Firefighting Simulator – The Squad from astragon Entertainment and Chronos Unterhaltungssoftware is ready for you on PS5. Check our Firefighting Simulator – The Squad review!

 

What was that? You want a review for Fire Fighter Simulator: The Squad? Then watch out. You might get what you’re after! I am an ordinary guy, and when I see a fire burning down the house, I feel the need to do something about it. Clearly, so do the folks at Chronos and astragon Entertainment since they’ve decided to create a game all about the struggles of being a firefighter. I recently reviewed their project for being a police officer. Whilst I enjoyed that one, it was more of a slog to playthrough as it had a litany of bugs and issues. Fire Fighter Simulator is a much more polished affair if a little wanting in places.

One complaint I had about Police Simulator: Patrol Officers was the lack of a comprehensive tutorial. The Squad seems to be a little bit savvier in trying to teach you the necessary steps to get the most out of the game. There is a breakdown of all the different aspects of firefighting and the game itself, and it is enough to get you to understand the basics. Whilst the tutorial is good, it’s close enough but just too far to teach you how to properly fight fire with fire… so to speak. It teaches you how to use the different equipment you can come across in the game and what to look out for in the midst of an in-game fire.

 

I would definitely recommend the tutorial since if you try to tackle the game without knowing what you are doing, you will be left all wet and in need of a raincoat – and although I would not recommend applying some of what you learn here to real life, you should certainly seek professional advice on fire safety! The tutorial is informative, but I did have to work through it twice because the game bugged out and kept insisting I followed the onscreen instructions when there weren’t any. The good news is that a quick restart allowed me to get back on track.

In terms of looks, The Squad is not the prettiest of games. The visuals are good enough to cover all the necessary parts. You are part of a fire fighting team and often have to drive from the station to the fire, and the town you travel through is nicely designed, if a little boring. But you are here to fight fires with water, and the visuals there are also lacking. You can be forgiven for, at times, thinking you were playing a PlayStation 3 game. But ultimately, the visuals are not that important because what is important is how well the game handles everything else. For all its faults, the game does try to give you a feel of what it means to be a firefighter, going bravely into a burning building, tackling overwhelming odds, and facing off against backdrafts – which were by far the most exhilarating parts of the game.

 

Counter to that is having to deal with your AI partners. As the name implies, The Squad is a game meant to be played with others. But if, for whatever reason, you are unable to do so, the game offers you three AI companions whom you are able to order around to help you with the mission at hand… and order them around you will need to because, for the most part, the AI is useless. Even the AI for traffic when driving to fires fails to notice you barrelling down the road and stops at inconvenient spots. The AI of your partners makes them just stand around, not doing anything. Even when you insist they tackle a fire, they can sometimes run into it, scream about catching on fire, and then return to the fire truck to do nothing.

Trying to aim your reticle to indicate what you are trying to interact with can be a pain at times. You are supposed to move the camera until the thing you wish to interact with has a square icon on it, and then hold down the Square button until the item has been interacted with. A number of times, I found the game refused to highlight the specific item and, even then, refused to acknowledge my square button input. It is likely this was just a minor bug that occurred at the beginning but settled down after I restarted the game another time.

 

Where the game truly gets into the grove is when playing online. Should you wish to do so, you can attempt to take on this mission by going online. Once you are matched with three people who all know what they are doing, everything feels so perfect, and you get to see exactly what the dev team was going for when designing this game. It is by no means perfect, but the experience is out of the ordinary and something that can surely sweep you off your feet.

Fire Fighter Simulator – The Squad seems to have a better understanding and a better execution of its subject matter than its sibling Police Simulator: Patrol Officers. It is by no means perfect, but there is some fun to be had here, especially when playing with friends. Firefighting Simulator – The Squad is available as a Cross-Buy title, so your $29.99 purchase will give you both the PlayStation 4 and the PlayStation 5 versions of the game at no extra cost.

Disclaimer
This Firefighting Simulator – The Squad review is based on a PlayStation 5 copy provided by astragon Entertainment.