If there’s one thing that there is no shortage of in the gaming world … it's real time strategy games. In addition, just about every one of these RTS games has you playing a hero of some sort sent to vanquish the land of evil, save lives, or do just the opposite to bring chaos and suffering to others. Well, Dreamcatcher has put out its own RTS title, complete with heroes as well, but you won’t find any goblins, undead, or wizards in this version. Instead, Emergency Fire Response, as the title suggests, pays tribute to some real life heroes in the fire department who do their part to save lives and help keep the world safe for the rest of us. While this isn’t the first time a real life drama game has come out, this is the first one I’ve played that I personally felt seemed to do the fine folks it’s emulating some justice.

EFR puts you in command of your very own fire department, as you may have guessed, and you lead your team of firefighters, specialists, and vehicles through a variety of mission based RTS scenarios to battle fires and rescue innocent bystanders who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. In addition (and one thing I thought was really neat), part of your job is also to gather information or investigate and gather clues at the scene to help the police department determine the cause of the fire to begin with and help put arsonists and other bad guys away. If you don’t do your job to its fullest degree and play sloppy, it can cause lost lives and possibly an acquittal or lost suspect and a lower rating for you.

The game mechanics will be nothing new to RTS veterans, since you select and move either single or multiple personnel by single clicking if you want to move only one or dragging the cursor around multiple personnel, and there are windows at the bottom of the screen which show each of your men and vehicles and will also show their state of health or whether they are standing idle at the time for quick reference. Each person will have their own job to do, from the firefighters who go in and get stranded civilians or battle flames close up to the technical officers sent in to diffuse explosive devices or gather information as to the cause of the blaze, and the developers were even nice enough to toss in some quick messages now and then to tell you what’s going on and who needs to tend to what to make it a little easier to figure out.

As I stated in the intro, I was especially impressed with the way that this game really captures firefighting and the tension and fear that can go along with the job. Actual firefighters were consulted to try and make the game as realistic as possible, and the end result was a game that seems to be predictable when you start to play it, but can quickly get out of hand and out of control fast. Fires burn and will grow, spreading to different hot spots and traveling as they would in real life. They aren’t super fast spreading, but are extremely deadly as they creep along and can also affect other parts of the environment. Different things like industrial cleaning tanks or even vehicle fuel lines will begin to reach maximum temperatures as the fire spreads, which can result in one bad explosion and an engulfed area … or even some dead civilians or firefighters if they happened to be near the blast. There are also real life hazards that will have to be dealt with, such as downed electrical lines, backdrafts, or even a flashover where a small fire in an enclosed area can heat up the temperature enough to suddenly cause the entire room to ignite. Not a good place to be when that happens …

Another nice thing that Dreamcatcher did was try and make the game as simple to play and understand as possible, first off by adding in thumbnail images at the bottom to not only help in identifying status of your men, but also to allow for quicker movement if you are in the middle of some major events. For example, firefighters will run out of air after they have been in battling flames for a while. You can select them, and then just click on the thumbnail image of the tanker truck parked outside, and they will head out and refill their oxygen tanks by themselves. This definitely saves time and makes it a lot easier than scrolling the screen all over trying to figure out where to go and possibly losing sight of something important that you were tending to. In addition, bringing the cursor over things will give you an icon to say whether or not it’s allowed by your person that you have selected at the time, like trying to find a ledge for your High Risk Specialist to grapple onto or which doors can be chopped down by your firefighters.

There were a couple of things that I thought could have been improved on in EFR, the first of which being the AI of the firefighters. They operate perfectly when instructed to do something, but if not given orders they tend to sometimes just kind of hang out. While this sounds like the fault of the player (and it can be at times), some of the time it just seemed silly. For example, if you have instructed a firefighter to battle a set of flames in a corner of a room, and then move to another part of the building to have another firefighter going into an office to help a stranded civilian, you may be tied up in the rescue for a minute. While that is going on, let’s say that an explosion just happens in a warehouse and you need to immediately send a couple of other people in to battle the spreading blaze that just broke out, which of course keeps you busy for another few minutes. Suddenly, you remember the first guy that you had battling the fire in corner 5 minutes earlier, and pan over to find him standing and looking around while he is completely surrounded in flames rather than trying to put them out. Well, then you have to focus on him in order to get that fire under control which can cause that small warehouse fire (when you left it) to flare back up again because you left those other firefighters unattended. Granted, I understand that I am the one at the controls here … but in other RTS games most selectable fighters and whatnot will at least defend themselves if confronted by a hazard or enemy vs. just letting the enemy attack and kill them.

