Firefighters: City Rescue Review

I wonder just how many kids dream of becoming a firefighter only to discover that a large portion of their work is dominated by rescuing cats from high branches when they finally make it.

Actually, I also wonder whether those stories of perilously positioned pets are just as much an urban myth as daring rescues from towering infernos.

Either way, Firefighters: City Rescue does little to cast a more favourable light on the profession. Though play time is naturally dominated by putting out flames in burning buildings and rescuing civilians - no real surprise there - City Rescue does let one important element get burnt to a crisp: a sense of fun.

In an especially crude fashion, Firefighters: City Rescue feels like an attempt to mirror an already successful franchise, switching around elements a touch to offer up a slightly different breed of gameplay.

The title it seems to ape is Connect2Media's Go Go! Rescue Squad, and, to Glu's credit, there are several favourable similarities between the two titles.

Like Rescue Squad, play takes place on a number of floors, your job being to use extinguishers to put out fires before picking up any panicking inhabitants and escorting them to the exit.

In City Rescue's case, extinguishers are tossed on from the side when your own water supply runs dry, civilians saved by carrying them to the window at the edge of each level.

It's a style of play that's immediately digestible without any need for foraging into help files, any contact with fire damaging your own life-force and potentially killing those you seek to save.

Holding down the '5' key for long periods puts out any flames you face, the idea being to clear your path to the exit either before or during your attempts to rescue anyone. But, to put it bluntly, Firefighters: City Rescue cheats.

The game is artificially difficult, repeatedly sending out waves of moving flames, darting across the levels with gusto. Manage to put these out, and you're soon rewarded by further bursts that either cut you off or cut you down entirely.

It's a situation that soon becomes intolerable and bears no relation to any skill you may or may not employ during play, simply acting as a very crude way of ensuring that play that should be simple becomes painstakingly difficult.

As a result, Firefighter: City Rescue's Campaign mode plays out much like water torture, one fire after another breaking out across a 3D cityscape, each one coming with the same hurdles and pitfalls. It's a set-up that needs some severe refinement if Glu's attempt to take on Go Go! Rescue Squad is to have legs.