Fire Chief

Richard relives his Backdraft induced delusions of heroism...

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It seems fire fighters around the world have been in the media spotlight recently for one reason or another. Looking at the timeline for the release of Fire Chief it's reasonable to suspect that the heroism displayed by the American fire fighters on September 11th may have provided much of the impetus for the development. It is clear that such events only spurred on the development and there is nothing in the game that might suggest opportunism in that regard. What really matters is that this is quite an innovative idea that's been well put together and provides for an entertaining distraction from the summer heat.

I suppose it was inevitable that a company might come up with an idea such as this and it is Monte Cristo that has beaten everyone to the punch. The game play manifests itself like a real time strategy title but naturally instead of fighting Orcs you must tackle the blazes that rage out of control. To do this you must direct a very small team of fire fighters and vehicles using familiar mouse controls. Like any good RTS though the teams are a mix of skills that you'll have to use appropriately in order to succeed. All of the fire fighters can perform the same basic tasks, namely putting out fires, but some of the specialists are less efficient at doing so. These specialists are important for accessing different part of the levels, like the De-Incarnation specialist for cutting away fallen debris or the technical officer for controlling some mechanisms.

The status of each of the fire fighters is neatly indicated at the bottom of the screen. At a glance you can spot who is idle, who is helping out a victim and who is in trouble. Each fighter has two gauges, one for their health and the other for their air supply. If they actually get caught in the flames their health slowly drops down and if it falls below a certain level they will pass out necessitating a rescue. If you direct them out of harms way before that time that bar will slowly regenerate though. The air supply relates to how long each fighter can stay fighting a fire, whenever they exert themselves by putting out a flame this bars drops down and once depleted you need to send that fire fighter back to the supply truck. You only have a few men at your disposal at any one time and this means you genuinely want to try and keep all of them alive.

There are five main vehicles in the game but the supply truck is the most important. Without it you can't re-supply your men or any of the other vehicles so it's imperative that you look after it. Alongside there is an ambulance for healing your team and also for looking after any victims you might rescue. A rescue ladder can be deployed for accessing the top floors of buildings. The artillery of the game though comes in the form of the pumper truck and the water ladder. The water from these vehicles can obviously only be directed from the periphery of any buildings but when used they are a force to be reckoned with, dowsing all but the fiercest blazes in a few seconds. Moving the vehicles around is appropriately awkward. Instead of simply clicking on a destination and having the vehicles drive there automatically you must move them yourself one at a time. To do this you have to tow them around the map using the right mouse button. It may sound stupid but it works really well. It makes fine-tuning their orientation easy, which is important for the water ladder and rescue ladder. It also means you must plan ahead as it takes a bit of time to properly reposition everything. In general you'll always want to keep the supply vehicle and the ambulance as close to the action as possible without putting them in danger, but make sure you have the pathways clear in case of an emergency!