Emergency 2: The Ultimate Fight for Life

One of the things I remember vividly about my childhood was my kindergarten graduation when I was about five or six. There wasn't much notable about the actual ceremony (minus that there were cookies and punch afterwards), but there's one thing that sticks out in my mind about it. About halfway through the ceremony, we were all asked what we wanted to do when we grew up, just to draw out the 'Awww, how cute' '? reactions from the crowd. Maybe my class had a collective mind-set or maybe we all just copied off the first person, but every person said they wanted to be a public servant of some kind. Of course, we didn't say public servant outright (like I knew what that was back then), but all fifteen of us said something along the lines of a firefighter, a paramedic, a police officer, a doctor, a nurse, a pilot, etc. And why not? They're exciting, heroic jobs where you can potentially save the lives of others. What more besides afternoon naps and snack times could a kid want?

After playing Emergency 2: The Ultimate Fight For Life, however, I'm pretty sure that it could sour the enthusiasm of even the most gung-ho kindergartener toward becoming a firefighter.

Emergency 2 places you in control of several emergency service divisions such as firefighters, police officers, and paramedics. In the 25 missions, you'll have to do everything from handling hostage situations to rescuing the president. Events are scripted, so unless you can handle the unexpected, things will be over quick. Some of the scripted events that take place are pretty illogical and trying to find a progression in missions can be harder than it sounds. Needless to say, it's heavily reliant on trial and error gameplay. Missions are much harder than they need to be also, lending further into the game's frustration. There's a multitude of problems stemming from just about every aspect of the game. AI is faulty, micro-management is a necessity, glitches are littered throughout, there's misleading and confusing mission objectives, repetitive gameplay, little replay value' the works.

Unlike the rest of the game, the controls are decent. It's the standard point and click faire, but a special unit called the 'sitcom'? allows you to set up flags which act as hotspots on the map so you can quickly access important spots. It's not revolutionary, but it's a nice touch. Initially, however, there's no map until you get a satcom on the scene, so things can become very confusing early on. Navigating the map without the satcom to find the spot where the crime or emergency is taking place can be an utter pain.

Three years ago, this might've been a decent looking title, but now, it's horribly outdated. It's comparable to older strategy games like Starcraft and Command & Conquer, but those games are almost five years old so at least they have an excuse; I'd venture to say that they look better even. Units look static with limited animation, and the few special effects look like they belong in an old 16-bit game. If there's one redeeming factor, it's that the maps and units are fairly detailed -- but then again, there are only a handful of maps as they're used repeatedly. The bottom line is that there's no graphical flare to the game whatsoever.

Audio, like the rest of the game, is sub-par. Music is non-existent except during the cutscenes, which really takes away from the mood of the game. Sound effects are wretchedly horrible. There's only one or two for each action and they repeat ad nauseam. The quality is appalling, even laughable at times.

Emergency 2 contains nothing noteworthy and just about every aspect of it reeks of a half-assed budget title -- which it is. Hold on to your pennies and save up for a decent title though, because Emergency 2: The Ultimate Fight for Life needs some saving of it's own.