Emergency 5: Review

Sometimes comes the realization of how fragile human civilization. In addition to daily news reports of the ubiquitous danger, artistic films with an increasingly technological and real image of the apocalypse are also reminded of this. Yes, none of us is safe from “brick on the

head”. And, it seems, you need to be on the alert every second. Fortunately, people invented emergency response services in case of trouble. Disasters occur regularly from the very appearance of the world, and a person cannot be controlled with nature. So uneasily on the soul of any rescuer – his profession is dangerous and difficult. This winter is an old familiar company Sixteen Tons Entertainment After a long calm, he is in a hurry to tell us about this again, offering another strategy with a demonstration of terrible everyday life, firefighters and police officers.

Planned reboot

The romance process of extracting people from the underworld itself does not rotate the language. But in the series Emergency Since its debut in 1998, a large-scale community rallied, which finds something exalted in the salvation. Such an audience of the simulator with an admixture of strategy and tactics remained until the appearance of spin-off Emergency From the new developer, Quadriga Games, In 2010. Then, at the peak of universal insanity at the end of the world, the game series ascended the path of simplifying mechanics to attract new fans. Considerable funds were also spent on the visual component of the project.

Should pay tribute to the craftsmen from Quadriga – Level design Emergency 2012 Performed skillfully. The atmosphere of universal decline on the eve of the death of civilization was felt from the first mission to the very end. Destruction was accompanied by scenes with the falling Eiffel Tower and a plane crashed in the middle of Red Square. Strong trump cards in the form of graphic delights led to a brilliant financial result. However, the removal of rescue operations from the game and the lack of classical opportunities greatly offended loyal fans Emergency. What were the hopes when herself Sixteen tons announced the restart of the series under a new ordinal number 5, as if offering to delete the whole epic from the story with Emergency 2012, 2013 And 2014!

This is not applied to Simcity

In fact, all of us was awaiting a surprise. This became clear after the first screenshots with graphics on the basis of an updated engine using the OGRE kernel. Such a level of detail, simulation of weather effects, a realistic grid of streets and models of buildings, cars and people have never been in strategies. Even Simcity (2013) It can envy the little things like leaflets and garbage lying on the sidelines, a detailed infrastructure of the city, each drawn sleeping lanes on tram tracks, a variety of architecture and so on. When all this also shimmers with glare in the sun after the rain ..

No one doubted the next success Sixteen tons. We were promised not only a detailed world, but also a return to the basic mechanics of the classical games of the series. Moreover, even the craftsmen who want to create modifications were not ignored even without attention. Previously, with almost completely absent tools, modmers managed to fill the old Emergency 4 numerous cards and equipment. Now they were given a huge editor. But who would have thought that all this would tolerate a terrible collapse.

Degradation for your money

From the origins Emergency And to the last representative of the spin-offs, I had the opportunity to observe the gradual degradation of the series, starting from the third part. Alas and ah, Emergency 5 Fore a even more sad fate. In terms of mechanics, a new creation Sixteen tons Even inferior Emergency 2012 from Quadriga. The chain of transfer of the release date from October to December-the bugs cannot be counted even after four hot paths (relevant at the time of writing-1.2.1). I had to specifically wait for the first global update before working on the review, because until the last in the hearts of the fans there was hope that two weeks after the release everything would be corrected: rescuers will stop getting stuck in the fence, cars will change their minds to drive around the water, and at home to disappear with a fused fire.

The miracle did not happen. Having given 40 euros for a game with very democratic system requirements, computer owners with graphics cards of the GeForce GTX 770 level and 8 GB RAM are faced with incredibly low performance even at low settings. This seems to be the first game in the world, capable of loading your 16 GB of RAM by 100% and then go to the pumping file in an hour or two! Of course, the reason is not in a chic graphics or a huge scale of the card, which occupies just half a square kilometer. The authors simply did not have time to prepare the product for the release and released it as it is.

From left to right: “There is no way out”;”Worm-shustrik”;“Incorrectly parked driver”;”An ambulance in the style of Optimus Prime”.

Bog out in the “bureaucratic” processes

Now the main part of the players Emergency 5 spends time not to save virtual men, but at the official forum. Some of them report that a number of missions are impossible to go through a certain set of circumstances. In my case, Restart has to be done if any of the wards of the rescuers gets stuck. Sometimes the game goes out to the desktop. Technical imperfection Emergency 5 completely beats off all the desire to convey the service to the final. Constant “swaps” at night when changing lighting make it difficult to play the free game. Sometimes a computer in the process of thoughts over the loading objects deprives the “units” of the mind and introduces them into a stupor. All this seriously reduces the chances of surviving the victims, because the head of the rescue operation is bogged down in the “bureaucratic” processes somewhere between the chipset, memory and the video card.

