Posted in: Games, Indie Games, Review, Video Games | Tagged: Astragon Entertainment, Chronos Unterhaltungssoftware, Firefighting Simulator – The Squad
We sat down and played what little we could during the holidays of Firefighting Simulator – The Squad for this quickie review.
A few months ago, Chronos Unterhaltungssoftware and Astragon Entertainment decided to release Firefighting Simulator – The Squad on the Nintendo Switch. The game had already been released for PC a couple of years ago and retained pretty positive approval from those who have played it. However, just because a game works on PC doesn’t mean it’s going to work everywhere else, as we have been prone to discover int the past. So we threw on our helmet, legged a hose into the room, and downloaded our review copy to test it out and see how it holds up to the original.
The shorthand to this review is that it doesn’t. The game retains a lot of what made the PC version work, as you are playing firefighters who get called out to various emergencies and will use the equipment provided to you on each job to assess the situation, save people who may be in danger, and then put out the flames as best you can to salvage as much of the property as possible before the flames overtake the place. The graphics definitely got a downgrade as the building looks okay at best, while the fire and smoke look like they were made ten years ago. There is a definite downgrade in how the water responds as well, as I felt like I was playing a PS2 title. I don’t complain about the Switch that often when it comes to this kind of stuff because I acknowledged long ago it’s not a PC. But unless the team just decided to sacrifice graphics for content, this is absolutely a hindrance due to the console’s capabilities.
Firefighting Simulator – The Squad on Switch matches up with the original as you have the ability to do training at a safe location before heading out into the field, and depending on how well you do, you’ll level up as a firefighter and unlock many different locations, items, abilities, and more. As lame as it sounds, the highlight to me was driving to the location and getting the info from dispatch as you raced to the scene, adding a bit of realism to the game so it wasn’t just hanging out at the firehouse and then instantly appearing at a fire. So, if you can ignore the graphics and the occasionally irritating sounds from the fire burning the place as you put it out, you’ll dig the game. But it is absolutely a downgrade compared to the PC version.
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