Emergency Heroes Review

Emergency Heroes, a game that is known for its bounty of bad reviews, is actually fairly liked by both of us. Here's the breakdown:



Brian's Review:



Story - In Emergency Heroes you will play as Zach Harper, a rookie emergency response member, and race him through the city streets of San Alto in a number of different vehicles all while putting an end to a ton of emergency situations. Now, sure, the story is pretty weak and is one that I'm sure we have all seen once, if not a million times before. The characters have no backstory or really any dialogue for that matter. For a super fast drving game however, the story works well enough, but I'm not giving any special credit trust me. 5/10



Gameplay - Alright, this is where the game shines, for me at least anyway. The "Speeding around in wide open city - handling emergencies -crashing into things" genre of gameplay apparently works well for me. Why so many other reviewers don't like it, I don't know. It's probably because I'm more of a casual gamer. Ok, back on topic. There are quite a few missions although the game really can be beaten in a short amount of time if you sit down and focus on only that for a while. While racing around the city looking for emergencies to handle, special missions pop up on the Peril Tracker and by choosing one to do, you will be confronted with arrows pointing you to the destination. The mission types include fires, speeding cars, or civilian saving. Not a wide array of options but still suitable. The sense of speed is fantastic and so is the handling of each vehicle. There are also lots of multiplayer options to enjoy. My only major issue with gameplay is that there is the occasional period of time where there is literally nothing to do but drive. Ya, kinda boring. The game still shines though, even with that little problem. 7/10



Graphics - Graphically, this game is nothing that couldn't be done on the Gamecube, whoch is always a downer to say the least. The buildings have no flair and the other drivers on the road are simply seen as single pictures with weak voice clips. Even the fire in this game looks kind of choppy, and the game even lags for a very short second when there is lots going on at once, which shouldn't be a issue in today's gaming world. Of course, when one is driving super fast and focusing on the mission set out, these bland sceneries and graphical errors go by without too much thought. Still, it would have been nice to see some well polished graphics. 6/10



Controls - The only control option here is holding the Wii remote on its side and using it in the classic "steering wheel" fashion. Turning corners is very sensitive and takes some getting used to. Each vehicle seems to have its own handling style and being able to make u turns in a flash is very helpful. Even with only one controller option, the game does well in this category. 8/10



Sound - The music in this game is well done with almost panicky beats to help make each emergency situation even more tense. The voice clips suck though, and there are very little of them. Also, you may notice an annoying robot guide voice. Try to overlook that. 7/10



Value - Definately rent this game first. It really can be a hit or miss. If you do like it, don't hesitate to buy it though as each mission is replayable and there are quite a few multiplayer options. If you don't like it, never go near it again. There is no in between with the likability factor. It's either a "Hey, this is fun", or a "This is horrible." But, I'm going to rate value based on how I like it, so: 7/10



Overall Total - 7/10: Again, this game is definately not for everyone. Don't go into this game thinking its going to be something like Crazy Taxi. You will be sorely disappointed if you do. This game is more of a fun way to pass a boring day. That's it, I'm finished.



Brandon's Review:


Story - As Brian has so neatly described this games story I feel I dont need to repeat him but say my own overall feel and ideal rating for the story. Emergency Heroes story line to me is quite re-used and and has almost a dull feeling towards the overall game. Playing as a single character not being that interactive and not really letting the player have freedom of a male or female is odd in my opinion. Back towards the story, other then doing some different objectives and a few crazy car chases this story doesnt really move into anything. A man tells you what to do you do it, you clean up the town and thats it, I feel I get no reward in doing something like this. I give the story a 4/10

Gameplay - Explotions, fires, and a whole lot of driving in a little town. The gameplay's overall effect on the player is low. The overall presentation could be alittle more cleaned up and not so much choopy and laggy area's as you need to hit and create carnage by clearing roads. The map seems to be quite small, although having many roads and different jumps, freeways and other types its just not a very big and exciting. The cars in my opinion are really bad ass, The design and shape for the cars resemble a hot wheels look, and its own version of souped up. The buildings could be cleaned up and maybe not so generic, but more popping out and not resemble eachother, which bothered me. The character design was ok, anime isnt my bag but it wasent that bad, also you would think from a company like Ubisoft could do some lip syncing, pretty sad and very poor on their part. Im gonna have to give the gameplay a solid 6/10

Graphics - Ok this game is a cross between simpsons road rage and crazy taxi when it comes to the design and overall put out of style for this game. Like I said in gameplay, the could have cleaned up some stuff and put alittle more effort into some of the buildings, roads and even a little bit on car outline and presentation. Getting close up on sertain things made a bad outlook on the colors, and shadeing for everything. The characters on the otherhand had a nice shade, good outline and nice color to them. ( Even without the lip sync ). The fire and water effects for Ubisoft could have been touched up, compaired to some of the other games they came out with they could have done alot more. In Graphics Im gonna give it a 6/10

Controls - The controlling for this game is quite shocking, shockingly good becuase comepaired to other Wii driving games this game has a good decent responsive and real feeling to it. I like the way the buttons are placed and the overall layout of the controlling everything, plus not every car handles the same. Overall a 8/10

Sound - Re-used and repetition, the music for this game doesnt have an original sound to it. The music at times can become quite intense and resembling the situations taking place, but other wise its not that great. It would have been better if you could upload your own music, like in "Exite Truck". The sounds from people, cars and others are not bad. Not great but nothing really shocking or put out there as really cool. The sound is a low 3/10

Value - Im not going to lie, if you like to try new games, have some fun and loosen up rent this game. Its some what fun, but if you in the mood for something eles besides rescuing and doing some missions that dont really do anything then dont rent this game. Its all about the style and likeing of which games you like. This review was an interesting one for myslef and overall Im giving this game an overall off 5/10