Firefighting Week: Firefighting Simulator – The Squad

A combat flight sim that forewent flak or a sub sim that didn’t include death-by-depth-charge would get ripped to shreds by reviewers, so why aren’t firefighting sims taken to task for leaving out two of the most dangerous aspects of firefighting? Well, when it comes to fatal heart attacks – the number one cause of on-duty deaths in the fire service – the answer is pretty obvious. Harder to explain or justify is the genre’s reluctance to model building collapses. Half price until July 10 on Steam, Firefighting Simulator – The Squad is the only game I’ve played this week in which scorched masonry and charred joists can come crashing down.

Collapses seem to be semi-scripted events in certain missions, and I’ve yet to perish as a result of a falling wall, chimney, or roof, but occasional, stylised representations are better than nothing and indicative of the considerable effort Chronos has put into ensuring blazes feel real.

Emergency Call 112 might have the most detailed fire engines in the sector, Into the Flames the most unpredictable random call-out generator, but FS is the undisputed king when it comes to simulating the many-tongued, hydrophobic arch-enemy of the firefighter.

Whether viewed at distance from behind the wheel of a speeding firetruck, or inspected at close quarters from over the shoulder of a crouched hoseman*, the blazes in this game are mesmerisingly believable.

* Sadly, unless you’re driving or operating a deluge gun, a first-person view is unavailable.

The way fire clambers up walls and scuttles across ceilings…

the way it lurks behind doors, waiting patiently for a gulp of oxygen…

the way it blackens, veils, and destroys…

and hisses and steams and shrivels when bombarded with H₂O, it’s all beautifully done.

It’s good that the fire simulation is so strong because, in contrast to its rivals, FS isn’t particularly interested in the many flame-free tasks real-life firefighters are expected to tackle. Every mission pin on the campaign map – effectively, a glorified mission menu that gradually unlocks its challenges as you amass XP and level up – seems to represent a blaze of some kind. The multitude of locations, together with complicating factors like casualties, locked doors, and fat fires, ensure things don’t get monotonous, but after six or so hours of hose work I did find myself hankering for a spot of car snipping or cat rescuing.

Of the three firefighting sims I’ve tried thus far, this one has my favourite command interface. Your three colleagues can be ordered about individually or collectively through a combination of command wheel orders and locational clicking. For example, if you find your path blocked by a locked door, looking directly at the door and pressing the ‘3’ key will cause firefighter #3 to stop whatever they are doing, go grab an appropriate tool, and set to work with Halligan bar or axe.

The system isn’t perfect. While silicon squadmates generally handle forced entry, victim extraction, and hose work well, I’ve not yet figured out how to get them to drench roofs from aerial work platforms (buckets), or refrain from automatically setting up supply lines and commencing attacks on arrival at a site. There’s a pre-mission tickbox which is supposed to stop them from heading for hydrants and unfurling hoses the moment they disembark, but it seems to be faulty which is a shame because, as Emergency Call 112 and Into the Flames demonstrate, there’s fun to be had manually plumbing-in your engine at the start of a job.

It would be nice if one of this week’s auditioners was clearly superior to the rest. If you told me I could only keep one of the five, after some chin scratching and lip pursing I’d probably hand back Fire Commander, Into the Flames, Flash Point: Fire Rescue, and Emergency Call 112, in that order.

Although Firefighting Simulator – The Squad could really use a random call-out generator similar to the ones found in EC112 and ITF (fire station interiors à la those games would be nice too) and a tad more task variety, once you’ve braved one of its hellish interiors and watched smoke seep under one of its pulsing closed doors, the firefighting in other games may feel somewhat milquetoast.