Secondly, the realism of the game is really cool, and definitely gave me more respect for what firefighters may have to face trying to save lives, but it is very challenging due to the fact that everything is timed and can also be frustrating at times while playing it in a video game. There is so much that can go on at once, it can get overwhelming trying to go here, then sling over and save this person, then go and get the hose truck since fire just broke beyond the walls of the building, then go get John Smith because he’s standing around, and so on. A pause feature to give commands to individuals would have been extremely helpful here, and would have made it a lot easier to monitor and figure out who needed to do what and plan a strategy for the best possible way of attacking a potentially hazardous situation.

Graphically, EFR was really good. The movements of each of the firefighters as they scaled walls, chopped down doors, carried people out of a building and so on were well done and well animated. The environments were also very detailed, and you could almost make out even smaller things like possible explosive devices by looking at them. The camera is on that “hold the mouse wheel and move the mouse” system to rotate, but people and your crew behind walls will light up to show you exactly where they are so it was easy to find them even without the environment going transparent. The lighting and explosive effects were also done very well, and the real time damage and ember dotted charring as a fire devours its surroundings added to the frightening atmosphere of being in a real fire.

Overall, I was definitely impressed not only with the fact that Dreamcatcher put out a solid and fun RTS game, but also in the fact that they managed to make it based around real life heroes who protect us everyday and not fictional characters while still managing to capture as much excitement as one might find battling dragons and zombies. If you are an RTS fan, give this one a try as long as you don’t mind time based missions that cause you to stay on top of your game 100%. It’s not perfect, but it’s definitely the best real life drama game that I’ve seen personally so far.   

Gameplay: 7.9
The controls will be no stranger to anyone who has played an RTS game before, and there is even a quick tutorial to show you what to do before you get started. There are also thumbnail images to help in saving some scrolling time, and they will also display important or status info about each one of your men. There are a few vehicles to use, like the ladder truck and supply tanker, and there are multiple types of firefighters to help you not only fight nasty blazes but also to gather evidence, scale walls, and help to solve crimes. The AI is right on when giving orders, but can also be annoying at times if something obvious should be done, which can also cause some lost focus or possibly a lower score due to having to divert your attention. 

Graphics: 8.2
Each firefighter, vehicle, and person was well animated and looked pretty clean, even at a close up view. There were some good-looking water effects, and the fire effects as it grow and spread looked really good. In addition, the explosions were done extremely well, and things like lighting effects and the charred remnants of a blaze added to the environment.

Sound: 7.8
The music that was in the game was good, and consisted of looped tracks which portrayed an air of excitement and tension. The voices of order confirmations weren’t done badly either, even if they were all the same voice, and the crackling fire effects, explosive noises, and whooshing of water were well done.

Difficulty: Hard
While the controls are easy to pick up and get into and there are three different difficulty options to select from in each mission, the game is very challenging and everything is based on a strict timer since a fire can get out of control within only a couple of minutes.

Concept: 8.1
Dreamcatcher did a great job in capturing the atmosphere and intensity of what firefighters may face in everyday life or during emergencies, and it is exciting to go in and combat fires and look for clues like they do on a day to day basis. They even did a great job in the still shots and pictures of the firefighters in making them look tough, intimidating, and heroic.

Overall: 7.9
RTS fans who don’t mind having to be on guard and moving all of the time will probably get a kick out of this game, and if you ever wanted to see what it would be like to get caught in a nasty firefighting incident reminiscent of movies like Backdraft, this is a good opportunity. Younger gamers (9 and older range) who also enjoy firefighting and police dramas will probably have a lot of fun with this game as well. I can honestly say that I have a little more respect for the people who do this kind of thing everyday after playing Emergency Fire Response, and great job to Dreamcatcher in making a fun RTS game that captures excitement and enjoyment based on real life people.