Emergency (video game series)
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| Genre(s) | Real-Time Strategy |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Sixteen Tons Entertainment, Quadriga Games |
| Publisher(s) | TopWare Interactive, Take 2 Interactive, Rondomedia, Deep Silver |
| Creator(s) | Ralph Stock |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows OS X iOS Samsung |
| First release | Emergency July 7, 1998 |
| Latest release | Emergency HQ April 13, 2018 |
Emergency is a series of rescue simulation video games by German developer Sixteen Tons Entertainment, designed by the creative director and inventor of the series Ralph Stock. The first game in the series, Emergency: Fighters for Life, was published by TopWare Interactive in 1998. Emergency 2 was published by Take 2 Interactive in 2002, who would continue on to publish both Emergency 3 in 2005 and Emergency 4 in 2006. Since 2010, Deep Silver controls publishing operations of the Emergency series and its spin-offs.
In the games, players take control of emergency services, including fire and ambulance services, police, and technical services such as Technisches Hilfswerk. The central element of the series is to head up operations of fictional rescues, crimes, and medical and catastrophe management, commanding a pool of vehicles and personnel.
Overview
Gameplay
Controls and graphics are typical of a Real-Time Strategy game: the left-mouse button selects unit(s) and the right-mouse button commands movement or action(s) of the selected unit(s). The camera work utilizes typical angles of the RTS genre as well. Missions in Emergency usually start off with a short cinematic cutscene of the cause of the emergency the player is attending. The missions take on a standard system of events in numerical order, each individual mission harder and more demanding than the last. Each mission requires the players to carefully choose their emergency services to deal with the multitude of events. Since Emergency 5, missions (renamed events) take on a different system. All events of a campaign, multiplayer or free play mode can be attended in one game session without loading screens inbetween, which makes the gameplay flow more seamlessly. Between each major event the player deals with standard dynamic emergencies such as car accidents, medical emergencies, crimes, fires, missing persons, pipeline ruptures or others.
Games
Emergency: Fighters for Life
Emergency: Fighters for Life is the first game in the Emergency series. Released on July 31, 1998 it has 30 scenarios, which are ordered by increasing difficulty. The scenarios include, for example, an accident at a race track, a plane crash, a flood, a traffic accident and a bomb threat, as well as scenarios based off true events such as Ramstein airshow disaster. Players can choose from up-to 20 different rescue vehicles.
The game became the headstone of the Emergency Series, creating a world for the modding community and a long-term franchise for Sixteen Tons Entertainment.
Emergency 2: The Ultimate Fight for Life
Emergency 2: The Ultimate Fight for Life, released on November 11th 2002, has a campaign with 25 scenarios. The missions ranging from a train accident at a level crossing to a plane crash or an alien attack. The number of emergency vehicles has increased to over 25. The graphics engine and art style has been revised, and for the first time the emergency units are able to move within buildings.
On 24 July 2003, a deluxe edition of Emergency 2 was released, which features two new missions and voice control features.
Emergency 3: Mission:Life
Known as Emergency 3 in North America, this installment is the first to use a 3D engine and a movable camera angle instead of a 2D engine. In addition there are 20 new missions, as well as two new game-modes; free play Endless and free play Challenge, for watching over a single city.
Emergency 3 introduces the ability for players to use an editor software. This allows the player to create custom maps, emergencies, missions, vehicles, personnel and custom game features. This inspired a growing modding community to create modifications based on different cities and countries emergency services.
Ralph Stock stated in an interview that the team at Sixteen Tons Entertainment was surprised by the creativity of the community of players that has formed meanwhile, who used the editor software for their modifications in a way that has not been expected.
Vehicles and Units
In Emergency 3, players can use deploy more than 25 different rescue vehicles. Previously divided into police, fire and emergency medical services, Emergency 3 adds TEC forces who use various technical engineer vehicles for engineers who are responsible for damaged railroad crossings in the game or switch boxes. These units are, however, always referred to as "technical assistants", as the German term "THW" would have created trademark violations.
Reception
Reception for Emergency 3: Mission:Life was mixed, issues stated were "Clumsy, frustrating interface" and "Spotty artificial intelligence".
Emergency 4: Global Fighters for Life
Known as 911: First Responders in North America, released April 2006, the campaign features several foreign missions where the player must decide beforehand which units they will fly over. Between the more complex missions, the action is taking place in a fictional city, attending the everyday between mission operations. For the first time in the Emergency series, there is also a cooperative multiplayer mode, where players can join online lobbies where the host decides either online free-play or missions to play. The previous graphics engine and controls are optimized compared to its predecessor. In Emergency 4 players also have the possibility not only to play campaign mode but also in a free-play mode to play and to achieve high scores.
The game contains 20 missions, with mandatory free play intermissions at every interim, and the Endless and Challenge free play modes. It is also the first in the series to support multiplayer gameplay.
The deluxe release includes three extra missions, support for voice commands, plus some additional game features.
The game can be extended with several modifications by the community, such as the Winterberg Mod And LA Mod.
Vehicles and Units
Emergency 4: Global Fighters for Life allows the player to use over 25 emergency vehicles plus varieties of rescue personnel. The abilities of the TEC forces have been extended since their addition in Emergency 3, allowing engineers to use front-end bulldozers and the new TEC Rescue Helicopter that can winch the injured out of danger or rappel an engineer to terrain that is hard to reach.
Reception
- PC Games June 6 - 65% "Emergency 4 attracts Fire Department 3 past - but just barely."
