Gaming Trend Review
Real Heroes: Firefighter
- Official Site
- Platform: Wii
- Publisher: Conspiracy Entertainment
- Developer: Epicenter Studios
- Release Date: 08/11/09
- Genre: Action/Adventure
Pros
- Interesting premise
- Level variety
- Good voicework
Cons
- Disappointing graphics
- Throwaway story
- Imprecise controls
by Alan Au
Fire has always been a big threat to any urban population, and Real Heroes: Firefighter for the Wii gives players an opportunity to fight back. Developed by Epicenter Studios, RH:F is presumably the first game in the “Real Heroes” franchise, and it's reminiscent of the Brave Firefighters arcade game from several years ago. Unlike that game, this one is set up to allow freeform movement within the 3-D environment. It plays like a first-person shooter, but bullets are replaced with high-pressure streams of water, and the goal is to save people instead of kill them. In that regard, it definitely caters to gamers looking for more kid-friendly experience.
The story is a bit cliché, putting the player in the shoes of a rookie firefighter who has been fast-tracked through the academy to help out during a hot Los Angeles summer. It should be no surprise that the rookie ends up in the thick of things and manages to save the day on multiple occasions. After all, the word “heroes” is part of the title, and the game definitely reserves that role for the player. The player can also collect “fire cause determination” markers, which encourage players to explore the maps to discover how each fire started.
The individual missions take place in a variety of locales, but unfortunately there is no story arc to connect the otherwise unrelated missions. This title relies on the gameplay mechanics to provide the core experience, but even a simple story arc tracking wildfire progress would have been nice. As for the locations themselves, they’re interesting and varied; firefighting in a residential neighborhood definitely has a different feel from trying to put out a fire in museum.
Screenshots
Sadly, the graphics are one of the shortcomings of this otherwise interesting title. Nintendo’s console may simply be too underpowered to render realistic graphics, so the characters end up looking a bit blocky, and the environments don’t have quite enough fine-detail to make the settings feel real. However, if there’s one thing about the graphics that seems disappointing, it has to be the way that fire is depicted. Maybe I’m just being picky, but for a game about firefighting, I would have hoped for more realistic-looking fire. Instead, the fire sticks to hotspots laid out on a grid, and even then it rarely extends for more than a few feet beyond a surface. This makes the fire seem more like a fancy animated wall-texture than a raging column of flame. Fortunately, the audio quality in RH:F helps to offset the disappointing graphics. Actors like Jake Marsters and Michael Jace do a good job with the voicework. Sure, the script is pretty cheesy, but this game really isn’t heavy on plot to begin with. Instead, it’s the gameplay that forms the core of the experience.
The gameplay in RH:F takes full advantage of the Wii controller. The fire-axe is controlled by swinging the Wiimote up and down, and even though you’re simply chopping through debris instead of bad-guys, it’s still very satisfying. Other tools use different motions; the easiest is the fire hose, which is simply a point and shoot tool. Other tools are more complicated. For example, the Halligan pry-tool is deployed using a combination thrust-swing motion, and it requires a different motion based on the kind of door you’re trying to pry open. For the most part, these controls work great, and the game is fairly forgiving about accuracy. The only tool that game me trouble was the rotary saw, which requires a combination of twisting to the correct angle, and then carefully lining up the saw with the on-screen cutting guides. Precision controller work is not one of the Wii’s strengths, but fortunately the saw sequences don’t come up a lot.
As mentioned, the game allows for freeform movement through the different maps, and the fire has its own AI to control how it spreads. However, the mission design still basically guides the player from hotspot to hotspot, with scripted events taking over at certain points. Nowhere is this more apparent than during escort scenarios, where you must escort civilians to safety using a particular path. Never mind that there’s an alternate route that’s fire-free, you must put out even the smallest flicker of flame along a preset path in order to successfully rescue people. I would like to have seen more randomized layouts, to encourage replayability and add some flexibility in the missions.
Real Heroes: Firefighter is fairly entertaining and I really wanted to like it, but it still feels very rough around the edges. Kudos to Epicenter Studios for trying something different and making good use of the Wii hardware. Unfortunately the throwaway story, the lackluster production values, and the over-reliance on scripting prevent the game from delivering a fully-immersive experience.
