Firefighting Simulator: The Squad Reviews

Firefighting Simulator - The Squad is a multiplayer simulation title published by astragon. The premise is that you play as a firefighter going from one job to

The graphics overall are a step above the typical simulator genre fare. The game doesn’t look good compared to most modern titles of any quality, but it’s on the low end of mediocre.  Compared to most games with Simulator in the title it’s damned gorgeous. The framerate suffered immensely when a large number of particle effects hit the screen, and a few times I had it dip into what felt like the teens for an extended period of time.  When that wasn’t the case though the sixty fps target was a smooth and clean-looking experience. Music in the game is minimal, and there is no voice acting or writing of any sort.  You go to houses, save people, and then the mission ends, rinse/repeat. The game is also $30 at launch, so you’ll want to make sure you really love the idea of a mediocre firefighting game before dropping that much on it.

You fight a lot of things in video games: zombies, terrorists, and those oddly enthusiastic blue slime things from the Dragon Quest franchise. Fires, however, are not a particularly common foe. Sure, there was Konami’s Firefighter F.D.18 on the PS2 and even Burning Rangers on the SEGA Saturn, but it’s not as common theme as you’d expect it to be. Firefighting Simulator: The Squad follows in the footsteps of Farming Simulator, but given the subject matter, it’s a lot more intense than cultivating crops.

Fun with friends for a short time, Firefighting Simulator - The Squad quickly loses its appeal when played alone. Commanding a team of unthinking AI that seemingly ignores your orders makes for a frustrating time.

I wanted to like this one but it gets in its own way all too often. It probably would have been a better choice to continue to polish the mechanics, game flow, and animations, since what the game offers just isn't good enough.