Firefighter F.D. 18

An average start to a new idea

How many firefighting games can you name? Probly not very many, which is why Firefighter F.D. 18 probably sounded so appeasing. Finally you get to put on thos big boots and spray some fire, but this good idea got lost in the inferno of old gameplay and becomes just another game. As Dean McGregor,(and yes, that's his name)who team's up with a whiney reporter named Emilie Arquette. Together, they must stop a string of fires started by some sterotype arsonist. The game seems to be a mixture of simulation and silliyness. You run around areas with your magical firehouse that is infinately long and you put out fires using one of two modes, a stream and a spray. Knowing which one to use is an integral part of the game. You will also be able to call in a magical firefighter who appears to help then disapeers as quickly as he entered. But these are minor quables, the arsonist of this game, or um, the developer, tries to make the game exciting by making the entire experience a scripted event. Every explostion or back draft is scripted, causing you to exercise the old trial and error strategy to get through. Not to mention that if you must rescue every survivor, taking away the feeling that you have done something important. The overdramatic cutscenes rittled with embarissingly bad voice acting basically make you lose interest in an already uninteresting story line. But what the game did get right is the atmosphere of an engulfed area. Smoke always hangs over the area and explosions, back drafts, and flashovers, although still scripted, make for an exciting romp through the world of a firefighter. The first time you go through the level anyway. If the developers had made the game less repetitive and more diverse with it's gameplay, not to mentions some decent voice actors, this game could have been quite good. Players interested in what a firefighter goes through should give it a rental, but the game chokes on the smog of being just another glorified treasure hunt.