Fire Chief

Published by Monte Cristo
Developed by Monte Cristo
Platform: PC CD-ROM
Released - Out Now
Price : £29.99

Here we finally have the first strategy game based on the role of the Firefighter. Fire Chief aims to give you a taste or what it's like to be a Fireman. The game contains 34 challenging missions that are set over 10 different environments that will test your fire fighting skills to the limit. Of course being a strategy game fanatic, this represents a refreshing change, or at it least it should do. Unfortunately as we shall see Fire Chief is not the game it should have been.

If we had to pick a word to describe Fire Chief it would have to be sloppy. The game looks like it's a rough beta in all honesty. On reaching the main menu you'll find it oversized and some of the words run off the edge of the screen. If you pick the station option on the main menu you'll find yourself on a screen that describes the various units and vehicles that you'll be using in the game. Again we see sloppiness as the units/vehicles revolve in the middle of the screen and obstruct the very text you're trying to read. Even on the screen you get when you have failed a mission, the text is overlapping and unreadable. To make sure this wasn't a driver problem I tried various drivers and it didn't make one bit of difference. You have to wonder why the play testers didn't pick this up but at least it's a problem that could be fixed via a patch.

The game itself is a single-player affair only. Should you choose to play the tutorial you'll be pleased to find that it is delivered exclusively in text. The only speech used is the unit confirmations and it's not a problem that these are not subtitled. Controlling the Firemen, and other human units is absolutely fine but the control of the vehicles is pathetic (I don't mean to be harsh but no other word describes it better). Instead of left clicking on a vehicle and right clicking on the location where you want it to move to, you have to left click on a vehicle and then right click and drag the vehicle along. It is just too awkward and looks awful. If you can visualise a child pulling a toy along with a piece of string (and the toy twists and turns as it is pulled and bounces off everything in its path) then you've got a good idea of what moving a vehicle around looks like.

It's a mess, a complete and utter mess and the irritating part of it all is that it could have actually been a damn good game as if you think about it, the very nature of the game means that it could have been filled with suspense and excitement. Controlling the firefighters isn't too bad at all and the missions are quite interesting although could have been better. However you have to control the vehicles as they enable the firefighters to resupply and I'm sorry to say that even the most patient gamer will not be interested in putting up with Fire Chief for all it's faults. The graphics don't look too bad, the game is deaf gamer friendly but the bottom line is that it should never have been released in its present condition.

Overall Game Rating: 3.0/10
A huge disappointment. The game looks very rough and shouldn't have been released in it's present condition.

Deaf Gamers comment:
Fire Chief is deaf gamer friendly, except for a few screens, but you can't say much else for it.