Game Review: Firefighter Command: Raging Inferno (2005)

I was playing a demo of a real time strategy game by Monte Cristo, in which you respond to fires. The demo was of a exploding fire in an Urban mall. You had a series of objectives like rescuing people from a movie theater, saving artwork, stopping a fire from spreading to other buildings and healing injured people. You could also call in for reinforcements.

I thought it was great how you would get new objectives in the middle of fighting a fire. It was like you were dropped in the middle of a story that you played as it evolved. Usually you were updated when you completed objectives. A couple of times I noticed I wasn't given credit for a particular task. At the end of the level you are given rankings for damage to vehicles, injuries, civilians lost and size of the fire.


Ways to make the game more fun:

• Feedback. Make it clear how I'm affecting measures like damage to vehicles, injuries whle I play.


• Feedback. Have people cry for help when you get near someone who is trapped or injured. Use an audio cone so I can see where it is coming from.


• Interface. Allow me to multiple select people from the pop-up menu.


• Interface. Allow me to pick up and drag a firefighter to a location even if he still has to run there. Use like his shadow.


• Camera. Easier control of the camera (I wasn't using a scroll wheel mouse) so i can rotate and zoom with ease


• Interface. Commands were difficult to activate. Have more interface options like bubble menus, drag in drop or Use shortcut keys for common tools like M for move.


• Juicyness. Have people leave their area once heaed. Have bystanders watching the event. Where are the reporters getting in the way? Have them applaud when the fire goes out.


• Feedback. The game needs more reward. Have people say thank you when they are healed. So you know when your medic is done.


• Interface. Be able to chain up healing so you multiple click folks that should be healed in order.

Some of these may already be features in the full version as I was only using the demo. I might consider this an educational game in the way that I have picked up a few fire safety tips or had them reinforced which is likely the case. What I learned: cars explode, trees near a building are a fast way to spread a fire, a fire will burn itself out if not contained, a backdraft is caused by opening doors and firemen have a tough job. This was the first game too where many of the heroes were black people (on the results screen at least not actually in the game). Overall it's an encouraging game about how to deal with emergency situations.