- PC PowerPlay May 6 - 84% "Terrific fire spectacle. Here's my incentive is huge, to master a perfect mission. "
- Gamestar June 6 - 73% "Atmospheric Rescue Simulation."
- PC Action June 6 - 62% "lovers of the preceding parts and other people finding great patience!"
Emergency 5
Emergency 5 is the fifth installment of the Emergency series and was released in November 2014. Innovating on the campaign missions, Emergency 5 mixes both campaign and free mode for a more fluid and atmospheric experience. Whilst several improvements were made to the game, the title was not received as well as its predecessor. Due to performance problems at its first release, and the drastically changed "map editor" (the replacement for the previous mod editor), several mod creators refused to move over from Emergency 4. While modding is explored in Emergency 5, it did not receive the expected level of attention.
New Custom Engine
A new graphics engine built upon OGRE was introduced in Emergency 5 to replace its predecessor's, aimed to add more detail and create a more realistic atmosphere.[1]
Emergency 2016
This is a new version of Emergency 5, containing several new vehicles, 5 new missions, as well as a medieval mission featuring plague doctors. Some new mechanics are added in the game as well, for instance, police officers are equipped with pistols unlike the original Emergency 5 version, which limited this firearm to be exclusively for SWAT operatives.
Emergency 2017
New version of Emergency 2016. It includes the Emergency 2016 campaign as well as a new campaign.
Emergency 20
Replacement for 2017 and recreates 10 missions from previous games in the series to celebrate 20 years of the Emergency franchise.
The Complete Emergency
In 2018, a ″complete″ edition of almost all previous Emergency titles (with the exception of the first one as well as Emergency Police) was also published for the anniversary of the game series. The ″classics″ are now also available via download via Steam. However, apart from the current patches for Emergency 20, this collection offers nothing new.
Spin-Off Games
Emergency Police
Emergency Police is a spin-off released in 2001. It contains 15 missions, was developed by Sixteen Tons Entertainment and published by Koch Media. It uses the same graphics and controls like Emergency - Fighters for Life and features a new unit, the SWAT. Other than Emergency, Emergency Police only contains police missions, for example hostage situations or rampages.
Emergency 2012: The Quest for Peace
Emergency 2012 is the first installment of a spin-off series which was developed by Quadriga Games, published by Deep Silver, and uses Trinigy's Vision Engine.
The Emergency 20XX Series was highly controversial inside the Emergency Community as it was unable to be modified, which had become a major feature in the main series of Emergency. Many fans of the main series disliked the limitations of Emergency 20XX games, although Emergency 2012 still saw some success.
Emergency 2013 (Expansion)
Emergency 2013 is the second installment of the spin-off series which was developed by Quadriga Games, published by Deep Silver. This is an expansion pack for Emergency 2012 and will add four new campaign missions focusing on volcanic disasters, a new freeplay map and new missions to owners of Emergency 2012. Still controversial it was stated that the Emergency 20XX games were not primarily aimed at die-hard Emergency fans, but was to draw new players into the series and to take the graphics engine to its peak.
Emergency 2014 (Expansion)
Emergency 2014 is the third and final installment of the spin-off series which was developed by Quadriga Games, published by Deep Silver. This second expansion pack for Emergency 2012 focusing on meteor disasters. Similar to Emergency 2013 it features 4 new campaign missions, a new larger freeplay map, and 3 new units. Emergency 2014 was released 15 November 2013.
Mobile Games
Emergency DS
In November 2008, an Emergency port for Nintendo DS named Emergency DS was published by Rondomedia. The game includes five scenarios, each with four missions – some of them known from earlier Emergency games.
Reception
In 2009, Emergency DS was nominated for the first German Computer Games Award (DCP) in the category "Best Mobile Game".[2]
Emergency for iOS and Android
In Emergency for mobile devices, the player controls 18 different units of firefighters, ambulance, police and technical service. The game includes 13 different catastrophe scenarios. The game was released in June 2012 for Apple iOS and in March 2013 for Android.
Reception
According to Golem.de the iPad-Version of Emergency is recommendable, not only for fans of the pc version.[3] In 2013, Emergency for iPad was nominated for the German Computer Games Award.[4]
Emergency HQ
Emergency HQ is the first Free-to-play-Spin-Off for Android und iOS. The game was released in 2018.[5] In the missions, the player calls the needed rescue units and gives them orders via tapping a button in their ring menu and selecting a target. After completing a mission successfully, the player gets coins and mission points. With the coins, players can upgrade their vehicles and buildings, as well as buy decorations for their base. With the earned mission points, players can climb the leaderboard of their league. Players can also form rescue alliances and support each other. Typically for a Free-to-play game, waiting times for upgrades can be decreased with a premium currency that can be purchased with real money.
Reception
According to the Pocket PC-magazine, Emergency HQ is a successful implementation of the Emergency game principle: “In conclusion: a strong classic re-issued for the mobile gaming market”.[6]
See also
References
- ^ Deep Silver, "Emergency 5", 05.12.2014
- ^ "Die Nominierungen des ersten Deutschen Computerspielpreises stehen fest".
- ^ "Auf dem iPad Leben retten".
- ^ "Nominierungen zum Deutschen Computerspielpreis: 21 Spiele im Rennen um die begehrten Auszeichnungen".
- ^ "App des Tages: Emergency HQ – neuer Teil der beliebten Reihe erschienen".
- ^ "Angespielt: Emergency HQ ist eine Neuauflage des bekannten Emergency HD". Retrieved 2019-10-27.
External links
- World Of Emergency Official Emergency Site
