opposite firefighters in my truck would yell at me. It was nerve-racking and I used to be so grateful the sport allowed the driving portion to be non-compulsory. The factor is, the controls weren’t dangerous when driving, I believe I’m simply dangerous at it. I’m used to utilizing movement controls for Mario Kart, so I had zero management driving a digital truck with the analog stick.
Firefighting Simulator – The Squad is an internet multiplayer recreation for as much as 4 folks. The factor is, nobody was ever on-line after I was. The sport would seek for a bit after which boot me out. Actually, I used to be okay with that as a result of I don’t assume I’d have had enjoyable taking part in on-line with others, not with out speaking with one another.
Since I performed alone, I all the time had three NPCs with me for every stage. I used to be capable of give them orders or they may do what they felt they wanted to do. This mechanic is hit and miss for just a few causes.
One, the AI acquired stupider as the degrees acquired extra difficult. The sooner ranges have you ever extinguish a fireplace and save one or two victims. In the beginning of the extent, the AI would robotically hook up the hoses and start defusing the fireplace. When there was extra to do – extra victims, larger fires, electrical energy to show off, and many others. – they’d get out of the truck and stand in the course of the road.
And two, I spent the degrees ordering across the NPCs slightly than truly doing any of the work myself. Go staff? It ended up being extremely unbalanced, with both me doing all of the work and taking some time to get via the degrees, or ordering the three NPCs round only for me to face there and do nothing.
Fortunately, the degrees aren’t lengthy in any respect. I believe the longest stage was roughly 20 minutes for me and that was as a result of I couldn’t discover the electrical energy to show off. Nevertheless, as a result of they aren’t lengthy and there are roughly 40 ranges, Firefighting Simulator – The Squad isn’t too lengthy of a recreation. I acquired via many of the ranges inside a handful of hours. (I say most as a result of I skipped all the degrees that wanted me to make use of the truck’s ladder; I couldn’t management that factor, both.)
Lastly, the sound results of the truck’s sirens and horn, the voice performing of the firefighters, and the ambient sounds of the fireplace burning, had been glorious. Regardless of a digital home burning down, I’d completely put the sport on as background ASMR sounds for the fireplace alone.
Regardless of how quick the sport is and the way repetitive the gameplay was, I can see myself taking part in this title now and again. Placing out the fires was satisfying and the sport performed nicely for probably the most half. It’s a bit unbalanced, but it surely works.