Save a suicide pact from death...
The excellent tutorials are easy to follow and because there's no underlying resource management to deal with, or dozens of orders at your finger-tips, the simple interface will be a breeze to manage for seasoned RTS fans. Path-finding is impressive and A.I. responds well to your commands, as you send in the likes of helicopters and surveillance drones. Each unit doesn’t have that many orders attached to it- Emergency 2012 employs a basic RTS system - but you still have to keep on your toes and be prepared to switch to the likes of ‘Jaws Of Life’ to help someone out of a trapped car, or select a group of units and put them into place quickly so they're in a good position to fire stun grenades at rioters. The scenarios build in danger and challenge as you progress, and as a result the earlier missions feel quite weak in comparison. We understand there has got to be a learning curve, but the lack of any challenge or drama in the first four or five missions is disappointing.Visually, the cut-scenes that introduce each disaster paint an impressive picture and set the scene of devastation well, but overall – when the missions begin - they lack the impact and chaos that you'd expect from such large scale incidents. When you deal with the riot, for instance, it doesn't feel like you're trying to control the masses; it’s more like a playground scuffle where NPCs stand around and do nothing but wave their arms in the air. Your own units obviously move when you command them to, but civilian A.I. just stands still and watches rather than panic, like you'd expect, when there's a fire blazing right in front of them. We'd like to have seen a bit more chaos in and around each scene to create that sense of urgency and danger. You get that somewhat later on in the campaign, but generally it feels like you're stubbing out a match rather than saving life.
For a fairly low priced game (£17.99,) you’re obviously not going to get a super high quality production, so the lack of powerful audio and top notch graphics is understandable, but the lack of units and commands is a little disappointing. Nevertheless, the satisfaction of winning the day and saving people’s life on the more difficult and fulfilling missions is unquestionable and the addition of four player online co-op and the free play mode, which throws up some new scenarios and also factors in some environmental annoyances, such as storms or heavy rainfall, means there's replay value to be had once the campaign is over. Emergency 2012 is definitely fun while it lasts, and community mods are certainly going to extend its longevity among fans. But, despite the intuitive control scheme making it a breeze to navigate and command units, it ultimately lacks depth, scale and drama.