Everything would be wonderful if Emergency 5 unpleasantly surprised only bugs and mistakes. The management looks much sadder. Previously, the preparation process was at least half the success of the event. We had a limited budget, it was required to optimally distribute it to the necessary gadgets, hiring specialists and technology. Why, for example, in the mission to save a sinking ship, a dog handler with a dog? Or boat with divers in the mountains? The selection was strict, and each dollar spent – accountable. And if something was missing in the process of the mission, then I had to get out.

Now in Sixteen tons We decided not only to abandon the detailed management of the team, but also to paint all the player’s actions on points. The mechanics of fulfilling the mission now resembles a time management, where you only need to have time to burn on the indicated buttons in time and observe how beautiful men, shimmering after the rain in the sun, slap in the puddles and take out animated strats into an inspection with bright lights-sizes. Oh yes, you will have to wait for the completion of animation every time to give the ward the next order.

A promising editor for the Modmakers community really looks solid, even promising. In it you can change every corner of the card, make new tasks or even come up with some exciting story and simulate it using the example of your own area. The tools allows you to intervene in any component of the game. It is sad that it is almost impossible to use it without the presence of server “iron”. The mentioned free 16 GB of RAM, which successfully “eats” Emergency 5 In normal mode, in the editor they are absorbed even faster, forcing the computer to tremble before possible overheating. Even at the official forum, no one has been able to curb a monstrous editor.

There is something to praise

As you know, such a rich list of shortcomings nullifies any advantage Emergency 5. If desired, a new game in the series could turn out to be a reference. A powerful engine demonstrates the highest aerobatics in the simulation of destruction and the consequences of disaster. The fire realistically spreads between the buildings, setting on the way cars and any garbage. The physics of bodies and models stepped far forward compared to previous parts. Soft light and shadow convey a sense of anxiety when approaching fire, thunderstorms and hurricane winds.

Designers managed to recreate the recognizable streets of Munich, Hamburg and Berlin with their developed infrastructure. There is both a port and a railway station where the train is announced, even a cableway transports people to the alpine peaks just like a real. If you see the skier, be calm for the simulation of life – it will either crash from a height, and you will have to save it, or safely reaches the foot of the mountain, take hot coffee and will rise upstairs again. You can have entertainment for the sake of calling police officers and force them to regulate movement or cord off the house.

It is worth telling a little about the multiplayer regime. It is represented not only in cooperative, but also in the competitive format of completing tasks. Mission from the campaign are excluded, as before. But there are more varieties of incidents, the consequences of inaction are also large -scale. This is not to say that multiplayer is a strong side of the game, but, without a doubt, it is fascinating. Especially in the “Challenge” mode, when dangerous natural phenomena and technological disasters gradually grow on the scale.

Could be praised Emergency 5 and for a solid choice of technology, but most of it migrated from the previous games of the series. Including quadrocopter from Emergency 2014. For example, when it is necessary to find terrorists hiding after installing the bomb, in the infrared spectrum we are shown a window with the criminal found. Or fire drone – it should be taken for large -scale disasters, where he will indicate the degree of danger and celebrate on the map of the victims. True, such small, but sometimes spectacular details like a backlight on a rescue machine disappeared.

The creators were almost a stone’s throw from success, but quality Emergency 5 It turned out to be below the baseboard, and the price is higher than that of most AAA-IGR. If the “units” were fulfilled in time, they did not get stuck in obstacles and did not go through the water;If the game mechanics allowed to plan operations and conduct the budget;If, in the end, all this worked properly, – Emergency 5 would surpass the whole series. For example, this is the first representative of the line, where the rescue service employees think up for you orders (take out the wounded, leave the place of operation on their own, and so on). This is generally the only game where nature is able to destroy the entire map to the ground. Finally, in front of us, perhaps, is the most beautiful and spectacular strategy with a view of.

Pros: high detail of destruction and unprecedented strategies for the quality of graphics;detailed streets of German cities with recognizable attractions;the long -awaited possibility of distributing orders during a pause;minor improvements in the traditional mechanics of the series;Serious tools for creating mods.
Cons: a huge number of bugs with flights, the disappearance of objects and errors in the search for ways;and without that, not the most adequate AI in the series degraded even more;The game manages to slow down on almost any systems;problems with the connection in multi -user mode and resinchronization in cooperative passage;Even five patches in a row did not save the situation.